"In Shitomir 3145 Jews had to be shot, because from experience they have to be regarded as bearers of Bolshevik propaganda and saboteurs." This report, the Tribunal will recall, deals with the activities of four Task Forces - A, B, C and D. The more detailed report of Task Force A up to 15 October 1941 is our Document L-180. It has already been introduced in evidence as U. S. Exhibit 276 and some paragraphs were read from it. It will be referred to again in the case against the Gestapo. I desire to read only two paragraphs which show the great variety of SS components in such a task force. (indicating) which the Court has already seen, has a sort of pocket-part supplement, in which appears a breakdown of the personnel engaged in this action, in graphic form. I shall read the component parts which appear on this chart in a moment. First, I will quote from page 5 of the translation, paragraph 4.
THE PRESIDENT: Does that Book you just put in, refer to the extermination of the Jews in Galicia?
MAJOR FARR: 180?
THE PRESIDENT: No, the book you just put in.
MAJOR FARR: No, 1061 is the Warsaw Ghetto. This is the report of Action Group A, an anti-partisan task force which operated in the Baltic states in 1941.
THE PRESIDENT: It is not L-180?
MAJOR FARR: It is L-180. graph 4, and on page 12 of the original, first paragraph. I quote:
"This description of the over-all situation showed and shows that the members of the Stapo (The Secret *---* Police), Kripo and SD-(that is the Criminal Police) and the SD (Security Service) who are attached to the Action Group, are active mainly in Lithuouania, Latvia, Esthonia, White Ruthenia and to a smaller part, in front of Leningrad. It shows further that the forces of the uniformed police and the Armed SS are active mainly in front of Leningrad, in order to take measures against the returning popu lation and under their own officers.
This is so much easier because the Action detachments in Lithuousnia, Latvia and Esthonia have at their disposal native police units, as described in enclosure 1, and because so far 150 Latvian reinforcements have been sent to White Ruthenia.
"The distribution of the leaders of Security Police and SD during the individual phases can be gathered from enclosure 2, the advance and the activities of the Action-Group and, the Action-detachments' from enclosure 3. It should be mentioned that the leaders of the armed SS and of the uniformed police who are reserves have declared their wish to stay with the Security Police and the SD." constitution of the Force. This will be found on page 14 of the translation. It was the graphic chart which I showed the Court a few moments ago, the translation having simply the breakdown of the components. I quote:
"Total Strength of Action Group A Total:
990 Waffen - SS 340 34.
4% Motor Dicycle-Riders 172 17.
4% Administration 18 1.8% Security Service (SD) 35 3.3% Criminal Police (Kripo) 41 4.1% State Police (Gestapo) 89 9.0% Auxilliary Police 87 8.8% Order Police 133 13.
4% Female Employees 13 1.3% Interpreters 51 5.1% Teleprinter-Operators 3 0.3% Wireless-Operators.
8 0.8% Waff en SS, the SD, Criminal Police, the Gestapo and the Order Police, all of which were part of the SS or under SS jurisdiction. It is a report from the General Commissar for White Ruthenia to the Reich Minister for Occupied Eastern territories. It is our Document R-135, which I think is in the Document Book under 1475-PS, two document numbers having been combined. I think you will find it under 1475. That document was introduced into evidence by Major Walsh as USA Exhibit No. 289 and he read into the record the letter from the Reich Commisar of the Eastern territories, transmitting the report in question.
The letter he read appears on page one of the translation. I desire to read a paragraph or two from the report itself, which is found on page 3 of the translation. It deals with the results of the police operation "Cotthus." I quote the first paragraph.
"SS Brigadefuehrer, Major General of Police von Gotteberg reports that the operation 'Cottbus' had the following result during the period mentioned:
"Enemy dead 4 500 "Dead suspected of belonging to bands 5 000 "German Dead 59" I think it is unnecessary to continue further with the list.
