It was the duty of the Reichsleitung to make certain that these tasks assigned to it by the Fuehrer were carried out with expedition and without interruption, in order that the will of the Fuehrer quickly and accurately was communicated to the lowest Party echelon, the lowliest Zelle or Block. The individual offices of the Reichsleitung had the mission to remain in constant and closest contact with the life of the people through the agency of the subdivisions of the component party organizations in the Gau, within the Kreis, or the Ort or the lower group. These leaders had been taught that the right to organize human beings accrued through the appreciation of the fact that a people must be educated idealogically; Weltanschaulich, the Germans call it, that is to say, according to the philosophy of National Socialism.
(Karr follows) Now, among the former Reichsleiter, on trial in this cause, may be included the following defendants:
at the extreme left, at the box marked with the defendant Frank's name. At onetime, although not in March, 1945, he was the Head of the Legal Office of the Party, He was the Reichsleiter des Reichsrechtsamtes. Fuehrer for Idealogical Training and Education of the Party. He was called Der Beauftragte des Fuehrers fur die Uberwachung der gesammten geistigen and weltanschaulichen Schulung und Erziehung der NSDAP. Youth Education, (Leiter fur die Jugenderziehung). the Party Organization, (Reichsorganizationsleiter der NSDAP) and also the Leader of the German Labor Front (Leiter der Deutschen Arbeitsfront). I might allude to the box marked with the name Schwarz. He was the Party Official and Reischleiter, who certified to the chart before the Tribunal. find the name of Frick, who was the leader of the Reichstag fraction,(Leiter des NS Reichstangsfraktion). bottom of the vertical line, in the center of the chart. The National Socialists called them the hearers of sovereignty. To them were assigned the political sovereignty over specially designated subdivisions of the State, of which they were the appointed Leaders. The Hoheitsrager may be said to represent the vertical organization of the Party. there were 42 within the Reich in 1945. A Gauleiter was a political leader of the largest subdivision of the State. He was charged by the Fuehrer with the political, cultural and economic control over all forms and manifestations of the life of the people and the coordination of the same with National Socialist philosophy and ideology.
former Gauleiters of the NSDAP. I mention, in this connection, the defendant Streicher, Gauleiter of Franconia, Franconian Feuhrer they called him, whose sect was in the City of Nurnberg. Gauleiter of Thuringia. al leaders of the largest subdivision within the Kreis and a Kreis consisted perhaps of several towns or villages or in the case of a larger city, anywhere from 1500 to 3,00 households. 8 city blocks, or of a corresponding group within country districts and then follow the Blockleiter, the political leaders of from 40 to 60 households. of sovereignty, was directly responsible to the next highest leader in the Nazi heirarchy. The Gauleiter was directly responsible to the Fuehrer himself: the Kreisleiter was directly responsible to the Gauleiter; the Ortsgruppenleiter to the Kreisleiter and so on. philosphy that runs through the Party, the right to name all leaders. It was he, personally, that named the Reichsleiter, all members of the Party Directorate. It was he that appointed all Gauleiters and Kreisleiter and all political leaders down to the grade of Gauamtsleiter, which was a lower classification of political leader, within the Party organization of the Gau. all-powerful group of leaders by means of which the Nazi Party reached right down into the lives of the people, consolidated its control of them and compelled them to conform to the National Socialist pattern. For this purpose, broad powers were given to them, including the right to call upon all Party formations to effectuate their plans. They could requisition the services of the SA and of the SS, as well as of the HJ and of the NSKK.
If I may direct your attention for the moment, to the Party organizations that appear at the extreme left of the chart, I would just like to say that structually these organizations were organized regionally to accord with the offices and regions controlled by the Hoheitstrager. If I might be more explicit, let us take the SA, the subsidiary formations of the SA, came down and corresponded, in its lower organizations, to the Gau, so that we have a Gauleitung in the SA, and further down, to the Kreis. Thus, we have a Kreisleitung in the SA so that the Gauleiter and the Kreisleiter, to cite two examples, charged with a particular duty by the Fuehrer, could call on these organizations for assistance in carrying out their tasks. apparent as the prosecution's case developes, and as the wealth of evidentiary material is introduced into evidence to prove the criminality of the defendant organizations.
