held positions in the ordinary cabinet. Seventeen of them are defendants before the Tribunal. Bormann is absent. Of the remaining 31, eight are believed to be dead. the trusted henchmen, and then, when new governmental agencies or bodies were created, either by Hitler or the cabinet itself, the constituents of these new bodies were taken from the roles of the ordinary cabinet. January, there were ten ministries that could be classified as departments of the central government. I have here a typed copy of the minutes of the first meeting of that cabinet. These were found in the files of the Reichs Chancellery and bear the typed signature of one Weinstein, who was described in the minutes as responsible for the protocol, the counsellor of the ministry. That document already appears in Document B, but I again refer the Tribunal to Page 4 of the translation, which is Document 351, as shown in your Document Book, and contains a list of those present.
THE PRESIDENT: 351-PS?
COLONEL STOREY: Yes, sir, 351-PS, US Exhibit 389.
The ten ministers referred to therein are set forth. They are -and I read:
"Reichsminister Foreign Affairs, the Defendant Von Neurath; Reichsminister of the Interior, the defendant Frick; Reichsminister of Finance, von Krosigk; Reichsminister of Economy," and then I skip to the bottom of the page: "Reichsminister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Hugenberg; Reichsminister of Labor, Seldte; Reichsminister of Justice --" No name is given. The post was filled two days later by Guertner; Reichs Defense Minister, von Blomberg; and the Reichs Postmaster General and Reichsminister for Transportation, von Eltz Ruebenach. as a Reichsminister. He had no portfolio then, and as Reichs Commissar for Aviation.
Dr. Peregke was there as Reichs Commissar for Procurement of Labor. Two State Secretaries were present; Dr. Lammers of the Reichs Chancellery and Dr. Meissner of the Reichs Presidential Chancellery.
THE PRESIDENT: In the copy I have, the defendant Goering appears as the Reichs Minister for Aviation.
COLONEL STOREY: Yes, sir. I mentioned that he appears as Reichs Minister and as Reichs Commissar for Aviation.
THE PRESIDENT: I don't see that. Oh, I see. I was reading from the first two pages of the document. You were reading from page 4?
COLONEL STOREY: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COLONEL STOREY: I am informed that the Ministry was created later, but it is given as Reichs Commissar for Aviation. and the defendant von Papen was present as Deputy of the Reichs Chancellor and Reichs Commissar for the State of Prussia. into which leading Nazi figures were placed. On 13 March 1933 the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda was created. The decree setting it up appears in the 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 104, our document 2029-PS. decrees, as we have mentioned in the previous proceeding. and Propaganda. On 5 May 1933 the Ministry of Air; Reichsgesetzblatt 1933, Part I, page 241; our document 2089-PS. On 1 May 1934 the Ministry of Education. I refer to 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 365, our document 2078-PS. On 16 July 1935 the Ministry for Church Affairs, 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 1029, our document 2090-PS. The defendant Goering was made Air Minister; Berhard Rust, Gauleiter of South Hanover, was named Education Minister, and Hans Kerrl named Minister for Church Affairs.
Two ministries were added after the war started. On 17 March 1940 the Ministry of Armaments and Munitions was established. 1940 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 513, our document 2091-PS. The late Dr. Todt, a high Party official, was appointed to this post. The defendant Speer succeeded him. The name of this department was changed to "Armaments and War Production" in 1943. 1943 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 529, our document 2092-PS. On 17 July 1941, when the seizure of Eastern territories was in progress, the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories was created.
The decree appointing the defendant Rosenberg to the post of Minister of this department has already been received in evidence as USA Exhibit 319. Defence, which was later called War. This took place in 1938 when on 4 February Hitler took over command of the whole Armed Forces. At the same time he created the "Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces" or, in other words, the Chief of the OKW. This was the defendant Keitel. The decree accomplishing this change is published in the 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I at page 111. It appears in our Document Book as 1915-PS, and I would like to quote a brief portion of that decree. It begins at the bottom of the second paragraph:
"He--"referring to the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces--" is equal in rank to a Reichs Minister.