I skip to the fourth paragraph of the report:
"The figures mentioned above indicate that again a heavey destruction of the population must be expected. If only 492 rifles are taken from 4 500 enemy dead, this discrepancy shows that among these enemy dead were numerous peasants from the country. The battalion Dirlewanger especially has a reputation for destroying many human lives. Among the 5 000 people suspected of belonging to bands, there were numerous women and children.
"By order of the Chief of Band-Combatting SS Obergruppenfuehrer von dem Bach, units of the armed forces have also participated in the operation." was referred to in the Posen speech by Himmler as "our comrade" whom he had placed in charge of anti-partisan activity. which the Gestapo, Order Police, the Waffen SS and the SS Police Regiments, were all involved. But these units were also used individually to carry out tasks of such a nature. of the Waffen SS, our document 1972-PS, as USA Exhibit No 471. It is a from the Chief of the Command Office of the Waffen SS to the Reichsfuehrer SS, dated 14 October, 1941.
subject: Intermediate report on civilian state of emergency. I shall read that letter. I quote:
"I deliver the following report regarding the commitment of the civilian state of emergency:
"In the mutual changes, all Battalions of the Waffen SS in the "Up until now there occurred:
in Prague: 99 shootings in Bruenn:
54 shootings Total:
191 executions (including 16 Jews)."A complete report regarding other measures and on the conduct termination of the civilian state of emergency."
which had thus been employed in extermination actions and the executions of civilians, are also to be found violating the laws of warfare when carrying on ordinary combat operations. I now offer in evidence a supplementary report of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force Court of Inquiry re: shooting of allied prisoners of war by the 12th SS Panzer Division in Normandy, France, between the 7th and 21st of June 1944. It is our Document No. 2997-PS, USA Exhibit 472. Extracts from that report consist of the formal record of the proceedings of the Court of Inquiry and the statement of its findings are included in the document book under that document number. They have been translated into German. Under Article 21 of the Charter, this Tribunal is directed to take judcial notice of the documents of committees set up in various allied countries for the investigation of war crimes, and also of the records and findings of military and other Tribunals of any of the United Nations. This report falls squarely within that provision. Therefore, without reading portions of the document, I shall summarize the findings of the Court of Inquiry which are set out on pages 8 to 10 of the document. The court concluded that there occurred between the 7 and the 17th of June, 1944 in Normandy, seven cases of violations of the laws of War -
THE PRESIDENT: What page?
MAJOR FARR: I am not quoting, I am summarizing what appears on pages 8 to 10 of the translation. war involving the shooting of 64 unarmed allied prisoners of war in uniform, many of whom had been previously wounded and none of whom had resisted or endeavored to escape; that the perpertrators were members of the 12th SS Panzer Division, the so-called Hitler Jugend Division; that enlisted men of the 15th Company of the 25th Panzer Grenadier Regiment of that Division were given secret orders to the effect that SS troops shall take no prisoners and that prisoners are to be executed after having been interrogated; that similar orders were given to men of the 3rd Battalion of the 26th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment of the Division and of the 12th SS Engineering and Reconnaissance Battalions; and that the conclusion was irresistible that it was understood throughout the Division that a policy of denying quarter or executing prisoners after interrogation was openlyapproved. of the SS. I refer to the execution of allied fliers, of commandos and paratroopers and of escaped prisoners of war who were turned over to the SD to be destroyed. Evidence of these actions will be presented in the case against the Gestapo. In the case against the Gestapo, evidence will be presented of commando groups stationed in prisoner of war camps to select prisoners for what the Nazis euphemistically called "special treatment." Finally, the entire control of prisoners of war was turned over to the Reichsfuehrer SS. I have read in evidence, this morning, our Document 058-PS, which provided for the direction of all prisoner of war camps by Himmler. The final, but vital phase of the conspiracy in which the SS played a loading role must be mentioned. The permanent colonization of conquered territories, the destruction of their national existence, and the permanent extension of the German frontier were fundamental objects of the conspirators' plans.
