The defendants Frick, von Papen, von Neurath, Goeering and Funk were present. The proposed enabling act was again the subject of a discussion. Hitler reported on the conference he had completed with the representatives of the center party. The defendant Neurath proposed a note concerning the arrangement to be agreed to by the representatives of the center party. The defendant Frick expounded to the meeting the contents of the draft of the proposed law and further stated that changes in the standing orders or rules of the Reichstag were also necessary, that an explicit rule must be made that unexcused absent delegates be considered present, and if that was done it would be possible to ratify the enabling act on the following Thursday in all three readings. official minutes of this Cabinet meeting was the defendant Goering's announcement that he had ordered SA troops on the Polish border to be cautious and not to show themselves in uniform, and that the defendant Neurath recommended also that the SA be cautious, especially in Danzig. In addition, the defendant Neurath pointed out that Communists in SA uniforms were being caught continuously. These stool pigeons had to be hanged. Justice had to find means and ways to make possible such punishment for Communist stool pigeons, according to the defendant, Neurath.
On 14th March 1933 the defendant Frick announced:
"When the Reichstag meets the 21st of March, the elsewhere from participation in the session.
In productive work.
We will know how to render harmless permanently, sub-humans who don't want to be reeducated."
During this period, taking advantage of the decree suspending constitutional guarantees of freedom, a large number of Communists, including party officials and Reichstag deputies and a smaller number of Social Democratic officials and deputies, were placed in protective custody. On 23 March, 1933 in urging the passage of the enabling act, Hitler stated before the Reichstag:
"It is up to you gentlemen to make the decision now.
It will be either peace or war." of the Reichstag were present. The absence of some was unexcused; they were in protective custody in concentration camps. Subject to the full weight of the Nazi pressure and terror, the Reichstag passed an enabling act known as the "Law for the Protection of the People and State," with a vote of 441 in favor, This law marks the real seizure of political control by the conspirators. For Article 1 provided that Reich laws can be enacted by the Reich Cabinet. Article 2 provided the National laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the Constitution. Article 3 provided, national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet are prepared by the Chancellor and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. Article 4 provided treaties of the Reich with foreign states which concern matters of national legislation do not require the consent of the parties participating in legislation. The Reich Cabinet is empowered to issue the necessary provisions for the execution of these treaties. unrestrained by any provision of the Weimar Constitution. stated and I also present for the assistance of the Court and the Defense Counsel the briefs covering this portion of the case.
THE PRESIDENT: I wish to speak to Major Wallace. Would it be possible to let the ... you must go to the microphone ... he needn't have that on .. Would it be possible for the prosecution to let Defendants' Counsel have at least one copy between each two of them here in court? If not today, then tomorrow.
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, there has been some misunderstanding and the briefs were delivered to the Defendants Document Room. We have sent for some of them and they should be here shortly. However, sir, in all fairness the briefs themselves are not in the German language, because we had intended to take the trial brief and the lawyers follow it over the translating system and thus, when it was finished, it would be translated into all languages.
a summary, and he is giving the summary and will offer the documents in evidence and later the briefs, as needed, to the Tribunal, and to defense counsel, and unfortunately, in the rush of time, they have been put down in the Defendants' Document Room and we have sent for some of them. We understand also, if the Tribunal please, that Dr. Kempner approached some of the distinguished counsel for the defense, and learned that a great many of them not only speak English but understand it when they read it, and to save the tremendous physical burden on facilities, the briefs have not, as yet, been translated into Germany. If there is objection, the only thing we can do is to with-hold them at this time, but we understood it would be agreeable to pass them to them in English and that is what we propose to do at the present moment, and have German speaking officers in the Document Room who will translate for any of them who may not be able to read German. Pardon me, to read English.
THE PRESIDENT: Did you hear what Col. Storey said, Dr. Dix?