"At the same time, the supreme command takes the responsibility for the affairs of the Reichs Ministry of War, and by my order, the chief of the supreme command of the Armed Forces exercises the authority formerly belonging to the Reichs Minister." in question should be noted. The post of vice-chancellor was never refilled after the defendant von Papen left on 30 July 1934. ordinary cabinet also contained Reich Ministers without portfolio. Among these were the defendants Hans Frank, Seyss-Inquart, Schacht, after he left the Economics Ministry, von Neurath, after he was replaced as Ministry of the Interior. There were other positions that also were an integral part of the cabinet. These were the Deputy of the Fuehrer, the defendant Hess, and later his successor, the Leader of the Party Chancellery, the defendant Martin Bormann; the Chief of Staff of the SA, Ernst Roehm, for the seven months prior to his assassination; the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Lammers, and as we have already mentioned, the Chief of the OKW, the defendant Keitel. These men had either the title of or rank of Reich Minister. I have already read portions of the law creating the Chief of the OKW where his importance in Cabinet affairs is delineated.
The importance of the defendants Hess and Bormann will be soon expounded, while that of the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Lammers will also soon become self-evident. isters. Only two persons fell within this category--the Chief of the Presidential Chancellery, Otto Meissner, and the State Minister of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, K. H. Frank. In addition, the Indictment names--as belonging to the ordinary cabinet "others entitled to take part in Cabinet meetings." Many governmental agencies were created by the Nazis between the years 1933 and 1945, but the peculiarity of such creations was that in most instances such new posts were given the right to participate in cabinet meetings. Here the list is long but significant. Thus, those entitled to take part in Cabinet meetings were the Commanders in Chief of the Army and the Navy; the Reich Forest Master; the Inspector General for Water and Power; the Inspector General of German Roads; the Reich Labor Leader; the Reich Youth Leader; the Chief of the Foreign Organization in the Foreign Office; the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the Prussian Finance Minister; and the Cabinet Press Chief. cabinet. They were all positions of such common knowledge and notoriety that the Tribunal can judicially notice. Further, they all appear on the chart, entitled "Organization of the Reich Government" which was authenticated by the defendant Frick and is in evidence as Exhibit USA No. 3, which Mr. Albrecht introduced on the second day of the trial. They are also provable by laws and decrees published in the Reichsgesetzblatt and by notices in the semi-official monthly publication entitled "Das Archiv" which was edited by an official of the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda--all of which are also within the judicial notice purview of this Tribunal.
Does Your Honor wish to adjourn at 12:45?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, perhaps we had better.
(Whereupon at 1245 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned to reconvene at 1400 hours.)
Military Tribunal, in the matter of: The
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the persons who held these posts in the ordinary cabinet varied between the years 1933 to 1945. Although it is not encumbent upon us to prove who they were-since the group and not the individuals are under consideration--nevertheless their names are already before this Tribunal in the original governmental chart, USA Exhibit No. 3. Since it will be of interest to the Tribunal to see what persons--and 17 of them are defendants--held what positions in the Cabinet, a table has been prepared which lists all the departments and posts I have mentioned and the encumbents thereof during the years 1933 to 1945. The German equivalents of the titles are also shown and, with the permission of the Tribunal, I will now distribute this table to its numbers. Copies have likewise been filed in the Defendants Information Center, The table also is annotated with citations to sources verifying the facts shown--all of which, however--were of common knowledge during the period in question.
Diverting from the text: This is simply prepared for the convenience of the Tribunal in connection with studying the briefs, and the documents. As I said at the outset, the proof will show that there was only an artificial distinction between the ordinary cabinet, the Secret Cabinet Council and the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich. This is evidenced in the first instance by the unity of personnel between the three subdivisions. Thus, on 4 February 1938, Hitler created the Secret Cabinet Council. If your Honors will refer to this big chart, you will notice under 1938, there is a red line pointing down to the Secret Cabinet Council created during that year. This decree appears in the 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, at page 112. It is in our document book as Document 2031-PS and I should like to quote from this document.