Party, are shown at the extreme left of the Chart, and are the organizations to which I directed the attention of your Honors a moment ago. These organizations actually constitute the Party itself, and substantially the entire Party membership is contained within these organizations. The four principal organizations are sometimes referred to as "paramilitary" organizations. They were uniformed, military organizations and they were armed. These organizations were the notorious SA and SS, who, are named as party defendants in this case, the HJ, (Hitler Youth) and the NSKK, (The Motor Corp of the Party). Then there were also the National Socialist Women's Organization, the National Socialist German Student's Bund (Deutscher Studentenbund), and the National Socialist University Teachers' Bund. within the Party, as affiliated organizations, not Gliederungen or controlled organizations, but affiliated organizations (Angeschlossene Verbande der NSDAP). Among those organizations we have the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront); we have an organization that controlled the Civil Service (Reichsbund der Deutschen Beamten). There , were the physicians in the Deutscher Arztesbund; there were the teach in the Lehrerbund; there were the lawyers within the National Socialist Rechtswahrerbund, of which at one time, the defendant Frank was the head. supervised organizations, (Betreute Organisationen der NSDAP) organizations that included certain specialized women's organizations; (Deutsches Frauenwerk) certain student societies; (Deutsche Studentenschaft) former university students; (Altherrenbund der Deutschen Studenten) there was a group that had reference to the German communes (Deutscher Gemeindetag) and there was a Reichsbund fur Leibesubungen, that interested itself in controlling all those interested in physical exercise. various organizations and associations that controlled German life in all its phases, there was a fourth classification, which is the last organization that appears to the right on the chart before your Honors, which is sometimes simply called Weitere Nationalsozialistische Organisationen, and here, in some respect, we are in "No man's land", because the party was not static, it was dynamic and our latest information is now to the effect that the organizations that ordinarily came within this category, well known organizations, like the RAD (Reich Labor Service) and the NSFK (National Socialist Fliegerkorps) may no longer be included there.
At least that was the opinion of the Party Treasurer, who certified to this chart. ions of the structure of the Party, with which we are dealing in this proceeding. several other instances where some of the defendants appear in this set-up. chart before your Honors, are the successors designate of the Fuehrer. First is the defendant Hess, until 1941, and followed by the defendant Goering. Under the Fuehrer appears the Chief of the Party Chancellory, the defendant Martin Bormann, and then, if we come to the left of the Reichsleiter, and go to the left, opposite Rosenberg's name, we find somewhat below that, his name is repeated, as the Head of an office on a lower level, namely, the Foreign Relations Office of the party, which played such a sinister role in the early work of the Party, as will later appear in the documentary evidence to be presented to your Honors.
We then come to the late defendant Ley's name, on the main horizontal division, and follow the dotted line to a lower level, and we will find he was the Chief of the German Labor Service, and if we come closer to the vertical line, to a lower level, below the Reichsleiter, we find the defendant Speer, Hauptamt fuer Technik, the Office of Technical Affairs, and below that, as the Chief of the Bund Deutscher Technik (German Technological League). to the consideration of the governmental machinery of the German State, which, like the organization of the Nazi Party, requires some brief observations before the prosecution proceeds with the submission of proof on the Common Plan or Conspiracy, with which the defendants have been charged.
second exhibit, another chart, delineating substantially the organizational structure of the government of the Third Reich, as it existed in March 1945 and also "The chief leadership personnel of the Reich Government and the Reich Administration during said years." mation contained in two official publications, The Manual for Administrative Officers, and the National Socialist Year Book, to which I have already alluded, edited by the defendant Ley. defendant Wilhelm Frick, whose affidavit is submitted with the chart. In fact, it is reproduced directly on the copies of the charts before your Honor.
of the Reich, from January 1933 to August 1943, was well qualified by reason of his position and long service in public office during the National Socialist regime, to certify to the substantial accuracy of the facts disclosed in this chart. brief comments on this chart. in the center of the chart on the vertical line, directly below Hitler. The Reichsregierung is a word that may not be translated literally as "government of the Reich". The word Reichsregierung is a word of art and is applied collectively to the Ministers who composed the German Cabinet. and as used in the Indictment, the expression is used to identify a group which we will urge, should be declared to have been a criminal organization. members of the Cabinet after 30 January 1933, that is Reich Ministers with and without Portfolio, and all officials entitled to participate in the declarations of the Cabinet. Defense of the Reich. It is called Ministerrat fuer die Reichsverteidigung, which is the large box to the right of the vertical line. is the small box to the left of the vertical line, the Geheimer Kabinettsrat, of which the defendant von Neurath was the President. not within the orbit of the former Axis, the Reichsregierung, after January 30, 1933, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the German Republic, did not remain merely the Executive Branch of the Government. In short order it also came to be possessed, and it exercised, legislative and other functions as well, in the government system, into which the German Government developed while under the domination of the National Socialist Party.
