Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
H. Conclusion.
The evidence shows that the GESTAPO was created by Goering
in Prussia in April 1933 for the specific purpose of serving
as a police agency to strike down the actual and ideological
enemies of the Nazi regime, and that henceforward the
GESTAPO in Prussia and in the other States of the Reich
carried out a program of terror against all who were thought
to be dangerous to the domination of the conspirators over
the people of Germany. Its methods were utterly ruthless. It
operated outside the law and sent its victims to the
concentration camps. The term "GESTAPO" became the symbol of
the Nazi regime of force and terror.
Behind the scenes, operating secretly, the SD, through its
vast network of informants, spied upon the German people in
their daily lives, on the streets, in the shops, and even
within the sanctity of the churches.
The most casual remark of a German citizen might bring him
before the GESTAPO, where his fate and freedom were decided
without recourse to law. In this government, in which the
rule of law was replaced by a tyrannical rule of men, the
GESTAPO was the primary instrumentality of oppression.
The GESTAPO and the SD played an important part in almost
every criminal act of the conspiracy. The categories of
these crimes, apart from the thousands of specific instances
of torture and cruelty in policing Germany for the benefit
of the conspirators, indicate the extent of GESTAPO and SD
complicity.
The GESTAPO and SD fabricated the border incidents which
Hitler used as an excuse for attacking Poland.
Through the Einsatz Groups they murdered approximately
2,000,000 defenseless men, women, and children.
They removed Jews, political leaders, and scientists from
prisoner of war camps and murdered them.
[Page 301]
They took recaptured prisoners of war to concentration camps
and murdered some of them.
The GESTAPO established and classified concentration camps
and sent millions of people into them for extermination and
slave labor.
The GESTAPO cleared Europe of the Jews and was responsible
for sending 4,000,000 Jews to their deaths in annihilation
camps.
The GESTAPO and SD rounded up hundreds of thousands of
citizens of occupied countries and shipped them to Germany
for forced labor, and sent slave laborers to labor
reformatory camps and concentration camps for disciplining.
They executed captured commandos and paratroopers and
protected civilians who lynched Allied flyers.
They took civilians of occupied countries to Germany for
secret trial and punishment.
They arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied
territories under special criminal procedures which did not
accord them fair trials, and by summary methods.
They murdered or sent to concentration camps the relatives
of persons who had allegedly committed crimes.
They ordered the murder of prisoners in SIPO and SD prisons
to prevent their release by the Allied armies.
They participated in the seizure and spoliation of public
and private property.
They were primary agencies for the persecution of the Jews
and of the churches.
In carrying out these crimes the GESTAPO operated as an
organization, closely centralized and controlled from Berlin
headquarters. Reports were submitted to Berlin, and all
important decisions emanated from Berlin. The regional
offices had only limited power to commit persons to
concentration camps. All cases, other than those of short
duration, had to be submitted to Berlin for approval. From
1943 to the end of the war the defendant Kaltenbrunner was
the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Berlin. The
GESTAPO was organized on a functional basis. Its principal
divisions dealt with the groups and institutions against
which it committed the worst crimes -- Jews, churches,
communists, and political liberals. Thus, in perpetrating
these crimes, the GESTAPO acted as an entity, each section
performing its part in the general criminal enterprises
ordered by Berlin. It must be held responsible as an entity.
The SD was at all times a department of the SS. Its
criminality directly concerns and contributes to the
criminality of the SS.
As to the GESTAPO, it is submitted that:
1. The GESTAPO is an organization, in the sense in which
that term is used in Article 9 of the Charter.
[Page 302]
2. The defendants Goering and Kaltenbrunner committed the
crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter in their capacity
as members and leaders of the GESTAPO.
3. The GESTAPO, as an organization, participated in and
aided the conspiracy which contemplated and involved the
commission of the crimes defined in Article 6 of the
Charter.
In 1941, on German Police Day, Heydrich, the former Chief of
the Security Police and the SD, said:
The evidence as it is submitted, shows that brutality,
inhumanity, sadism, and ruthlessness were characteristic of
the GESTAPO and that it was and should be declared, a
criminal organization, in accordance with article 9 of the
Charter.
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Volume II
Criminality of Groups and Organizations
The Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) & Sicherheitsdienst
(Part 8 of 9)
"Secret State Police, Criminal Police, and SD are still
adorned with the furtive and whispered secrecy of a
political detective story. In a mixture of fear and
shuddering -- and yet at home with a certain feeling of
security because of their presence -- brutality,
inhumanity bordering on the sadistic, and ruthlessness
are attributed abroad to the men of this profession."
(Extract from a brochure on Reinhard Heydrich,
published in December 1943.)