THE PRESIDENT: It is not in Book X, is it?
COLONEL STOREY: It is under the Laws and Decrees Section.
"To advise me in conducting the foreign I nominate:
Reichsminister Freiherr von NEURATH;
nominate:
Reichsminister of the Exterior von RIBBENTROP;
Field Marshall Hermann GOERING;
The Fuehrer's Deputy, Reichsminister Rudolf Hess;
and of propaganda, Dr. Joseph GOEBBELS;
Dr. LAMMERS;
von BRAUCHITSCH;
Dr. (honorary) RAEDER;
Forces Lt Gen Wilhelm KEITEL". It will be noted that every member was either a Reichsminister or, as, in the case of the Army, Navy and OKW heads, had the rank and authority of a Reich Minister. Defense of the Reich or better known as the Ministerial Council. This was the so-called cabinet. The decree appears in the 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, at page 1539. I now refer to Document 2018-PS of the Laws and Decrees from which I quote Paragraph 1:
"(1) A Ministerial Council for Reich Defense "(2) The standing members of the Ministerial Council for Reich Defense shall include:
General Field Marshall Goering as chairman;
Fuhrer's Deputy (the defendant Hess); Commissioner General for Reich Administration (the defendant Frick); Commissioner General for Economy (the def endant Funk); Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; Chief of the High Command for the Armed Forces (the defendant Keitel). "(3) The chairman may draw on other members of the Reich advice."
Cabinet. But this use of the cabinet as a manpower reservoir from whom the trusted collaborators were selected becomes particularly poignant when we consider the actions of the Nazi conspirators which were not published in the Reichsgesetzblatt which were concealed from the world and which were part and parcel of their conspiracy to wage aggressive war. It rail have been noted that the decree setting up the Ministerial Council contained this language the one to which I have just referred:
"A Ministerial Council for Reich Defense shall be established as a standing committee out of the Reich Defense Council."
creation - by the Cabinet - on 4 April 1933 of this really secret war planning body. I refer the Tribunal to USA Exhibit #24, which appears in our Document Book as Document 2261-PS. That document contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law of 21 May 1935. As to the membership of that Council when first created, I have here a copy of the second session of the working committee of the delgates for Reich Defense, dated 22 May 1933 and signed by the Defendant Keitel. It appears in our Document Book as Document EC-177, USA Exhibit 3901. The composition of the Reich Defense Council appears on page 3 of the original, and also page 3 of the translation:
THE PRESIDENT: I thought you were going to refer to 2261-PS
COLONEL STOREY: If your Honor please, I just referred to it as being an exhibit already in evidence, and that it was one of the unpublished. Reich defense laws. That was the only purpose in referring to it.
THE PRESIDENT: All right. Where is it?
COLONEL STOREY: It is just this side of the Laws and Decrees, if your Honor please. ing at the top of the page:
"Composition of the Reich Defense Council: President: Reichs Chancellor. Deputy: Reichswehr Minister Permanent Members: Minister of the: Depending on the case: The remaining members, other personalities, e.g., leading industrialists, etc.
," All but the Chiefs of the Army and Navy Command Staff were then component parts of the ordinary cabinet. The composition of this Defense Council was changed in 1938. I refer the Tribunal to USA Exhibit #36, which appears in our Document Book as No. 2194-PS. This contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law paragraph 10, entitled, "The Reich Defense Council, of A September 1938.
I now quote from paragraph 10, entitled "The Reich Defense Council", which is found at page 4 of the copy of the law in the original, and I now quote from page 6 of the English translation at the top of the page:
(2) The leader and Reich Chancellor is chairman in the
RVR. His permanent deputy is General Field Marshal Goering.
