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E. PARTICIPATION IN THE CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT WAR CRIMES AND CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.

Hess, as Deputy Leader of the Nazi Party, had the task of realizing its "ideological" program (3200-PS).

One of the demands of this conspiratorial program was the destruction of so-called inferior racial stock. Persons who suffered -from hereditary insanity or other hereditary diseases were considered useless to the Nazi community. They were therefore to be killed or at least to be prevented from procreating their kind.

In order to carry out this plan Hess established a special Racial -Policy Division on his Staff under Dr. alter Gross, by his order of 17 November 1933. This Division was to "participate with the competent government agencies in all race and population measures" (3322-PS; 3163-PS). In addition, other agencies of the Nazi Party, under Hess, actively cooperated in the administration of this criminal program (D-181; 842-PS; 1969-PS).

In 1937 Hess publicly claimed credit for having used his Party organization in order to gain the nation's approval for compulsory sterilization (3124-PS; 3067-PS).

More important still in the Nazi program were the persecution and extermination of religious and racial minorities. Hess vigorously propagated the doctrine of the superiority of the German race with which the conspirators sought to justify these persecutions

The Nurnberg Laws, which constituted the legal basis of this campaign, were the work of the Party. This was solemnly announced by Hitler in the peroration of the address in which he announced these laws to the Reichstag in Nurnberg 15 September 1935:

"I now propose to the Reichstag the acceptance of those laws which Party member Goering will read to you.

"The first and second laws fulfill the program of the National Socialist Party in one important respect, and thereby pay a

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debt of gratitude to the Movement under whose symbol Germany has regained her freedom.

"The second law constitutes an attempt to solve by legislation a problem, the final solution of which, if it should again fail, will then have to be referred by law to the National Socialist Party. All three laws are backed by the National Socialist Party and with it and behind it by the German Nation.

"I ask you to accept these laws." (3419-PS).

Hess, along with Frick, was placed in charge of the administration of the Nurnberg Laws and of the issuance of ordnances and regulations thereunder (1416-PS; 3179-PS; 1417- PS; 2124-PS) .

With the launching of their aggressive wars, the Nazi conspirators embarked on the execution of their plan to exterminate the non-German populations which fell into their hands. This plan, especially insofar as it concerned the Jews, had been bluntly revealed by Hitler well in advance in his address to the Reichstag on 30 January 1939:

"If inter-national finance-Jewry inside and outside Europe should succeed in throwing the nations into another World War, the result will not be the Bolshevization of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the destruction of the Jewish race n Europe!" (3418-PS).

In support of this campaign, which was continued by his coconspirators after his flight to Scotland, Hess issued an order through his Party Chancery on behalf of the SS, which had been put in charge of the extermination program. In this order, Hess demanded the support of all Party members for the recruiting drive of the SS Army Corps (Waffen SS). Hess added that these SS formations were scheduled for service in the Eastern occupied areas, where their "special training in race matters" could be used to best advantage (3245-PS).

By a series of further legislative and administrative measures, Hess participated in the establishment of a special regime in Poland which deprived the inhabitants of that country of their legal protection, and thus initiated their wholesale extermination (R-139; R-96; R-141).

In pursuance of the same policy Hess signed the decree which forced certain groups of Polish citizens to surrender their original national allegiance and to accept German citizenship (Decree of 24 October 1939, RGBl 1939, Part I, p. 2077).

Hess also signed the decree establishing the German Racial Register, under which Allied nationals of German stock were

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registered and then compelled to accept German nationality and to remove to German territory (2917-PS).

Hess also used Party channels in order to incite the German people to violations of the rules of war. Thus, he ordered that the population be instructed to seize Allied parachutists or to "liquidate them"

Hess also issued instructions to enforce Hitler's orders prohibiting the reconstruction of the city of Warsaw or of any of Poland's destroyed industries (EC-411).

On 10 May 1941, Hess flew to Scotland for the purpose of seeking an end to the war with England, and support for Germany's demands against Russia. Upon his arrival, he was incarcerated and thus forcibly eliminated from further participation in the crimes of the conspiracy (D-614).

F. CONCLUSION.

Of all the members of the Nazi conspiracy, Hess was closest to Hitler from the first. As Hitler's secretary and A. d. C., as his Deputy, and finally as his Second Successor Designate, Hess as at all times his direct representative in all Party matters. Thus, the conspiracy's most powerful instrument of political action rested in his hands.

Hess used this power to penetrate and dominate the German government administration with National Socialist functionaries; to control legislation and education; and to persecute all independent groups, especially the churches and the Jews.

Being responsible for the political direction and control of the German people, through the Party, Hess played a decisive role in preparing the nation for war. He furthered the secret rearmament of the Party's military formations; he signed the Conscription Law of 1935; he sat on the Reichs Defense Council, the inner Cabinet in which the heads of the conspiracy blue-printed the administrative, economic, and political preparation of their aggressive wars.

Hess, above all, was responsible for the creation and direction of the Nazi fifth-column, in which foreign citizens of German extraction joined under the Nazi banner to weaken and undermine those countries which the Nazi conspirators had determined to subjugate.

All through the years from 1920 to 1941 Hess remained the most faithful and relentless executor of Hitler's aims and designs. This complete devotion to the success of the conspiracy was climaxed by his flight to Scotland in an attempt to end the war with

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England and to receive English support for Germany's demands against Russia, which he had helped to prepare.

The share of Hess' participation in the Nazi conspiracy is as great as that of the Party which he directed. The Party's crimes are his.

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