DR. DIX: I have only one request. I have one request. We are here, as German defense counsel, and in face of great difficulties. These proceedings, are conducted according to Anglo-American customs. We are doing our best to make our way through these principles, and would be very grateful if the President would take into consideration our difficult situation. Anglo-American principles, it is necessary to arrange protests immediately, if one has any objections to the contents of a document and that it is not possible unless one does it at once. This is a point on which I would like to make my request. I am convinced that both the Trial Brief and the documents will be made available to us, and we will see if we can have a German translation of one or the other. If this trouble can be spared, if the defense counsel needs a translation, we shall have it, but I should like ... I have one request .. that we have leisure to raise an objection later when we have had a chance of discussing it. I think in that way we shall easily overcome the difficulties raised by the present situation, and we are trying to cooperate in order to overcome any difficulties.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal is glad that Defendants' Counsel are making efforts to cooperate in the trial. After the adjournment, the Tribunal will consider the best method of providing Defendants' Counsel with as many translations as possible, and you are right in thinking that you will be able to make objections to any document after you have had time to consider it.
DR. DIX: Thank you, sir.
PRESIDENT: Yes, Major Wallace?
MAJOR WALLACE: Having acquired full political control, the Nazi conspirators now proceeded to consolidate their power, and at this point I would like to impress upon the Tribunal again that with the exception of a very few documents, the subject matter of my remarks is within the purview of judicial notice of the court, a matter of history well known to these defendants and their counsel. Their first step was to ruthlessly purge their political opponents by confining them to concentration camps or by murder. Concentration camps made their first appearance in 1933 and were first used as means of putting political opponents out of circulation by confining them to a so-called "protective custody." This system of concentration camps grew and expanded within Germany. At a subsequent stage in these proceedings full and complete evidence of the concentration camp system and the atrocities committed therein will be presented to the Court, both by documents and films. murder by the Nazi conspirators of their political opponents is contained in the documentary evidence offered by the United States.
As an illustration, affidavit of Raymond H. Geist, former American Counsul and First Secretary of the Embassy in Berlin from 1929 to 1938, states (which will be offered):
"Immediately in 1933, the concentration camps Gestapo.
Only political prisoners were held "The first wave of terroristic acts began in others suspected of being either.
Mobs of SA "For Germans taken into custody by the Gestapo terror.
Victims numbered in the hundreds of thousands all over Germany."
End of quotation. conspirators proceeded to destroy opposition within their own ranks by wholesale murder. In discussing this purge, the defendant Frick stated in an affidavit under oath, signed on the 19th day of November 1945, in the Presence of his defense counsel as follows. This is document number 2950-PS. It has not yet been offered in evidence, sir. that Roehm wanted to start a putsch. The Fuehrer ordered Himmler to suppress the putsch, which was supposed to take place where all of the SA leaders were coming together. For northern Germany the Fuehrer gave orders to suppress the putsch to Goering. Frick goes on to say:
"On account of this order, many, many people treason.
They were just killed on the spot.
Many people were killed - I don't know how do with the putsch.
People who just weren't Schleicher's wife was also killed.
Gregor November or December of 1932".Frick goes on to say:
"The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these orders to suppress the putsch." series of decrees of the Reich Cabinet, a number of new political crimes. Any act or statement contra to the Nazi Party was deemed to be treason and punished accordingly. The formations of the Party, the SA, SS, as well as the SD and the Gestapo, were the vicious tools used in the extermination of all opposition, real or potential. As the defendant Goering said on July 24th, 1933 (I refer to docket number 2494-PS, which will be introduced: in evidence):
"Whoever in the future raises a hand against a life in a very short while.
Furthermore, it will a death, but only in an injury."
Academy for German Law, 1936, which will be introduced as document number 2533-PS. Frick stated as follows:
"To the world we are blamed again and again because of the concentration camps.
We are asked, 'Why do you arrest without a warrant of arrest?
' I say, 'Put yourself into the position of our nation.
' Don't forget that the very great and still untouched here on German soil."
referred to, being document number 1759-PS, states:
"The German people were well-acquainted with the one of great suffering.
Indeed, before the Hitler opposition."
And as the defendant Goering said in 1934, (and I refer to document number 2344-PA, which will be offered in evidence:)
"Against the enemies of the State, we must proceed ruthlessly ... Therefore the con Socialist Democrat functionaries."
