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."
separated from their organizational connection with the district government and established as independent authorities of the Gestapo. That cites the Preussische Gesetzsammlung of 8 March 1934, page 143, our Document 2113-PS.
I now offer in evidence Document No. 1680-PS, USA Exhibit 477. This is an article Untitled "10 Years Security Police and SD", published in the German Police Fournal, the magazine of the Security Police and SD, of 1 February 1943. I quote one paragraph from this article on page 2 of the English translation, Document 1680, which is the third main paragraph:
"Parallel to that development in Prussia, the Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler, created in Bavaria the Bavarian political Police, and also suggested and directed in the other Federal States outside of Prussia the establishment of Political Police. The unification of the Political Police of all the Federal States took place in the Spring of 1934 when Herman Goering appointed Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler, who meanwhile had been nominated as Commander Of the Political Police Forces of all the Federal States possible." 1936, then summed up the development hitherto and determined the position and responsibilities of the Secret State Police in the executive regulations issued the same day. by Goering as Prussian Prime Minister. I refer to Document 2107-PS. This law provided that the Secret State Police had the duty to investigate and to combat in the entire territory of the State all tendencies inimical to the State, and declared that orders and matters of the Secret State Police were not subject to the review of the administrative courts. That is the Prussian State Law of that date, cited on pages 21-22 of the publication of the laws of 1936. cution of the law was issued by Goering as Prussian Prime Minister and by Frick as Minister of the Interior. This decree provided that the Gestapo had authority to enact measures valid in the entire area of the State and measures affecting that area -- by the way, that is found in 2109-IS and is also a published law -- that it was the centralized agency for collecting political intelligence in the field of political police, and that it administered the concentration camps.
The Gestapo was given authority to make police investigations in cases of criminal attacks upon the Party as well as upon the State. SS and Chief of the German police provided that as of 1 October 1936 the political police forces of the German provinces were to be called the "Geheime Staatspolizei." That means the Secret State Police. The Regional offices were still to be described as State police. Gesetzblatt of 1936, No. 44, page 1344. Frick, commissioned the Gestapo Bureau in Berlin with the supervision of the duties of the political police commanders in all the states of Germany. That is Reichsministerial Gesetzblatt 1936, page 1343, our Document L-297. with the police, of the 19th of March, 1937, provided that the officials of the Gestapo were to be considered direct officials of the Reich and their salaries, in addition to the operational expenses of the whole State Police, were to be borne from 1 April 1937 by the Reich. That is shown in Document 2243-PS, which is a copy of the law of 19 March 1937, page 325. as a uniform political police system operating throughout the land and serving Party, State, and Nazi leadership. close cooperation with the Gestapo and also with the Reich Kriminalpolizei, the Criminal Police, known as KRIPO, K-R-I-P-0, shown up there under AMT V. The SD was called upon to furnish information to various State authorities.
On the 11th of November, 1938, a decree of the Reich Minister of the Interior declared the SD to be the intelligence organization for the State as well as the Party, that it had the particular duty of supporting the Secret State Police, and that it thereby became active on a national mission. These duties necessitated a closer cooperation between the SD and the authorities for the General and Interior administration. That law is translated in 1638-PS.
of 17 and 26 June, 1936, in which Himmler was appointed Chief of the German Police, and by which Heydrich became the first Chief of the Security Police and SD. Even then Georing did not relinquish his position as Chief of the Prussian Gestapo. Thus, the decree of the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of German Police that was issued on the 28th of August, 1936 which is our Document 2073-PS, was distributed "to the Prussian Ministry President as Chief of the Prussian Secret State Police", being Mr. Goering. fuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police, the central offices of the Gestapo and SD, and also the Criminal Police, were centralized in the office of the Chief of the Security Police and SD under the name of RSHA, which Your Honors have heard described by Major Farr. Under this order the personnel and administrative sections of each agency were coordinated in Amt I and II of the chart shown here, of the RSHA. The operational sections of the SD became Amt III, shown in the box Amt III, except for foreign intelligence which was placed over in No. VI. The operational sections of the Gestapo became Amt IV, as shown on the chart, and the operational sections of the KRIPO, that is, the Criminal Police, became Amt V as shown on the chart. and Mueller was named Chief of Amt IV, and Nebe was named Chief of Amt V, the KRIPO. Police and SD, issued a directive pursuant to the order of Himmler in which he ordered that the designation and heading of RSHA be used exclusively in internal relations of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, and the heading "The Chief of the Security Police and SD" in transactions with outside persons and offices. The directive provided that the Gestapo would continue to use the designation and heading "Secret State Police" according to the particular instructions.
This order is Document L-361, U. S. Exhibit 478, which we now offer in evidence and refer Your Honors to the first paragraph.
