The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

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Last-Modified: 1996/12/28

It is true that this figure is based upon an admittedly
limited view of the size of the membership of the Leadership
Corps of the

                                                   [Page 41]
                                                            
Nazi Party; for the evidence has shown that the Leadership
Corps in effect embraced staff officers attached to the
subordinate Hoheitstraeger and inclusion of such staff
officers in the estimation of the size of the Leadership
Corps would have very considerably enlarged the final figure
estimated to a total of 2,000,000. The Prosecution however,
proposes to exclude such subordinate staff officers for the
reason that their participation in and responsibility for
the Conspiracy were measurably less extensive than those of
the staff officers and office holders on the higher levels
of the leadership Corps. The subordinate staff officers thus
excluded were responsible functionally to the higher staff
officers with respect to their particular specialty, such as
propaganda, Party organization, and so on, and to their
respective Hoheitstraeger with respect to discipline and
policy control. Likewise, such higher staff officers
participated in planning and policy discussions, and also
issued orders through technical channels to lower staff
officers.

B. Participation of the Leadership Corps in the Conspiracy.

The Program of the Nazi Party, proclaimed by Hitler, the
Fuehrer of the Leadership Corps, on 24 February 1920 (1708-
PS), contained the chief elements of the Nazi plan for
domination and conquest. The first point required the
incorporation of all Germans into a Greater German Reich.
Point 2 demanded unilateral abolition of the Peace Treaties
of Versailles and St. Germain. Point 3 stated the demand for
"land and soil" (colonies). Point 4 proclaimed the Nazi
doctrines of racial discrimination and anti-Semitism. Point
6 proclaimed the fight against the democratic parliamentary
system, as follows:

     "*** We demand that every public office, of any sort,
     whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or
     municipality, be filled only by citizens. We combat the
     corrupting parliamentary economy, office-holding only
     according to Party inclinations without consideration
     of character or abilities." (1708-PS)

Point 22 expressed the Nazi plans and policies for
rearmament as follows:

     "We demand the abolition of the mercenary troops and
     formation of a National Army." (1708-PS)

The official Party Program declares on its face that:

     "The program is the political foundation of the NSDAP
     and accordingly the primary political law of the State
     ***

                                                   [Page 42]
                                                            
     "All legal precepts are to be applied in the spirit of
     the Party Program.
     
     "Since the taking over of control, the Fuehrer has
     succeeded in the realization of the essential portions
     of the Party Program from the fundamentals to the
     details.
     
     "The Party Program of the NSDAP was proclaimed on 24
     February 1920 by Adolf Hitler at the first large Party
     gathering in Munich and since that day has remained
     unaltered *** The National Socialist philosophy is
     summarized in 25 points." (1708-PS)

As previously stated, the Party Program was binding upon the
Political Leaders of the Leadership Corps, and they were
under a duty to support and carry out that Program. As the
Party Manual puts it:

     "The Commandments of the National Socialists:
     "The Fuehrer is always right ***.
     "The Program be your dogma.
     "It demands your utter devotion to the Movement ***.
     "Right is what serves the Movement and thus Germany.
                           *******
     "*** Leader Corps is responsible for the complete
     penetration of the German Nation with the National
     Socialist spirit ***." (1893-PS).

The oath of the Political Leader to Hitler has been
previously referred to. In connection therewith, the Party
Manual provides:

     "The Political Leader is inseparably tied to the
     ideology and the organization of the NSDAP. His oath
     only ends with his death or with his expulsion from the
     National Socialist community." (1893-PS)

While the leadership principle assured the binding nature of
Hitler's statements, program, and policies upon the entire
Party and the Leadership Corps, the leadership principle
also established the full responsibility of the individual
Political Leader within the province and jurisdiction of his
office or position.

The leadership principle applied not only to Hitler as the
supreme leader, but also to the Political Leaders under him,
and thus permeated the entire Leadership Corps:

     "The basis of the Party Organization is the Fuehrer
     thought *** All Political Leaders stand as appointed by
     the Fuehrer and are responsible to him. They possess
     full authority toward the lower echelons ***." (1893-
     PS)

The various Hoheitstraeger of the Leadership Corps were, in
their respective areas of responsibility, themselves
Fuehrer:

                                                   [Page 43]
                                                            
     "Within their sector of sovereignty, the Hoheitstraeger
     (Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter,
     Zellenleiter, Blockleiter) have sovereign political
     rights *** They are responsible for the entire
     political situation within their sector ***" (1893-PS)

A stated in the Organization Book of the NSDAP:

     "The Party is an order of 'Fuehrer'." (1814-PS)