SA and SS, the Reichsregierung, before 1933, certainly, was not a body created exclusively or even predominantly for the purpose of committing illegal acts. The Reichsregierung was an instrument of government provided for by the Weimar Constitution. Under the Nazi regime, however, the Reichsregierung gradually became primary agent of the Party, with functions formulated in accordance with the objectives and methods of the Party itself. The Party, to all intents and purposes, was intended to be a "Fuehrerorden", and order of Fuehrers, a pool of political leaders, and while the Party was -- in the words of a German law - "the bearer of the concept of the German State", it was not identical with the Stats. reach the German people, the Party had to avail itself of official State channels. were the chosen instruments by means of which Party politices were converted into legislative and administrative acts, binding upon the German people as a whole. remodelled by the Party. Some of the steps may here be recorded, by which the coordination of Party and State machinery was assured in order to impose the will of the Fuehrer on the German people. there were a few National Socialists that were Cabinet members. But, as the power of the Party in the Reich grew, the Cabinet came to include ever increasing numbers of Nazis, until by January, 1937, no non-Party member remained in the Reichsregierung. New Cabinet posts were created and Nazis appointed to them. Many of these Cabinet members were also in the Reichsleitung of the Party.
To give but a few examples: central box on the vertical line, the delegate of the Fuehrer for Ideological Training and Education of the Party, was a member of the Reichsregierung, in its capacity as Minister for the Occupied Eastern Areas, the Reichministerium fuer die besetzten Ostgebiete. horizontal line and proceed to the very end you will find a box marked "Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories", of which the head was the defendant, Rosenberg. in the Reichstag, was also Minister of the Interior. two boxes over you will find the Ministry presided over by the defendant, Frick. Goebbels, the Reichsleiter for Propaganda, also sat in the Cabinet as Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Reichsministerium fuer Volksaufklaerung and Propaganda. after the 25th of July, 1934, participation in the work of the cabinet was at all times achieved through the person of the defendant, Rudolf Hess, the Deputy Fuehrer. By a decree of Hitler the defendant, Hess, was invested with the power to take part in the editing of legislative bills with all the departments of the Reich. Later this power of the Fuehrer's deputy was expanded to include all executive decisions and orders that were published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, the official volume in which are contained the decrees of the State. After Hess's flight to England in 1941 the defendant, Martin Bormann, as his successor, took over the same function, and in addition he was given the authority of a Reichsminister so that he could sit in the Cabinet.
Now, another item of importance:
cellor, the Fuehrer executed the acceptances into the Party of those last few Cabinet members who still remained out of the Party. Only one Cabinet member had the strength of character to reject membership in the Party. That was the Minister of Transportation and Minister of Posts, Mr. EltzRuebenau. His example was not followed by the defendant, von Neurath. His example was not followed by the defendant, Raeder. And if the defendant Schacht was not yet at that time a member of the Party, I might say that his example was not followed by the defendant Schacht. highest, as well as subordinate levels, occupied corresponding or other positions in the organization of the State. Take Hitler himself, as the Fuehrer of the NSDAP. He was also the Chancellor of the Reich, with which office, furthermore, the office of President of the Reich was joined and merged after the death of President von Hindenberg in 1934.
Take the defendant Goering, the successor-designate of Hitler. As Fuehrer of the NSDAP he sat in the Cabinet as Air Minister, Luftfahrtminister, and he also held many other important positions, including that of Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe, the German Air Force, and that of Delegate for the Four Year Plan.
Himmler, the notorious head of the SS, the Reichsfuehrer's SS, was also the Chief of the German Police, reporting to the defendant Frick. He himself later became Minister of the Interior after the attempted assassination of Hitler on June 20, 1944, which event also catapulted him into the position of Commander-in-Chief of the German Reserve Army. labeled "Reichstag".
(Here a short recess was taken).
In that box is the label "Reichstag", the former German Parliament.
The Reichstag presents an anomaly in this picture. Under the Republic it had been the supreme law-making body of the Reich, subject only to a limited check by the Reichstag - the Council of the Reich, by the President and by the people themselves by way of Initiative and Referendum.
effect at once, the Nazis proceeded to curtail the powers of the Reichstag, to eliminate the Reichstag, and to merge the Presidency with the Office of Chancellor occupied by the Fuehrer. By the Act of 24th of March, 1933, the Cabinet was given unlimited legislative powers, including the right to deviate from the Constitution.