which these objectives were carried out through the forcible evacuation and resettlement of inhabitants of conquered territories, confiscation of their properties, denationalization and re-education of persons of German blood, and the colonization of conquered territories by Germans. program. I have read into the record already the numerous statements made by Himmler as to SS training, which played the role of the aristocracy of the New Europe. He put those theories into practice when he was appointed, on October 7, 1939, as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Folkdom. The decree by which he was appointed to that office -- our Document 686-PS -- has already been introduced into evidence as US Exhibit No. 305. I shall not, therefore, read it. settlement, a new department of the SS Supreme Command was created: Staff Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationality. That is indicated on the chart by the fourth box from the top, on the extreme right-hand side. Book of the NSDAP for 1943, our Document No. 2640-PS, which has already been introduced in evidence as US Exhibit 323. I shall read the description of the functions of that Department appearing on page 3 of the translation, the last paragraph, and page 421 of the original.
I quote:
"The main office of the staff of the Reichs Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationality is entrusted with the whole settlement and constructive planning and with its execution within the Reich and all those territories under the authority of the Reich, including all administrative and economic questions in connection with the settlement, especially the deployment of manpower for this purpose."
The colonization program had two principal objectives: First, the destruction of the conquered peoples by exterminating them, deporting them, and confiscating their property; second, settling racial Germans on the newly acquired land.
The extermination actions conducted by the SS, as to which I have just introduced evidence, contributed in part to clearing the conquered territories of persons who were deemed dangerous to the Nazi plan.
But not every undesirable could be liquidated. Mass deportations accomplished the twin purpose of providing labor and of freeing the land for German colonists. to concentration camps I have already introduced. deporting agencies. I quote from our Document 2163-PS, the National Socialist Yearbook for 1941, US Exhibit 444. The passage in question appears on page 3 of the translation, paragraph 5, and at page 195 of the original. I quote:
"For some time now the Reichsfuehrer SS has had at his disposal an office under the management of SS-Otergruppenfuehrer Lorenz, the National German Central Office, Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle. This office has the task of dealing with national German questions and the raising of required support.
"In addition to the VM, the Immigration Center Offices, with the Chief of the Security Police and the Security Service of the SS, under the management of SS-Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr. Sandberger, and the Settlement Staff of the Reich Commissioner were created, which, in cooperation with the National Socialist Welfare Organization and the Reich Railroad Agency, took charge of the migration of national Germans." fuehrer and General of the Waffen SS and Police, our Document No. L-49. I offer it as US Exhibit 473. Hoffmann was Chief of the Main Office for Race and Settlement in the SS Supreme Command until 1943. This affidavit was taken on August 4, 1945, at Freising, Germany. I shall read paragraph 2 of that affidavit:
"2. The executive power, in other words the carrying out of all so-called resettlement actions, that is to say, sending away of Polish and Jewish settlers and those of non-German blood from a territory in Poland destined for Germanization, was in the hands of the Chief of the RSHA Heydrich, and later Kaltenbrunner, since the end of 1942. The Chief of the RSHA also supervised and issued orders to the so-called immigration center, which classified the Germans living abroad who returned to Germany and directed them with the chief office of the Reichsfuehrer SS."
to the individual farms, already freed. The latter was done in agreement Other SS agencies were involved in the program for deportation.
The Tribunal has already received in evidence our Document 1352-PS, as US Exhibit No. 176. It is a report relating to the confiscation of Polish agricultural enterprises, dated May 22, 1940, and signed "Kusche". Portions of that document dealing with the confiscation of Polish agricultural enterprises and the deportation of Polish owners of the land to Germany were read into the record. I shall read only one further paragraph showing SS personnel involved in this action. It appears on page 2 of the translation, the first full paragraph; and on page 10 of the original, paragraph 2. and I quote:
"Leans of transportation to the railroad can be provided:
"1. By the enterprise of the East German Corporation of Agricultural Development.
"2. By the SS NCO School in Lublinitz and the concentration camp of Auschwitz.
"These two latter places will also detail the necessary SS men for the day of the confiscation, and so forth." SS were concerned with the evacuation program is shown by the minutes of a meeting on the 4th of August, 1942, dealing with the deportation of Alsatians.