Nazi conspirators further consolidated their position by promptly proceeding to eliminate all other political parties. On 21 March 1933, the defendant Frick announced that the Communists would be prevented from taking part in the Reichstag proceedings. This was accomplished, as has been pointed out, by placing them in "protective custody in concentration camps." On the 26 of May 1933 a Reichs Cabinet decree signed by Hitler and the defendant Frick provided for the confiscation of the Communist property. On 22 June 1933 the Social Democratic Party was suppressed in Prussia, it previously having been seriously weakened by placing a number of its members in concentration comps. On the 7th of July 1933 a Reich decree eliminated Social Democrats from the Reichstag and from the governing bodies of the provinces and municipalities. On the 14 of July 1933 by a decree of the Reich Cabinet, the property of the Social Democrats was confiscated, and the Nazi Party was constituted as the sole political party in Germany, and thereupon it became illegal to maintain or to form any other political party. Thus, Hitler was able to say within hardly more than five months after becoming Chancellor, I quote, "The Party has become the State."
ment a recorded fact, for on the 1st of December 1933 the Reich Cabinet issued a law for the "Securing the Unity of Party and State". This law was signed by Hitler and the defendant Frick.
Article 1 provided that the Nazi Party "... is the bearer of the concept of the State and is inseparably the State. It will be a part of the public law. Its organization will be determined by the Fuehrer."
Article 2 provided: "The Deputy of the Fuehrer and the Chief of Staff of the SA will become members of the Reich Cabinet in order to insure close cooperation of the offices of the Party and SA with public authorities."
Article 3 provided: "The members of the National Socialist German Workers Party and the SA (including their subordinate organizations) as the leading and driving force of the National Socialist State will bear greater responsibility toward Fuehrer, people and State."
(Adjourned from 1540-1550)
COLONEL STOREY: During the recess defendants' counsel and the prosecution arrived at an agreement for the furnishing of briefs to the defendants, which I understand to be this: delivered in the defendants' information center, with the understanding that if any defense counsel needs to show the German photostatic copy to his client he may do so in the defendants' counsel room adjacent thereto; that the briefs which we are passing to the Tribunal as an aid will likewise be passed to defendants' counsel in English, and that if any of them have trouble in the translation of any portion of the briefs we have German-speaking officers in defendants' information center who will assist counsel. I understand that all of these defendants' counsel have so agreed.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Now, Major Wallace.
MAJOR WALLACE: May it please the Court, at the moment of recess I was referring to the law which was passed on December 1, 1933, for securing the unity of Party and State.
Article 6 of that law Provided: "The public authorities have to grant legal and administrative assistance to the offices of the Party and the SA which are entrusted with the execution of the Jurisdiction of the Party and SA."
Article 8 Provided: "The Reich Chancellor as Fuehrer of the National Socialistic German Workers Party and, as the supreme commander of the SA, will issue the regulations necessary for the execution and augmentation of this law, particularly with respect to the organization and procedure of the jurisdiction of the Party and SA." Thus by this law the Nazi Party became a para-governmental organization in Germany. of Hindenburg. Instead of holding an election to fill the office of President, the merger of the offices of President and Chancellor, in the person of Hitler, was accomplished by the law of 1 August 1934, signed by the entire Reich Cabinet. One of the significant consequences of this law was to give to Hitler the supreme command of the German armed forces, always a prerequisite of the presidency, and every soldier was immediately required to take an oath of loyalty and unconditional obedience to Hitler.
On 4 February 1938 Hitler issued a decree which stated in part (and I quote from document number 1915-PS, which will be offered in the document book at the close of my remarks, as follows): "From now on, I take over directly the command of the whole Armed Forces." control, the Nazi conspirators reduced national elections to mere formalities devoid of the element of freedom of choice. Elections, properly speaking, could not take place under the Nazi system. In the first place, the basic doctrine of the Fuhrerprinzip dictated that all subordinates must be appointed by their superior in the government hierarchy. Although it had already become the practice, in 1938 it was specifically provided by law that only one list of candidates was to be submitted to the people. By the end of this pre-war period little of substance remained in the election law. The majority of the substantive provisions had become obsolete. the powers of regional and local governments and substantially transformed them into territorial subdivisions of the Reich Government. With the abolition of representative assemblies and elective officials in the Lander, and the municipalities, regional and local elections ceased to exist. On 31 January 1934 the last vestiges of Land independence was destroyed by the Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich. The defendant Frick, minister of the Interior throughout this period, has written of this Law for the Reconstruction of the Reich as follows:
"The reconstruction law abolished the sovereign sovereignty.