Subsequently, as I stated, the Reichstag was abolished, and with that act the residuum of the power to legislate in the Reichstag was reduced to a minimum. I say the power was reduced to a minimum because the actual power to legislate was never taken away from the Reichstag, but certainly after the advent of the Party to power it was never permitted to exercise as a legislature. even though from time to time other agencies of the Reichsregierung, such as the Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the upper right of the chart, the Generalbevollmaechtigter fuer die Reichsverwaltung, the Plenipotentiary for Economy, also in the right-hand corner of the chart, the Generalbevollmaechtigter fuer die Wirtschaft, and the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, was created. That is the big box to the right of the vertical line. And these agencies of the Reichsgegierung received certain concurrent legislative powers. body was, however, only an intermediate step on the road to rule by Fuehrer decree. That was the ultimate goal of the Party, and a goal which they achieved. Reich Cabinet to all sorts of newly created agencies, some of which I have already mentioned. Cabinet functions were delegated first of all to the Reich Defense Council, the Reichsverteidigungsrat, possibly as early as the 4th of April, 1933, but we believe certainly not later than 1935. I might say in this connection that with respect to a number of these agencies of the Reichsregierung that received delegated powers, we are moving in a somewhat shadowy land, because in developing this organization we are dealing -- to some extent, at least -with decrees and actions that were secret, or secretive, in character.
A number of them were never published and the German people themselves never became acquainted with them. And that is why I say that the Reich Defense Council may possibly have been created as early as two and one-half months after the advent of Hitler to power but we believe that we will be able to show to the satisfaction of the Tribunal that that important body in the government of the Reich was created certainly not later than May, 1935.
I say it is an important body. This was the war-planning group of which Hitler himself was chairman and the Defendant Goering the alternate. It was a large war-planning body, as your Honors will note, that included many cabinet members, and there was also a working committee - the true numerical size of which does not appear from the chart - which was presided over by the Defendant Keitel. That also was composed of Cabinet members and of Reich Defense officials, the majority of whom were appointed by Cabinet officers and subject to their control.
Other powers were delegated to the Plenipotentiary, whom I have named, for administration, appearing at the extreme right of the chart. That was the defendant Frick, and later the notorious Himmler. istration were complete ministries, Ministry of the Interior, Frick's old ministry, Ministry of Justice, Education, Church Affairs, and Raumorthe defendant Goering, whose box appears to the left of the median line, half way to the edge. within the shadow land I mentioned, and which, unfortunately, does not have its name appear on this chart, the Dreierkollegium, the college of Three, which title should really be imposed over the last three boxes in the upper right hand corner; because the Dreierkollegium consisted not alone of the Plenipotentiary for Administration, but also the Plenipottentiary for War economy. And the Chairman of that group I believe was the defendant Keitel, as the head of the OKW, the Wehrmacht, all the armed forces. The du ties of the Dreierkollegium would seem to have included the drafting of decrees in preparation of and use during war. To the secret Cabinet Council, the Geheimer Kabinettsrat, of which the defendant von Neurath was Charman, or the President, I believe was his title, went other powers.
That secret Cabinet Council was created by a decree of the Fuehrer in 1939. Fuer die Reichsverteidigung, the Minister ial Council for defense of the Realm, which is the smallest box appearing under the large box of the Reich Defense Council, to the right of the vertical line. to the Fuehrer alone. Its membership, as would seem to be indicated in the chart, was taken from the Reich Council. It had broad powers to issue decrees with the force of law in so far as the Reichsregierung itself had not legislated on the subject.
to various groups, composed largly of its own members, helped to conceal s relating to the preparation of war, which delegated the necessary authority to secret and semi-secret agencies. Thus in a general way as I have outlined, did the National Socialist Party suceed in putting Nazi policies into effect through its dummy, through the machinery of the State, the Reichsregierung, in its revised form. out on this chart the large number of instances in which the defendan ts names reappear in connection with the functions of the Government of the Reich. thatconnection that there is one ommission, a very important ommission. It was the name of the Vice Chancellor under Mr Hitler, von Papen, who was Vice Chancellor from the seizure until some time around the purge June 1934. and under it of ministers without portfolio, in which mostly the names of the defendants in this court are listed. There are state minister acting as Reich ministers listed, and you will note the name of defendant Frank. There are other participants in cabinet meetings, among which you will notice the name of the defendant von Schirach. Reich Cabinet, and as I have stated, organizations that grew out of this ma names of the defendants.