It is our document R-114, and was received in evidence as U.S. Exhibit No.314. I shall read only the list of persons and offices represented at that conference, since the body of the report has been read, in part, into the record.
I start at the beginning of the document, page 1 of R-114:
"Memo on the meeting of 4/8/42.
"Subject: General directions for the treatment of deported Alsatians.
"Present:
"SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Stier; SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Petri; RR Hoffmann; Dr. Scherler; SS Untersturmfuehrer Foerster." There is a notation next to those names of "Staff Headquarters."
Then: "SS Obersturmfuehrer Dr. Hinrichs, Chief of Estate Office and Settlement Staff, Strasbourg.
"SS Sturmbannfuehrer Bruckner, Intermediate Office for Racial Germans, Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle.
"SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Hummisch, Main Office for Reich Security, Reichssicherheitshauptamt.
"SS Untersturmfuehrer Dr. Sieder, Main Office for Race and Settlement, Rus-Hauptamt.
"Dr. Labes, D.U.T." confiscated their property, it also repopulated the conquered regions with so-called racial Germans. Not all Germans were deemed reliable colonists, however. Those who were not were returned to Germany for re-Germanization and re-education along Nazi lines. No. R-112, which has already been introduced in evidence as US Exhibit 309. It is a decree of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of Germandom. That decree, as the Tribunal will recall, dealt with the treatment to be accorded so-called "Polonized" Germans. By the terms of that decree, two SS functionaries were charged with the responsibility for the re-Germanization program, the Higher SS and Police Leaders, and the Gestapo.
portions have already been read into evidence. I Will refer the Court specifically to Section III of the decree, which appears on page 7 of the translation, and Section IV of the decree, which appears on the same page, both of which indicate that the Higher SS Police Leaders and the Gestapo were responsible for the re-Germanization actions. lands by racially and politically desirable Germans, still other SS agencies participated. I quote again from our Document No. 2163-PS, the National Socialist Yearbook for 1941, US Exhibit 444. The passage appears on page 3 of the translation, paragraph 7, and on page 195 of the original. I quote:
"Numerous SS leaders and SS men helped with untiring effort in bringing about this systematic migration of peoples, which has no parallel in history.
"There were many authoritative and administrative difficulties which, however, were immediately overcome due to the unbureaucratic working procedure. This was especially guaranteed, above all, by the employment of the SS.
"The procedure called 'Durchschleusung' takes 3 to 4 hours as a rule. The re-settler is being passed through 8 to 9 offices, following each other in organic order: Registration office, card-index office, certificate and photo office, property office, abd biological hereditary and sanitary test office. The latter was entrusted to doctors and medical personnel of the SS and of the Armed Forces. The SS Corps Areas Alpenland, North-West, Baltic Sea, Fulda-Werra, South and South East, the SS Main Office, the NPEA -- National Political Education Institution -- Vienna, and the SS Cavalry School in Hamburg, provided most of the SS-Officers and SS-Non-Coms who worked at this job of resettlement."
I omit the next three paragraphs and continue with the Yearbook's conclusion as to the SS participation in the colonization scheme:
"The settlement, establishment and care of the newly won peasantry in the liberated Eastern territory will be one of the most cherished tasks of the SS in the whole future."
THE PRESIDENT: This might be a good time to break off until 2 o'clock.
MAJOR FARR: Yes, sir.
(Whereupon at 1245 hours the hearing of the Tribunal adjourned to reconvene at 1400 hours).