The subjection of the entire membership of the Leadership
Corps to the fiat of the Fuehrer Principle is clearly shown
in the following passage from the Party Manual:

     "*** a solid anchorage for all the organizations within
     the party structure is provided and a firm connection
     with the sovereign leaders of the NSDAP is created in
     accordance with the Fuehrer Principle." (1814-PS)

(1) Domination and Control of the German State and
Government by the Nazi Party, directed by the Leadership
Corps. On 23 March 1933 the Reichstag enacted a law
conferring power on the Reich Cabinet to legislate on its
own authority (2001-PS) Prominent members of the Leadership
Corps of the Nazi Party were members of the Reich Cabinet.
The presence of Reichsleiter and other prominent members of
the Leadership Corps in the Cabinet facilitated the
domination of the Cabinet by the Nazi Party and the
Leadership Corps. For example, a decree of 13 March 1933 -
established the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda. The head of this ministry was Goebbels, who
simultaneously was Reichsleiter for Propaganda of the NSDAP
(2029-PS). Examples of personal union between high officials
in the Leadership and Cabinet membership existed in the case
of the Food -Minister, the Chief of the German Police, the
Reich Labor Leader, the Chief of the Party Organization in
Foreign Countries, and the Reich Youth Fuehrer (2473-PS).
Moreover, the majority of the Reich Ministries were occupied
by leading old Party Members. 11 Reich Ministers were
accepted by the Party on 30 January 1937 and were decorated
with the Golden Party Insignia. (1774-PS)

A law of 14 July 1933 outlawed and forbade the formation of
any political parties other than the Nazi Party and made
violation of this decree a punishable crime. Thereby the one
party state was established and the Leadership Corps was
rendered immune from the opposition of organized political
groups. This Against the Formation of New Political Parties
reads as follows:

                                                   [Page 44]

     "The National Socialist German Workers' Party
     constitutes the only political party in Germany.
     Whoever undertakes to maintain the organizational
     structure of another political party or to form a new
     political party will be punished with penal servitude
     up to three years or with imprisonment of from six
     months to three years, if the deed is not subject to a
     greater penalty according to other regulations." (1388-
     PS)

A law was enacted on 20 July 1933 providing for the
dismissal of officials who belonged to the Communist Party
or who were otherwise active in furthering the aims of
Communism. The law also provided for the dismissal of those
who were in the future active for Marxism, Communism, or
Social Democracy (Law to Supplement the Law for the
Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, 20 July 1933,
(1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 518). (198-PS)

On 13 October 1933 a "law to guarantee public peace" was
enacted which provided, inter alia, that the death penalty
or other severe punishment should be imposed upon any person
who-

     "*** undertakes to kill a member of the SA or the SS, a
     trustee or agent of the NSDAP *** out of political
     motives or on account of their official activity."
     (1394-PS)

On 1 December 1933 a law was enacted "to secure the unity of
Party and State." This law provided that the Nazi Party was
the pillar of the German State, and was linked to it
indissolubly; it also made the Deputy of the Fuehrer (then
Hess) and the Chief of Staff of the SA (then Roehm) members
of the Reich Cabinet (1395-PS). The pertinent provisions of
this law read as follows:

     "After the victory of the National Socialist
     Revolution, the National Socialistic German Labor Party
     is the bearer of the concept of the German State and is
     inseparably the State. It will be a part of the public
     law. Its organization will be determined by the Fuehrer
     ***.
     
     "The Deputy of the Fuehrer and the Chief of Staff of
     the SA will become members of the Reich Government in
     order to insure close cooperation of the offices of the
     Party and SA with the public authorities ***." (1395-
     PS)

This law was a basic measure in enthroning the Leadership
Corps in a position of supreme political power in Germany.
For it laid it down that the Party, directed by the
Leadership Corps, was the embodiment of the State and, in
fact, was the State. Moreover, this law made both the
Fuehrer's Deputy and the Chief of Staff of the SA, which was
a Party Formation subject to the call of the Hoheitstraeger,
Cabinet Members. Thus, the Leadership

                                                   [Page 45]
                                                            
control of the Cabinet was further solidified. The dominant
position of the Leadership Corps is further revealed by the
provision that the Reichs-Chancellor would issue the
regulations carrying out this law in his capacity as Fuehrer
of the Nazi Party. The fact that Hitler, as Fuehrer of the
Leadership Corps, could promulgate rules which would have
statutory force and be published in the Reichsgesetzblatt,
the proper compilation for State enactments, is but a
further reflection of the reality of the Party's domination
of the German State.


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