Seventeenth Day:
Tuesday, 11th December, 1945
[Page 286]
COMMANDER DONOVAN: May it please the Tribunal, the United
States now offers in evidence Document 3054-PS, Exhibit USA
167, the motion picture entitled "The Nazi Plan". This
document contains several affidavits with exhibits, copies
of which have been furnished to defence counsel. I ask the
Tribunal whether it believes it to be necessary for us
formally to read the affidavits at this time. Since the
motion pictures themselves will be presented to the
Tribunal, and, therefore, will be a permanent record, I
respectfully submit that the reading be waived.
In the past three weeks the prosecution has presented to
this Tribunal a vast amount of evidence concerning the
nature of the Nazi conspiracy and what we contend to be its
deliberate planning, launching, and waging of wars of
aggression. That evidence has consisted of documentary and
some oral proof, but the Nazi conspirators did more than
leave behind such normal kinds of evidence. German
proficiency in photography has been traditional. Its use as
a propaganda instrument was especially well known to these
defendants, and as a result the United States in 1945
captured an almost complete chronicle of the rise and fall
of National Socialism as documented in films made by the
Nazis themselves. It is from excerpts of this chronicle that
we have compiled the motion picture now to be presented,
entitled "The Nazi Plan", which, in broad outline, sums up
the case thus far presented under Counts i1 and 2 of the
Indictment.
The motion picture has been divided into four parts. This
morning we first offer to the Tribunal Parts 1 and 2, which
are especially entitled "Rise of the N.S.D.A.P., 1921 to
1933", and "Acquiring Totalitarian Control of Germany, 1933
to 1935". This will be concluded by 11.20, at which time we
assume the Tribunal will order its customary morning
adjournment. At 11.30 we shall present Part 3, entitled
"Preparation for Wars of Aggression, 1935 to 1939". This
will be concluded shortly before 1 o'clock. At 2 o'clock we
will offer Part 4, entitled "Wars of Aggression, 1939 to
1944", and this will be concluded by 3 o'clock.
Parts 1 and 2, now to be presented, enable us to re-live
those years in which the Nazis fought for and obtained the
power to rule all life in Germany. We see the early days of
terrorism and propaganda, bearing final fruit in Hitler's
accession to the Chancellery in 1933; then the consolidation
of power within Germany, climaxed by the Parteitag in 1934,
in which the Nazis proclaimed to the nation their plans for
totalitarian control. It is in simple and dramatic form the
story of how a nation forsook its liberty.
[Page 287]
THE PRESIDENT: It may be convenient for the United States
Prosecutor to know that the Tribunal proposes to rise this
afternoon at 4 o'clock instead of 5 o'clock.
(The film "The Nazi Plan" was thus shown in the Court Room
until 1125 hours, when a recess was taken.)
COMMANDER DONOVAN: May it please the Tribunal, in the films
which have just been shown to the Tribunal, we have watched
the Nazi rise to power. In Part 3 of our documentary motion
picture now to be presented, we see the use they made of
that power, and how the German Nation was led by
militaristic regimentation to preparation for aggressive war
as an instrument of national policy.
(The showing of the film then continued; at the end a recess
was taken until 1400 hours.)
COMMANDER DONOVAN: This morning we presented photographic
evidence of the history of National Socialism from 1921 to
September, 1939. We saw the dignity of the individual in
Germany destroyed by men dedicated to perverted nationalism,
men who set forth certain objectives and then preached to a
regimented people the accomplishment of those objectives by
any means, including aggressive war.
In September, 1939, the Nazis launched the first of a series
of catastrophic wars, terminated only by the military
collapse of Germany. It is the final chapter in the history
of National Socialism that the prosecution now presents.
May I again remind the Tribunal that all film presented and
all German narration heard is in the original form as filmed
by the Nazis.
(The showing of the film then continued.)
COMMANDER DONOVAN: The prosecution has concluded its
presentation of the photographic summation entitled "The
Nazi Plan". We shall deliver for the permanent records of
the Tribunal, as soon as possible, the original films
projected today.
COLONEL STOREY: If the Tribunal please, just a brief
announcement about the presentation that will follow. The
rest of the week will be consumed in the presentation of War
Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, starting with
exploitation of forced labour, concentration camps,
persecution of the Jews, and Germanisation and spoliation in
occupied countries. We should like to call the Tribunal's
attention to the fact that many of these crimes will be
crimes attributed to the criminal organisations. The
programme following will be the criminal organisations,
beginning with the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, the
Reich Cabinet, the S.A., the S.S., and, finally, the S.D.
and Gestapo.
Mr. Dodd will now present "Exploitation of Forced Labour".
MR. DODD: We propose to submit during the next several days
evidence, as Colonel Storey has said a moment ago,
concerning the conspirators' criminal deportation and
enslavement of foreign labour, their illegal use of
prisoners of war, their infamous concentration camps and
their relentless persecution of the Jews. We will present
evidence regarding the general
[Page 288]
aspects of these programmes, and our French and Soviet
colleagues will present evidence of the specific application
of these programmes in the West and the East, respectively.
These crimes were committed both before and after Nazi
Germany had launched its series of aggressions. They were
committed within Germany and in foreign countries as well.
