[Page 674]

H. CONCLUSION.

Frick, who joined the Nazi conspiracy at its early beginning, played within the conspiracy the role of expert administrator and coordinator of State and Party affairs. Misusing his governmental positions in the pre-Hitler era, he gave aid and protection to the conspirators when they were still weak. He supported them in their first attempt to come into power by force, expecting to gain high office from their success. He was the first to carry their revolutionary program from the-Beer Hall to the Reichstag Rostrum. As their earliest important office-holder (in Thuringia), he developed for the first time their totalitarian and terroristic methods of political and intellectual control.

[Page 675]

Upon the accession to power of the Nazi conspirators on 30 January 1933, Frick took over the vital Ministry of Interior. From this position he directed the realization of the entire domestic program of the conspiracy. He took complete charge of the successive destruction of the parliamentary system, of autonomous State and local government, and of the career civil service. He planned and executed the measures which subjected the government itself to the domination of the Nazi Party. He then proceeded to establish a huge Reich Police Force under Himmler, which became the instrument with which the Nazi conspirators terrorized and ultimately "liquidated" all opposition inside and outside Germany in concentration and extermination camps.

In order to give the semblance of law to the criminal acts of the conspirators, Frick drafted legislation to withdraw constitutional protection from the rights and liberties which they had determined to wipe out. He participated in the relentless and violent persecution of all persons and groups who were considered as actual or potential opponents of the conspirators' plans. Among these were the churches, the free trade unions, and especially the Jews.

Having secured absolute control over Germany for the conspirators, Frick proceeded to bring the German people and State to readiness for the wars of aggression planned by the conspirators. He established the system of military and labor service on which the Wehrmacht was to rest. He took over the planning of Germany's civilian wartime administration, which was to back it up. In this capacity he organized and supervised the killing of the useless eaters, the insane, crippled, aged, and such foreign forced laborers who were no longer able to work.

As the Nazi conspirators began to achieve their predatory aims, Frick was active in the coordination of the administration of the territories and peoples which fell into Nazi hands. He presided over the annexation of territories and the denationalization of their inhabitants in violation of the Hague Conventions. Wen the conspirators were ready to proceed to the realization of their ultimate goals, especially the complete enslavement and annihilation of conquered populations, Frick devised the basic legislation for their disfranchisement and finally took personal charge of one of the oppressed nations,

Thus, Frick was one of the principal artisans of the conspiracy throughout its course. His contribution to its progress as essential in all its phases, and decisive in many. He nurtured the conspiracy, directed its followers, terrorized its opponents, and destroyed its victims.

[Page 676]

I. POSITIONS HELD BY FRICK.

(1) Between 1932 and 1945 Frick held the following positions:

(a) Member of the Nazi Party, 1925-1945 (3127-PS).

(b) Reichsleiter (Member of the Party Directorate) in his capacity as Fraktionsfuehrer (Floorleader) of NSDAP in the Reichstag.

(c) Member of the Reichstag, 7 December 1924-1945.

(d) Reich Minister of the Interior, 30 January 1933-20 August 1943 (2381-PS; 3086-PS).

(e) Prussian Minister of the Interior, 1 May 1934-20 August 1943 (3132-PS; 3086-PS).

(f) Reich Director of Elections, 30 January 1933-20 August 1943 (3223-PS; 3086-PS)

(g) General Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich, 21 May 1935-20 August 1943 (2978-PS; 3086-PS).

(h) Head of the Central Office for the Reunification of Austria and the German Reich (2307-PS; 1060-PS; 3123-PS).

(i) Director of the Central Office for the Incorporation of Sudetenland, Memel, Danzig, the Eastern Incorporated Territories, Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnot (3076-PS; 3077- PS).

(j) Director of the Central Office for the Protectorate of Bohemia, Moravia, the Government General, Lower Styria, Upper Carinthia, Norway, Alsace, Lorraine, and all other occupied territories (2119-PS; 3123-PS)

(k) Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia, 20 August 1943- 1945 (3086-PS).

(2) Between 1917 and 1945, Wilhelm Frick held the additional following positions:

(a) Chief of the Criminal (later the Political) Division of the Munich Police Department, 1917-1923 (2381-PS).

(b) Fraktionsfuehrer (Floorleader) of the NSDAP in the Reichstag, 1927-1945 (2381-PS).

(c) Minister of the Interior and of Education of the Free State of Thuringia, 23 January 1930-1 April 1931 (2381-PS).

(d) Member of the Reich Defense Council, 21 May 193-20 August 1943 (2978-PS).

(e) Member of the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich, 30 August 1939-20 August 1943 (2018-PS).

(f) Reich Minister without Portfolio, 20 August 1943-1945 (3086-PS).

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