Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression
Volume 1
United States Government Printing Office
[Page iii]
A Collection of Documentary Evidence and Guide Materials
Prepared by the American and British Prosecuting Staffs for
Presentation before the International Military Tribunal at
Nurnberg, Germany, in the case of
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE FRENCH REPUBLIC, THE
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, and THE UNION OF
SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING, RUDOLF HESS, JOACHIM von RIBBENTROP, ROBERT
LEY, WILHELM KEITEL, ERNST KALTENBRUNNER, ALFRED ROSENBERG,
HANS FRANK, WILHELM FRICK, JULIUS STREICHER, WALTER FUNK, HJALMAR
SCHACHT, GUSTAV KRUPP von BOHLEN und HALBACH, KARL DOENITZ, ERICH RAEDER,
BALDUR von SCHIRACH, FRITZ SAUCKEL, ALFRED JODL, MARTIN BORMANN, FRANZ
von PAPEN, ARTUR SEYSS-INQUART, ALBERT SPEER, CONSTANTIN von NEURATH,
and HANS FRITZSCHE, Individually and as Members of Any of the Following Groups
or Organizations to which They Respectively Belonged, Namely: DIE
REICHSREGIERUNG (REICH CABINET); DAS KORPS DER POLITISCHEN LEITER DER
NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHEN DEUTSCHEN ARBEITERPARTEI (LEADERSHIP CORPS OF
THE NAZI PARTY); DIE SCHUTZSTAFFELN DER NATIONALSOZIALISTISCHEN
DEUTSCHEN ARBEITERPARTEI (commonly known as the "SS") and including DIE
SICHERHEITSDIENST (commonly known a the "SD"); DIE GEHEIME STAATSPOLIZEI
(SECRET STATE POLICE, commonly known as the "GESTAPO"); DIE
STURMABTEILUNGEN DER N.S.D.A.P. (commonly known as the "SA") and
the GENERAL STAFF and HIGH COMMAND of the GERMAN ARMED
FORCES all as defined in Appendix B of the Indictment,
Defendants
[Page v]
Preface
On the 2d day of May 1945, President Truman signed Executive
Order 9547 appointing Justice Robert H. Jackson as
Representative of the United States and as its Chief of
Counsel in the Preparation and prosecution of the case
against the major Axis war criminals. Since that date and up
to the present the staff of the Office of the Chief of
Counsel, or OCC, has been engaged continuously in the
discovery, collection, examination, translation, and
marshalling of documentary evidence demonstrating the
criminality of the former leaders of the German Reich.
Since the 20th day of November 1945, a considerable part of
the documentary arsenal has been directed against the 22
major Nazi war criminals who are on trial before the
International Military Tribunal in Nurnberg. As of this
writing the American and British cases-in-chief, on Counts
I and II of the Indictment charging, respectively, conspiracy
and the waging of wars of aggression, have been completed.
There is perhaps no need to recall in these pages that the
Nurnberg trial represents the first time in history that
legal proceedings have been instituted against leaders of an
enemy nation. It is perhaps equal supererogation to state
here that there are no exact precedents for the
charges made by the American, British, French, and Russian
prosecutors that to plot or wage a war of aggression is a
crime for which individuals may be punished. Yet it was
because of these very facts that in its indictment the
prosecution presented a challenge to itself quite as great
as to the defense. A heavy burden was laid on the accusing
nations to make sure that their proof measured up to the
magnitude of their accusations, and that the daring of their
grand conception was matched by the industry of their
research, lest the hard-bought opportunity to make
International Law a guardian of peace should fail by
default.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the American
collections and processing of documentary evidence, under
the general direction of Col. Robert G. Storey, Gradually
developed into an operation of formidable scope. Although
some pieces of evidence were secured in Washington and
London, by far the greater part was obtained in the land of
the enemy. As the American Armies had swept into Germany,
military investigating teams had filled document centers
with an increasing wealth of materials which were freely
[Page vi]
made available by the Army to OCC field investigators.
Special assistance was given by the Document Section, 2
Division, SHAEF, and by the Document Sections of the Army
Groups and Armies operating in the European Theater. OCC
investigators also made valuable discoveries while
prospecting on their own. They soon found themselves
embarrassed with riches. Perhaps foremost among the prize
acquisitions was the neatly crated collection of all the
personal and official correspondence of Alfred Rosenberg,
together with a great quantity of Nazi Party correspondence.
This cache was discovered behind a false wall in an old
castle in Eastern Bavaria, where it had been sent for
safekeeping. Another outstanding collection consisted of
thirty-nine leather-bound volumes containing detailed
inventories of the art treasures of Europe which had been
looted by the Ensatzstab Rosenberg. These catalogues,
together with much of the priceless plunder itself, were
found hidden deep in an Austrian salt mine. An innocent-
appearing castle near Marburg was found to contain some 485
tons of crated papers, which inspection revealed to be the
records of the' German Foreign Office from 1837 to 1944.
Among other outstanding bulk acquisitions were more than 300
crates of German High Command files, 85 notebooks containing
minutes of Hitler's conferences, and the complete files of
the German Navy.
The task was to screen thoroughly this abundance of material
so as to overlook no relevant item, and yet at the same time
to obtain the proof and to translate it in season, so as not
to delay preparation of the Indictment or commencement of
the trial. The procedures followed in this process are
described in the affidavit of Maj. William H. Coogan
(001-A-PS), which is listed numerically among the documents. As a
result of those procedures, more than 100000 documents were
individually examined in order to segregate those of
importance. Of these 100,000 documents, approximately 4,000 were found to
be of clear or potential value. This group of 4,000 was
further reduced through exacting standards of elimination to
a total of some 2,000 documents which it was proposed to
offer in evidence, and which make up the bulk of this
publication. Thus, the documents presented in these volumes
are the fittest survivors of a rigorous sifting. Each of
them has met requirements designed to ensure the selection
of only the most significant in bearing on the American
case. Documents primarily concerned with the report of
individual barbarities or perversions were excluded, in
conformity with the emphasis placed upon those tending to
prove elements in the Nazi Master Plan.
These documents consist, in the main, of official papers
found in archives of the German
[Page vii]
Government and Nazi Party, diaries and letters of prominent
Germans, and captured reports and orders. There are
included, in addition, excerpts from governmental and Party
decrees, from official newspapers and from authoritative German
publications. The authenticity of all these materials is
established by Maj. Coogan's affidavit (OOl-A-PS).
Considered together, they reveal a fairly comprehensive view
of the inner workings and outward deeds of the German
government and of the Nazi Party, which were always
concealed from the world, and for which the world will
always hold the Hitler regime in horror and contempt.
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
ftp.
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Volume
I Preface
(Part 1 of 4)
Office of United States
Chief of Counsel For Prosecution
of Axis Criminality
Washington * 1946