Military Tribunal, in the matter of:
MAJOR FARR: In the course of its development from a group of strong armed body guards, some two hundred in number, to a complex organization participating in every field of Nazi endeavor, the SS found room for its members in high places -- and persons in high places found themselves a position in the SS. officers in the SS. They are the defendants Ribbentrop, Hess, Kaltenbrunner, Bormann, Sauckel, Neurath and Seyss-Inquart. The vital part that the defendant Kaltenbrunner played in the SS, the SD and the entire Security Police system will be shown by evidence to be presented at the conclusion of the case on the Gestapo. With respect to the other 6 defendants to whom I have just referred, I desire to call to the tribunals attention the fact with respect to their membership in the SS. This fact is rather a matter of judicial notice than of proof. Evidence of the fact is to be found in two official publications which I now offer the court. The first is this black book -- the membership list of the SS as of 1 December 1936. This book contains a list of all the members of the SS as of that date arranged according to rank. I offer it in evidence as U.S. Exhibit No.474. Turning to page 8 of that publication we find at line 2 the name "Hess, Rudolf" followed by the notation "By authority of the Fuehrer the right to wear the uniform of an SS Obergruppenfuehrer." I now offer the 1937 edition of the same membership list as U.S. Exhibit No.475. Turning to page 10, line 50, we find the name "Bormann, Martin" -- and in line with his name on the opposite page under the column headed "Gruppenfuehrer", the following date 24/9/37.
"von Neurath, Konstantin", and on the opposite page under the column headed "Gruppenfuehrer" appears the date "18.9.37." The second publication to which I refer is "Der Grossdeutsche Reichstag" for the fourth voting period, edited by E. Kienast, Ministerial Director of the German Reichstag, This is an official handbook containing biographical data as to membership of the Reichstag. I offer it in evidence as USA Exhibit No.476. On page 349 the following appears: "von Ribbentrop, Joachim, Reichmmister des Auswaertigen, SS Obergruppenfuehrer." On page 360 the following appears: "Sauckel, Fritz, Gauleiter and Reichstag Reichsstalthalter in Thuringen, SS Obergruppenfuehrer." On page 389 the following appears: "Seyss-Inquart, Arthur, Dr. Jurat, Reichsminister SS Obergruppenfuehrer."
THE PRESIDENT: What was the date of that book?
MAJOR FARR: This book covers the fourth voting period on the 10 April 1938, embracing the period up to 13 January 1947 (?) that is, the voting period covers that course of years. The edition, I think, was in 1943. I might point out that the rank of the Defendants mentioned in the 1936 and 1937 editions of the membership list of the SS may not be the final rank they held. They were Gruppenfuehrers at that time, but they were members of the SS, as shown by the book. of the Indictment, was unlawful. As an organization founded on the principle that persons of "German blood" were a "master race", it exemplified a basic Nazi doctrine. It served as one of the means through which the conspirators acquired control of the German government. The operations of the SD, and of the SS Totenkopf Verbaende in concentration camps, were means used by the conspirators to secure their regime and terrorize their opponents, as alleged in Count 1. All components of the SS were involved from the very beginning in the Nazi program of Jewish extermination. Through the Allgemeine SS as a paramilitary organization, and the SS Verfuegungstruppe and SS Totenkopf Verbaende, as professional combat forces, it participated in the military preparations for aggressive war, and through its militarized units in the waging of aggressive war in the west and in the East as set forth in Counts one and two of the Indictment.
In the course of such war all components of the SS participated in the war crimes and crimes against humanity, set forth in Counts Three and Four -- the murder and ill-treatment of civilian populations in occupied, territory, the murder and ill-treatment of prisoners of war and Germanization of occupied territories.
organization. Some of its functions were, of course, performed by one branch or department oroffice, some by another. No single branch or department participated in every phase of its activity. But every branch and department and office was necessary to the functioning of the whole. The situation is much the same as in the case of the individual defendants at the bar. Not all participated in every act of the conspiracy - but all, we contend, performed a contributing part in the whole criminal scheme. volunteers but that applicants had to meet the strictest standards of selection It was not easy to become an SS member. That was true of all branches of the SS. We clearly recognize, of course, that during the course of the war, as the demands for manpower increased, and the losses of the Waffen SS grew heavier and heavier, there were occasions when men drafted for compulsory military service were assigned to units of the Waffen SS rather than to the Wehrmacht. Those instances were relatively few. Evidence of recruiting standards of the Waffen SS in 1943, which I quoted yesterday, has shown that membership in that branch was as essentially voluntary and highly selective as in other branches. Doubtless some of the members of the SS, or of other of the organizations alleged to be unlawful, might desire to show that their participation in the organization was a small or innocuous one, that compelling reasons drove him to apply for membership, that he was not fully conscious of its aims or that he was mentally irresponsible when he became a member. Such facts might or might not be relevant if such person were on trial. But in any event this is not the forum to try out such matters. was not an unlawful organization. The evidence has finally shown what the aims and activities of the SS were. Some of these aims were stated in publications which I have quoted to the Court. The activities were so widespread and so notorious, covering so many fields of unlawful endeavor, that the illegality of the organization could not have been concealed. It was a notorious fact, and Himmler, himself, in 1936, in a quotation which I read to the Tribunal yesterday, admitted that when he said, "I know that there are people in Germany now who become sick when they see these black coats.