He has the right to call conferences of the RVR.
Permanent members of the RVR are sulted if necessary.
Further personalities can be called as the case demands."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, it would help me if you explained
COLONEL STOREY: If your Honor please, we were trying to show the cess, or at the will, in effect, of the Defendants.
I realize it is a potentiary for Economy.
The former post was held by the defendant Frick defendant Funk who signed the decree in that capacity.
These facts are verified by the defendant Frick on USA Exhibit No. 3 which is the Nazi ministries subordinated to them for war planning aims and purposes.
They shown in the three boxes down from 1935 to 1938 known as the "3-Man College" which figured prominently -- as the proof will disclose -- in the plans and preparations to wage aggressive war.
And the encumbent of The points I have been making are illustrated on the chart.
We are have been already proved or will be proven.
The chart is also designed t depict (to the left of the line running down the right center) the chronological development of the offshoots of the ordinary cabinet.
Thus in the main box entitled "Reich Cabinet" (which appears directly under Hitler) certain dates appear.
The Ministerial Defense Council was created in 1944 -- the Delegate for Total War Effort, Goebbels. These agencies were, next to Hitler, important Nazi functionaries. And in every case, as the chart shows, they were occupied by personnel taken from the ordinary cabinet. The arrow running from the Reich Defense Council to the Ministerial Defense Council is intended to reflect the fact shown previously that the latter was formed out of the former. We will, for other points of this presentation, refer again to the chart -- especially that portion to the right which relates to Ministries. the Reichsregierung was not the result of a co-mixture of personnel alone. It was also realized by the method in which it operated. The ordinary cabinet consulted together both by meetings and through the so-called circulation procedure. Under this procedure, which was predominantly used when meetings were not held, drafts of laws prepared in the individual ministries were distributed to the other cabinet members for approval or disapproval. under this procedure was Dr. Lammers, the Leader and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. I have here an affidavit executed by him concerning that technical device which we offer in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 391. It appears in our Document Book as Document 2999--PS. I should like to read all of it:
"I, Hans Heinrich Lammers, being first duly sworn, depose and say:
"I was Leader of the Reich Chancellery from 30 January 1933 until the end of the war. In this capacity I circulated drafts of proposed laws and decrees submitted to me by the Minister who had drafted the law or decree, to all members of the Reich Cabinet. A period of time was allowed for objections, after which the law considered as being accepted by the various members of the Cabinet. This procedure continued throughout the whole war. It was followed also in the Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich."
"and signed "Dr. Lammers." and sworn to before Colonel Hinkel.
here a memorandum dated 9 August 1943, which bears the facsimile signature of the defendant Frick, and is addressed to the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. Attached to the memorandum is a draft of the law in question and a carbon copy of a letter dated 22 December 1943 from the defendant Rosenberg to the Reich Minister of the Interior, containing his comments on the draft. I now offer Document 1701-PS, as USA Exhibit 392; and I call your Honors' attention to the big red border around the inclosure.
The quoted portion is from page one of the translation, and page one of the original.
Quoting:
"To the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery.
"For the information of the other Reich Ministers.
Subj: Law on the treatment of enemies of the society.
Enclosures. 55.-
Justice, Dr. Thierack, and ask that the law be approved in a circulatory manner.
The necessary number of prints is at tached."
body was created. And the decrees of the Council of Ministers were also circulated to the members of the ordinary Cabinet. Chancellery, and addressed to the members of the Council of Ministers, dated 17 September 1939, and bearing the typed signature of Dr. Lammers, Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. It is document 1141-PS, USA Exhibit No. 393. Document 1141-PS from the English translation, a copy of the last paragraph just above Dr. Larmmers' signature, and I quote:
"Matters submitted to the Council of Ministers for the Reich the Council.
I have been requested by some of the Reichministers "the drafts of decrees which are being submitted to the Council, of their respective offices.