The supreme powers of the Lander do not exist any longer.
The natural result of to the corresponding Reich ministers.
On 30 Jan uary 1934 the German Reich becomes one state."
their political power was the purge of civil servants on racial and political grounds and their replacement by Party members and supporters. This purge was accomplished through a series of Nazi laws and decrees. The first was on 7 April 1933, entitled "Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service." Article 3 of the law applied the Nazi blood and master race theories in providing that officials who were not of Aryan descent were to be retired. The political purge provision of the law is contained in Article 4, and I quote, "Officials who, because of their previous political reservations may be dismissed."
The effect of this law and the decrees and regulations issued thereunder was to fill every responsible position in the government with a Nazi and to prevent the appointment of any applicant opposed or suspected of being opposed to the Nazi program and policy. All judges who failed to fulfill the racial and political requirements of the conspirators were quickly removed. In addition, the Nazis set up a new system of special criminal courts independent of the regular judiciary and directly subservient to the Party program.
Moreover, the Nazis controlled all judges through special directives and orders from the central government, their aim being, as expressed by Garland one of the loading Nazi lawyers of that time," ... to make the word 'terrorization'" in the penal law respectable again." larged existing State and Party organizations and established an elaborate net work of new formations and agencies. The Party spread octopus-like throughout all of Germany. This process of growth was summed up late in 1937 in an official statement of the Party Chancellery, as follows:
"In order to control the whole German nation in party formations and affiliated organizations."
book which contains the laws and conditions which I have referred to in this part of my presentation together with the briefs covering this part of it. histories in the consolidation of control by the conspirators. rators control of Germany is the destruction of the free trade unions and the obtaining of control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation. the Nazi seizure of power; the obstacles they afforded to the Nazi plans, the speed with which they were destroyed, the tenor and maltreatment ranging from assaults to murder of Union leaders, were fully outlined in the opening address of the Chief Prosecutor of the United States, and are fully set forth in the document book which I will present to the court on this phase of the case.
in the words of Robert Ley, once scheduled to be a defendant in this trial, but thought better of it. Ley's confidence in the Nazis' effective control ever the productive labor capacity of Germany in peace or in war was declared as early as 1936 to the Nurnberg Party Congress. I refer to document 2283-PS which is included in the document book which will be presented on this phase of the case. He stated:
"The idea of the factory troops in making good progress crisis.
Disturbances such as the munitions strikes of the National Socialism has conquered the factories.
Factory troops their motto is:
The Fuhrer is always right." At this time I would like to offer to the court the document on this phase of the case, namely, "The destruction of labor unions and the gaining of control of all productive labor in Germany," together with the brief on that subject. At the same time, if it please the court, I would like to offer the document book concerning the consolidation of control with respect to the utilization and molding of political machinery, which is in large a decree which I referred to just prior to my discussion of the destruction of labor unions.
case history in the consolidation of control. Influence of the Christian churches in Germany was an obstacle to their complete domination of the German people and contra to their master race dogma. As the defendant Martin Bormann stated in a secret decree of the Party Chancellery signed by him and distributed to all Gauleiters on 7 June 1941--it is identified as document No. D-75 and will be included, in the document book which will be presented to the court--he stated as follows:
"More and more must the people be separated from *** Not until this has happened does the State citizens."
D-75. Accordingly, the Nazi conspirators, seeking to subvert the influence of the churches over the people of Germany proceeded to attempt to eliminate these churches.
1. By promoting beliefs and practices incompatible with Christian teachings.
2. By persecuting priests, clergy and members of monastic orders. This persecution, as the documentary evidence will show, ran the gauntlet of insults and indignities, physical assault, confinement to concentration camps and murder.
3. By the confiscation of church properties. (In this connection see 1481-PS) 4. By suppressing religious publications.
5. By the suppression of religious organizations.
and in addition they suppressed religious education. This is illustrated by the secret decree of the Party Chancellery which I just referred to in document D-75, when the Defendant Bormann stated:
"No human being would know anything of Christianity childhood by his pastors.
The so-called dear God to the efforts of the pastors.
If, therefore, in Christianity will disappear by itself."
(See Document 1815-PS) additional documentary evidence of the acts of the conspirators in their attempt to subvert the influence of the Christian churches will be offered.