Still further to the left is the delegate for the Four Year Plan. And over to the very end is the Reichstag, of which the president was the defendant Goering, and the leader of the Reichstagsfraktion, the defendant Frick. Defense Council, with Hitler himself as Chairman, the Reich Defense Committee under it, and the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Realm, which grew out of the Reich Defense Council. We see mostly the names of cabinet ministers, including, if I may advert to that fact, particularly the names of purely military leaders, such as the defendant Raeder and the defendant Keitel. proceedings, Schacht, the first Plenipotentiary for War Economy, later succeeded by Funk; Field Marshall Keitel as the Chief of the OKW, and the defendant Frick again as Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the triangle which became known as the Dreierkollegium. middle, we have the various ministries over which these cabinet ministers, this Reichsregierung, presided. We have also at the extreme left, and the extreme right, very important and special offices that were set up at the instigation of the Party, and those offices reported directly to the Fuehrer himself. civil government moved after the military machine into the Lowlands, the defendant Seyss-Inquart became the Reichskommissar for the Netherlands. dant von Neurath, the Reichsprotektor for Bohemia and Moravia, who was later succeeded by the defendant Frick; and under those names, the name of the defendant Frank, the General Governor of Poland. to the Reich Chancellor and President was the Foreign Office, presided over first by the defendant von Neurath, and subsequently by the defendant von Ribbentrop.
dealing with German legations, there should of course in any itemized, detailed treatment of that box appear the name of the defendant vonPapen, the representative of the Reich, in Austria for a time and later in Turkey. the Reichsweirtschaftsministerium. First is the name of the defendant Schacht, followed by the name of the defendant Goering, and then by the name of the defendant Funk. Reichsministerium fuer Ruestung and Kriegsproduktion, was presided over by the defendant Speer. And out of this organization, and subordinate to it, in the box devoted to the Organization-Todt, again the name of the defendant Speer, who succeeded Todt to the leadership of that organization upon the death of Todt. follow me, down close to the bottom of the page to the last lefthand box, appearing under the Ministry of Justice, is the Reichsrechtsanwaltskammer -- I am sorry, the box next to the bottom at the left which is devoted to the Academy for German Law, Akademie Fuer deutsches Recht, over which the defendant Frank presided for a time. defendant Goering was Oberkommando; and next to it, the Ministry of the Interior, presided over by the defendant Frick.
all the squares to the small horizontal line at the bottom of the Ministry of the Interior, we come to certain state officials, called Reich Governors, Reichstatthalter. And if these boxes were sufficiently detailed, there would appear thereon the names, among others, of the defendant Sauckel, who besides being the Gauleiter of Thuringia, was also the Reichstatthalter or Governor there. There would also appear the name of the defendant von Schirach, who was not alone the Gauleiter of Vienna, but also the state representative there, the Governor, the Reichstatthalter, of Vienna. is the box or boxes devoted to the German police, and in the first sub-division appearing to the right, the chief of the Security Police and SD, the name of the defendant Kaltenbrunner. in this box, appears the name of the defendant Fritzsche, who although as the charge is drawn would not appear in the position of one of the chief directing heads of the ministry, actually was very much more important than his position there will indicate; and proof will be submitted to your Honors in support of that contention. the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Reichsministerium fuer die Besetzten Ostgebiete, of which the defendant Rosenberg was the head. immediately subordinate to Hitler as Reich Chancellor and President, there is the office of General Inspector for Highways, with the name of the defendant Speer associated with it; the General Inspector for Water and Energy, again with the name of the defendant Speer associated with it.
Reichsforstamt, under the defendant Goering; the Reichsjugenfuehrer, the leader of the Reich Youth, the defendant von Schirach; the Reich Housing Commissioner, Reichswohnungskommissar, the late defendant Robert Ley; and among the subsequent agencies, that of the important Reichsbank, over which the defendant Schacht presided, to be succeeded, subsequently by the defendant Funk; the General Inspector for the Reich Capital, Generalbauinspekteur fuer die Reichshauptstadt, the defendant Speer. appear on this chart, and of those now before your Honors in this case I think they all appear on this chart in one capacity or another, in one or more capacities, all I might add except the defendant Jodl. Jodl was the Chief of Staff of all the armed forces. He was the head of the Wehrmacht Feurungstadt, and in the evidential material which will be subsequently brought before your Honors, the name Jodl will figure prominently in connection with the organization of the armed forces. of the tongue that was called to my attention, in discussing the chart of the Party, in the small box to the left containing the designates of the Fuehrer to succeed him to the Party leadership, I made the statement that Goering succeeded Hess as Fuehrer designate. Actually when the designations were announced by the Fuehrer, Goering was always the first designate, and the defendant Hess the second. party functions and state offices which these defendants held in the course of the period under discussion, these various offices are mentioned.