I shall follow this request so that Defense.
I therefore request to add forty-five additional copies arguments for the drafts, to the folders submitted to the Council."
on this procedure at page 34 of a pamphlet entitled "Die Reichskanslei", which I now offer in evidence as document 2231-PS -
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I don't understand the importance of the last paragraph.
COLONEL STOREY: The last document, Your Honor, please, is in further evidence of the approval of the laws, and of the passing of the laws by a circulatory process.
THE PRESIDENT: We already got Dr. Lammers' affidavit.
COLONEL STOREY: It might be considered strictly accummulative, if that is what Your Honor has in mind.
THE PRESIDENT: If it is accummulative, we don't really want to hear it.
COLONEL STOREY: Yes. I will ask then it be stricken from the record. I really overlooked the fact that it was accumulative. Miss Grover and Commander Kaplan tell me the document No. 2231 is prebably al so corroborative of the same process, and I will, therefore, not offer it. together through actual meetings. The Council of Ministers did likewise, but those members of the Cabinet who were not already members of the Council a] attended the meetings of the Ministerial Council. And where they did not attend in person, they were usually represented by the state secretaries of the Ministries. We have here the minutes of six meetings of the Council of Ministers as of 1, 4, 8, and 19 September 1939. These original documents were found in the files of the Reichs Chancellery. I offer them in evidence as Document 2852-PS, USA Exhibit No. 395. It will only be necessary to point out for our purposes at this time a few of said minutes. I call the attention of the Tribunal to the meeting held on 1st of September 1939, which is probably the first meeting since the council was created, on 30th August, 1939, and I read from that document, showing who was present. We are getting at the top of the English translation:
"Present were the permanen t members of the Council of Ministers for the Reich Defense:
The Chairman and Generalfield Marshall, Goering; The Deputy of the Fuehrer, Hess (for some unknown reason a line appears through the name Hess), and and Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration, Dr. Frick; the Plenipotentiary for Economy, Funk; the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; and the Chief by Major General Thomas."
These were regular members of the Council. Also present was the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, Darre, and seven state secretaries, naming the secretaries. These State Secretaries were from the several Ministries, or other Supreme Reich Authorities, as for example: Korner was the Deputy of the Defendant Goering in the Four-year Plan; Stuckart was in the Ministry of the Interior; Landfried was in the Ministry of Economics; Syrup was in the Ministry of Labor. These inisters appear on the government chart which is already in evidence. Now the meeting of the Council, I will skip that one.
THE TRIBUNAL: (Mr. Biddle): Colonel Storey, the last document shows only certain members of the cabinet were at the cabinet meeting?
COLONEL STOREY: Yes. It shows no more than that. I am going on a little further, and show that the SS Gruppenfuehrer was present also, and that other people were present.
MR. BIDDLE: What does that show?
COLONEL STOREY: In other words, that they called in these subordinate people, as in the meeting of the Ministers.
MR. BIDDLE: What would that show?
COLONEL STOREY: Well, it does show the promulgation of the party, and the subordinate agencies, showing they could use this Reich Cabinet for any purposes they wanted, and to devise laws any way they wanted to. They called in these subordinate people, in these subordinate positions, to stay with them where they were passing cabinet measures. I can also call Your Honors attention to the fact to these Ministerial Council For Defense. The cabinet supposed to be a Ministerial ranking cabinet meeting, and as I just started to show, they called in the SS Gruppenfuehrer Heydrich in this meeting.
THE PRESIDENT: There would be no doubt but that there was a Reich cabinet.
COLONEL STOREY: No, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And that the Reich Cabinet made decrees by this circulatory method. There is no doubt about that.
COLONEL STOREY: All right, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: What does this document have to do with that?
COLONEL STOREY: Showing who participated, and how they were there in their party rank, and I will admit the rest with reference to these other individuals.
THE PRESIDENT: Ample evidence we have had before who formed the Reich Cabinet.