That is found in the first volume. I just direct your Honors attention to the date and to the subject, which is the amalgamation of the Zentralaemter of the Sicherheitspolizei, and creating the four sections, then the words, "will be joined to the RSHA in accordance with the following directives. This amalgamation carries with it no change in the position of the Aemter in the party nor in their local administration." like to think of the RSHA as being the so-called administrative office through which a great many of these organizations were administered, and then a number of these organizations, including the Gestapo, maintained their separate identity as an operational organization. I think a good illustration, if Your Honor will recall, is that during the war there may be a certain division or a certain air force which is administratively under a certain headquarters, and operationally, when they had an invasion, might be under the general supervision of somebody else who was operating a task force, so the RSHA was really the administrative office of a great many of these alleged criminal organizations. basis of the opponents to be combatted and the matters to be investigated. already been identified, and I believe it is Exhibit No. 53. This chart -I am in error; that is the original identification number. This chart shows the main chain of command from Himmler, who was the Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German Police to Kaltenbrunner, who was Chief of the Security Police and SD, and from Kaltenbrunner to the various field offices of the Gestapo and the SD. ask that the charts be passed to the -- unless Your Honors desire -we have photostatic copies. You probably want to refer to the one on the wall. fied by Otto Ohlendorf, Chief of Amt III of the RSHA, and by Walter Schellenberg, Chief of Amt VI of the RSHA, and has been officially identified by both of those former officials.
came from Himmler as Reich Leader of the SS and Chief of the German police directly to Kaltenbrunner who was the Chief of the Security Police and SD, and as such he was also head of theRSHA, which is the administrative office to which I have referred.
Kaltenbrunner's headquarters organization was composed of seven Aemter, plus a military office, the seven Aemter, plus a military office, the seven Aemter shown here. technical matters, including motor vechicles of the SIPO and SD, to which we will refer later.
into spheres of German national life. It was the Internal intelligence organization of the police system and its interests extended into all areas occupied by Germany during the course of the war. In 1943 it contained four sections. I would like to mention them briefly. It shows their scope of authority. Reich. health of the people. press, folk culture, and art, and D dealt with economics, including food, commerce, finance, industry, labor, colonial economics, and occupied regions. was charged with combatting opposition. In 1945, as identified by these two former officials, it contained six subsections.
1. Section A dealt with opponents, sabotage, and protective service, including Communism, Marxism, reaction and liberalism.
2. Section B dealt with political, churches, sects and Jews, including political. Catholicism, political Protestantism, other Churches, Freemasonry, and a special section, B-4, that had to do with Jewish affairs, matters of evacuation, means of suppressing enemies of the people and State, and dispossession of rights of German citizenship. The head of this office was Eichmann.
3. Section C dealt with protective custody.
4. Section D dealt with regions under German domination.
5. Section E dealt with security.
6. Section F dealt with passport matters and alien police.
combatting crime. For example, Subsection D was the criminological institute for the SIPO and handled matters of identification, chemical and biological investigations, and technical research.
No. VI was the SD outside of Germany and was concerned primarily with foreign political intelligence. In 1944, the Abwehr, or military intelligence, was joined with Amt VI as the military Amt. Your Honors will recall that the witness Lahousen was in the Abwehr. Amt VI maintained its own regional organization. Freemasonry, Judaism, political churches, Marxism and liberalism. the KRIPO, shown on the chart at the right. The Gestapo and KAIPO offices were often located in the same place and were always collectively referred to as the SIPO. You see that shady line around refers to the collective operation of the Gestapo and KRIPO, Gestapo, the Secret Police, and KRIPO, the Criminal Police. These regional offices all maintained their separate identity and reported directly to the section of the RSHA, that is, under Kaltenbrunner, which had the jurisdiction of the subject matter. They were, however, coordinated by the Inspekteurs of the Security Police and SD, as shown at the top of the chart. The Inspekteurs were also under the supervision of the higher SS and police leaders appointed for each Wehrkreis. The higher SS and police leaders reported to Himmler and supervised not only the Inspekteurs of the Security Police and SD, but also the Inspekteurs of the Order Police and various subdivisions of the SS. armies advanced. Combined operational units of the Security Police and the SD, known as Einsatz Groups, about which Your Honors will hear in a few minutes, operated with and in the rear of the army. These groups were officered by personnel of the Gestapo and KRIPO and the SD, and the enlisted men were composed of Order Police and Waffen SS. They functioned with various Army groups. The Einsatz Groups -- and, if Your Honors will recall, they are simply task force groups or special projects -- were divided into Einsatzkommandos, Sonderkommandos, and Teilkommandos, all of which performed the functions of the Security Police and the SD, with or closely behind the Army.
and their subordinate parts were formed into permanent combined offices of the Security Police and SD within the particular geographical location. These combined forces were placed under the Kommandeurs of the Security Police and SD, and the offices were organized in section similar to this RSHA headquarters. The Kommandeurs of the Security Police and SD reported directly to Befehlshabers of the Security Police and SD who in turn reported directly to the Chief of the Security Police and SD. directly controlled by the Befehlshabers and the Kommandeurs of the Security Police and SD than within the Reich. They had authority to documents which I now offer in evidence.
They are Documents L-219, which Nazi leadership on power as specified in Count One of the Indictment.
The 1342, which I now offer in evidence and quote from.
It is on page 1 of th English translation, 1956.
I will first read the first paragraph and then "In order to refute the malicious rumors spread abroad, the Voelkisch Secret State Police; extracts from this read as follows:"
Then skip to the third paragraph:
"The Secret State Police is an official machinery on the lines of the treason.
The task of the Secret State Police is to detect these crimes punishment.
The number of criminal proceedings continually pending in the People's CCourt on account of high treasonable actions and of treason is the result of this work.
The next most important field of operations threatening the State and the leadership of the State.
As, since the Leader State.