We know the reason and we don't expect to be loved by too many." SS to carry out the common objectives of the defendant conspirators. Its activities in carrying out those functions involved the commission of the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter. By reason of its aims and the means used for the accomplishment thereof, the SS should be declared a criminal organization in accordance with Article 9 of the Charter.
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the next presentation will be the Gestapo, and it will take just a few second to get the material here.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL STOREY: We first pass to the Tribunal Document book marked "Exhibit AA." Your Honors will notice they are in two volumes, and I will try each time to refer to each volume. They are separated by the D Documents, the L Documents, the PS Documents, etc.
Staatspolisei (GESTAPO) includes evidence on the criminality of the Sicherheiosdienst (SD) of the Schutzstaffeln (SS), which has been discussed by Major Farr, because a great deal of the criminal acts were so inter-related. In the Indictment the SD is included by special reference as a part of the SS, since it originated as a part of the SS and always retained its character as a Party organization, as distinguished from the GESTAPO, which was a State organization. As will be shown by the evidence, however, the GESTAPO and the SD were brought into close working relationship, the SD serving primarily as the information gathering agency and the GESTAPO as the executive agency of the police system established by the Nazis for the purpose of combatting the political and ideological enemies of the Nazi regime. organization and the Gestapo as the executive agency, the former the Party organization and the latter a State organization, but merged together for all practical purposes. powerful, centralized political police system serving party, state and the Nazi leadership. Prussia on 26 April 1933 by GOERING, with the mission of carrying out the duties of political police with or in place of the ordinary police authorities. The GESTAPO was given the rank of a higher police authority and was subordinated only to the Minister of the Interior, to whom was delegated the responsibility of determining its functional and territorial jurisdiction. That fact is established in the Preussische Gesetzsammlung, of 26 April 1933, page 122, and it is our Document 2104-PS. Interior issued a decree on the reorganization of the police which established a State Police Bureau in each government district of Prussia subordinate to the Secret State Police Bureau in Berlin, and I cite as authority, the Ministerial-Blatt for the Internal Administration of Prussia, 1933, our Document 2371-PS, page 503.
said, in Aufbau Einer Nation, 1934, page 87, and I quote:
"For weeks I had been working personally on the re-organization and at last I alone and upon my own decision and my own reflection created the office of the Secret State Police. This instrument, which is so feared by the enemies of the State, has contributed most to the fact that today there can no longer be talk of a Communist and Marxist danger in Germany and Prussia."
THE PRESIDENT: What was the date?
COLONEL STOREY: 1934, Sir. State Ministry and the Reich Chancellor placing the GESTAPO under his direct supervision as Chief. The GESTAPO was thereby established as an independent branch of the Administration of the Interior, responsible directly to GOERING as Prussian Prime Minister. This decree gave the GESTAPO jurisdiction over the political police matters of the general and interior administration and provided that the district, county, and local police authorities were subject to the directives of the GESTAPO, and that cites the Prussian laws of 30 November 1933, page 413, Document 2105-PS. on 18 June 1934, published in Speeches and Essays of Hermann Goering, 1939, page 102, our Document 3343-PS, Goering said, and I quote one paragraph.
"The creation of the Secret State Police was also a necessity. You may recognize the importance attributed to this instrument of state security from the fact that the Prime Minister himself has made himself head of the department of the administration, because it is just the observation of all currents directed against the new state which is of fundamental importance."