COLONEL STOREY: Yes. Well, I will skip the rest with reference to other people who participated, and for the record just skip over to page 23. Before leaving these minutes, and as indicative of the activities of the Reichsregierung, I would like to ask the attention of the Court to some of the decrees passed, and minutes discussed at these meetings.
At the first meeting of 1st September 1939, fourteen decrees were ratified by the Council. Of this group I call the attention of the Tribunal to decree No. 6, appearing on page 2 of the translation, and I quote:
THE PRESIDENT: I don't think you gave us the number.
COLONEL STOREY: I beg your pardon, sir, page 23. It is the Reichsgesetzblatt No. 1, page 1681, of which we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice. That decree was about the organization of the administration, and about the German safety police in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. That appears in translation of 2052 in the one that was passed there, dated 19 September 1938, on page 6 of the translation, and I quote from the bottom of the page of number six:
"The Chairman of the Council, Generalfieldmarshall Goering, in the occupied polish territory.
He expressed his inten tory.
Then the questions of decreasing wages, and the ques tions of working hours; and the support of members of families of inducted workers were discussed."
Unquote and in paragraph 2 of the Minutes, I quote the following, as it appears on page number 6: "The Chairman of the Council..." No. It is on page 7:
"The Chairman directed that all members of the Council re
SS. Then the question of the population of the future Polish in Germany."
Unquote. meeting of 15 November 1939, page 10 of the translation; where among other things, the "treatment of Polish Prisoners of War" also was discussed.
union between agencies of the State, and the Party, especially with the notorious SS, but also tends to establish, as charged in the Indictment, that the Reichsregierung was responsible for the policies adopted, and put into effect by the government, including those which comprehended, and involved the commission of the crimes referred to in the Indictment. But more working alliances would be meaningless unless there was power. And the Reichsregierung had thepower. Short of Hitler himself -- it had practically all the power a government can exercise. The prosecution has already offered evidence on how Hitler's Cabinet, and the other Nazi conspirators, secured the passage by the Reichstag of the "Law for the Protection of the People and the Reich", 24 March 1933, which has been previously referred to in our document 2001-PS, which law vested the Cabinet with legislative powers even to the extent of deviating from previously existing constitutional law, how such powers were retained even after the members of the cabinet were changed, and how the several states, provinces, and municipalities, which had formerly exercised semi-autonomous powers, were transformed into mere administrative organs of the central government. The ordinary cabinet emerged all-powerful from this rapid succession of events. The words of he defendant Frick are eloquent upon that achievement. I have an article of his which he wrote for the 1935 National Socialist Year Book, an article in document No. 2380-PS, which I offer in evidence, and I quote from page 213 of the original, and it is on page one of the English translation, the second paragraph:
"The relationship between the Reich and the States has been put people.
It gives to the Reich cabinet (Reicbsregierung) unlimited ship and administration of the Reich.
From now on, there is only one national authority:
The one of the Reich. Thus, the German Reich "In calm determination, the Reich Cabinet (Reichsregierung) realizes people, the great loning of the Nation.
The creation of the Na tional socialist German unified state."
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey.
COLONEL STOREY: Yes, Sir?
THE PRESIDENT: That document is to me still merely accummulative. You have established, and other counsel on behalf of the United States Government have established that the Reich ministers had power to make laws, and the question is whether you have given any evidence as to the criminal nature of the Reich Cabinet.
COLONEL STOREY: Your Honor please, again it was concluded for the purpose of including one of the defendants here.
THE PRESIDENT: that I was trying to find out, it was merely accumulative.
COLONEL STOREY: Yes, all right, sir. It may be strictly accumulative. I have the next one, and I will admit the next reference, which will probably also be accumulative, and turn over to the beginning with the word in the back of the text -
THE PRESIDENT: The same document, you mean?
COLONEL STOREY: No, sir. There is another document I am going to offer, 2849. There is a quotation from another book, probably bearing on the same point.