Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
[Page 22]
F. Conclusion.
This is not the time to review the evidence against
particular organizations which, we take it, should be
reserved for summation after all the evidence is presented.
But it is timely to say that the selection of the six
organizations named in the Indictment was not a matter of
chance. The chief reasons they were chosen are these:
collectively they were the ultimate repositories of all
power in the Nazi regime; they were not only the most
powerful, but the most vicious organizations in the regime;
and they were organizations in which membership was
generally voluntary.
The Nazi Leadership Corps consisted of the directors and
principal executors of the Nazi Party, which was the force
lying behind and dominating the whole German state. The
Reichs Cabinet was the facade through which the Nazi Party
translated its will into legislative, administrative, and
executive acts. The two pillars on which the security of the
regime rested were the armed forces, directed and controlled
by the General Staff and High Command, and the police forces
-- the Gestapo, the SA, the SD, and the SS. These
organizations exemplify all the evil forces of the Nazi
regime.
These organizations were also selected because, while
representative, they were not so large or extensive as to
make it probable that innocent, passive, or indifferent
Germans might be caught up in the same net with the guilty.
State officialdom is represented, but not all administrative
officials or department heads or civil servants; only the
Reichsregierung, the very heart of Nazidom within the
Government, is named. The armed forces are accused, but not
the average soldier or officer, no matter how high ranking.
Only the top policy-makers -- the General Staff and High
Command -- are named. The police forces are accused, but not
every policeman: not the ordinary police, which performed
only normal police functions. Only the most terroristic and
repressive police elements -- the Gestapo and SD -- are
named. The Nazi Party is accused, but not every Nazi voter,
not even every member; only the leaders, the Politische
Leiter. (See Chart No. 14.) And not even every Party
official or worker is included; only "the bearers of
sovereignty," in the metaphysical jargon of the Party, who
were the actual commanding officers and their staff officers
on the highest levels, are accused. The formations or strong
arms of the Party are accused, but not every one of the
seven formations, nor any of the twenty or more supervised
or affiliated groups. Nazi organizations in which membership
[Page 23]
was compulsory either legally or in practice (like the
Hitler Youth and the Deutsche Studentschaft); Nazi
professional organizations (like the Civil Servants
Organization, the National Socialist Teachers Organization,
and the National Socialist Lawyers Organization); Nazi
organizations having some legitimate purpose -(like the
welfare organizations), have not been indicted. Only two
formations are named, the SA and the SS, the oldest of the
Nazi organization, groups which had no purpose other than
carrying out the Nazi schemes and which actively
participated in every crime denounced in the Charter.
In administering preventive justice with a view to
forestalling repetition of these crimes against peace,
crimes against humanity, and war crimes, it would be a
greater catastrophe to acquit these organizations than it
would be to acquit the entire 22 individual defendants in
the box. These defendants' power for harm is spent That of
these organizations goes on. If they are exonerated here,
the German people will infer that they did no wrong and will
easily be regimented in reconstituted organizations under
new name behind the same program.
In administering retributive justice it would be possible to
exonerate these organizations only by concluding that no
crimes have been committed by the Nazi regime. Their
sponsorship of every Nazi purpose and their confederation to
execute every measure to attain those ends is beyond denial.
A failure to condemn these organizations under the terms of
the Charter can only mean that such Nazi ends and means
cannot be considered criminal and that the Charter of the
Tribunal is considered a nullity.
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Volume
II Chapter XV
Criminality of Groups and Organizations
The Law
Under Which the Nazi Organizations
Are Accused of Being Criminal
(Part 7 of 7)