At this time I offer the document book in support of this phase of the case together with the accompanying brief. history, the persecution of the Jews.
The Nazi conspirators adopted and publicized a program of ruthless persecution of Jews. and complete story, in all its sickening details, of the Nazi conspirators' plans and acts for the elimination and liquidation of the Jewish population of Europe. This will be done in due course at a subsequent stage of these proceedings, but it is our purpose at this time to bring before you as one of the elements in the Nazi scheme for the consolidation of their control of Germany, the action which was planned and taken with respect to the Jews within Germany during the pre-war period. means of rallying otherwise discordant elements behind the Nazi banner, the conspirators adopted and publicized a program of relentless persecution of Jews. This program was contained in the official, unalterable 25 points of the Nazi Party, of which 6 were devoted to the master race doctrine. The defendants Goring, Hess, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick, Streicher, Funk, Schirach, Bormann and others all took prominent parts in publicizing this program. Upon the Nazis' coming into power, this Party program became the official State program. The first organized act was the boycott of Jewish enterprises on 1 April 1933. The defendant Streicher in a signed statement admits that he was in charge of this program only for one day. We of course reserve the right to show additional evidence with respect to that fact. The nazi conspirators then embarked upon a legislative program which was gradual and which dates from 7 April 1933 until September 1935. During this period a series of laws was passed removing the Jews from civil service, from the professions and from the schools and military service. It was clearn however, that the Nazi conspirators had a far more ambitious program for the Jewish problem and only put off its realization for reasons of expediency. After the usual propaganda barrage in which the speeches and writings of the defendant Streicher were most prominent, the Nazi conspirators initiated the second period of anti-Jewish legislation, namely, from 15 September 1935 to September 1938.
In this period the infamous Nurnberg laws were passed, depriving the Jews of their rights as citizens, forbidding them to marry Ayrans, and eliminating them from additional professions.
In the autumn of 1938 the Nazi conspirators began to put into effect a program of complete elimination of the Jews from German life. The measures taken were partly presented as a retaliation against world Jewry in connection with the killing of a German embassy official in Paris. Unlike the boycott action in April 1933 when care was taken to avoid extensive violence, an ellegedly spontaneous pogrom was staged and carried out all over Germany (See 374-PS). The legislative measures which followed were discussed and approved in their final form at a meeting on 12 November 1938 under the chairmanship of the defendant Goring, with the participation of the defendants Frick and Funk and others. I refer to document 1816-PS, which will appear in the document book in the office. The meeting was called following Hitler's orders "requesting that the Jewish question be now, once and for all, coordinated and solved one way or the other". The participants agreed on measures to be taken for the elimination of the Jew from German economy. The laws issued in this period were signed mostly by the defendant Goring in his capacity as Deputy for the Four Year Plan, and were thus strictly connected with the con solidation of control of the German economy and preparation for aggressive war.
These laws obliged all German Jews to pay a collective fine of 1 billion Reichsmarks; barred the Jews from trades and crafts; limited movement of Jews to certain localities and hours; limited the time for the sale or liquidation of Jewish enterprises; forced Jews to deposit shares and securities held by them; forbade the sale or acquisition of gold or precious stones by a Jew: granted landlords the right to give notice to Jewish tenants before legal expiration of the leases: forced all Jews over 6 years of ago to wear the Star of David. conspirators within Germany, very few legislative measures were passed. The Jews were just delivered to the SS, Gestapo, and the various extermination staffs. The last law dealing with Jews in Germany put them entirely outside the law and ordered the confiscation by the State of the property of dead Jews. This law was a weak reflection of a factual situation already in existence. As Dr. Stuckart, Assistant to the defendant Frick, stated at that time, "The aim of the racial legislation may be regarded legislation as essentially closed.
It led to the solution.
Many regulations will lose their prac ment of the final goal on the Jewish problem."
made the following prophesy:
"The result (of a war) will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe."
the Court the evidence as to how well that prophesy was fulfilled.
laws referred to, with respect to the persecution of the Jews, and the brief outlining that subject.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now adjourn until 10 o'clock tomorrow morning.
(Whereupon, at 4:30 o'clock p.m. the Tribunal adjourned until 10 o'clock the following day.)