Although separated in time and space, these crimes had, of
course, an inter-relationship which resulted from their
having a common source in Nazi ideology; for within Germany
the conspirators had made hatred and destruction of the Jew
an official philosophy and a public duty; they had preached
the concept of the master race with its corollary of slavery
for others, they had denied and destroyed the dignity and
the rights of the individual human being. They had organised
force, brutality and terror into instruments of political
power and had made them commonplaces of daily existence. We
propose to prove that they had placed the concentration camp
and a vast apparatus of force behind their racial and
political myths, their laws and their policies. As every
German Cabinet Minister or high official knew, behind the
laws and decrees in the Reichsgesetzblatt was not the
agreement of the people or their representatives, but the
terror of the concentration camps and the Police State. The
conspirators had preached that war was a noble activity and
that force was the appropriate means of resolving
international differences and, having mobilised all aspects
of German life for war, they plunged Germany and the world
into war.
We say that this system of hatred, savagery, and denial of
individual rights, which the conspirators erected into a
philosophy of government within Germany, into what we may
call the Nazi Constitution, followed the Nazi armies as they
swept over Europe. For the Jews of the occupied countries
suffered the same fate as the Jews of Germany, and foreign
labourers became the serfs of the master race - they were
deported and enslaved by the millions. Many deported and
enslaved labourers joined the victims of the concentration
camps where they were literally worked to death in the
course of the Nazi programme of extermination through work.
We propose to show that this Nazi combination of the
assembly line, the torture chamber and the executioner's
rack in a single institution has a horrible repugnance to
the twentieth century mind.
We say that it is plain that the programme of the
concentration camp, the anti-Jewish programme, the forced
labour programme, are all parts of a larger pattern, and
this will become even more plain as we examine the evidence
regarding these programmes and then test their legality by
applying the relevant principles of International Law.
The evidence relating to the Nazi Slave Labour Programme has
been assembled in a document book bearing the letter "R",
and, in addition, there is an appendix to the document book
consisting of certain photographs contained in a manila
folder. Your Honours will observe that on some of the books
we have placed some tabs, so that it will be easier for the
Tribunal to locate the documents. Unfortunately, we did not
have a sufficient number of tabs to do the work completely,
and that will account for tabs missing on some of the
document books.
It may illuminate the specific items of evidence which will
be offered later if we first describe in rather general
terms the elements of the Nazi foreign labour policy. It was
a policy of mass deportation and mass enslavement, as I said
a moment ago, and it was also carried out by force, by
fraud, by
[Page 289]
We shall show that defendants Sauckel and Speer are
principally responsible for the formulation of the policy
and for its execution, that defendant Sauckel, the Nazi
Plenipotentiary General for Manpower, directed the
recruitment, deportation and allocation of foreign civilian
labour, that he sanctioned and directed the use of force as
the instrument of recruitment, and that he was responsible
for the care and treatment of the enslaved millions; that
the defendant Speer, as Reich Minister for Armament and
Munitions, Director of the Organisation Todt and member of
the Central Planning Board, bears responsibility for the
determination of the numbers of foreign slaves required by
the German war machine responsible for the decision to
recruit by force, and for the use under brutal, inhuman and
degrading conditions, of foreign civilians and prisoners of
war in the manufacture of armaments and munitions, the
construction of fortifications, and in active military
operations.
We shall also show in this presentation that the defendant
Goering, as Plenipotentiary General for the Four Year Plan,
is responsible for all of the crimes involved in the Nazi
Slave Labour Programme. Finally, we propose to show that the
defendant Rosenberg, as Reich Minister for the Eastern
Occupied Territories, and the defendant Frank, as Governor
of the Government General of Poland, and the defendant Seyss-
Inquart, as Reich Commissar for the Occupied Netherlands,
and the defendant Keitel, as Chief of the O.K.W., share
responsibility for the recruitment by force and terror and
for the deportation to Germany of the citizens of the areas
overrun or subjugated by the Wehrmacht.
The use of vast numbers of foreign workers was planned
before Germany went to war and was an integral part of the
conspiracy for waging aggressive war. On 23rd May, 1939, a
meeting was held in Hitler's study at the Reich Chancellery.
Present were the defendants Goering , Raeder and Keitel.
I now refer to Document L-79 which has already been
introduced in evidence as Exhibit USA 27. The document
presents the minutes of this meeting, at which Hitler
stated, as your Honours will recall, that he intended to
attack Poland at the first suitable opportunity; but I wish
to quote from Page 2 of the English text starting with
Paragraph 13. In the German text the passage, by the way,
appears at Page 4, Paragraphs 6 and 7. Quoting directly from
the English text:
The population of non-German areas will perform no
military service, and will be available as a source of
labour." [Page 290]
These purposes were expressed by the conspirators
themselves.
I wish to refer at this point and to offer in evidence
Document 016-PS, which is Exhibit USA 168. This document was
sent by the defendant Sauckel to the defendant Rosenberg on
20th April, 1942, and it describes Sauckel's Labour
Mobilisation Programme. I wish to quote now from Page 2 of
the English text, starting with the sixth paragraph, and in
the German text, again, it appears at Page 2 of the second
paragraph. Quoting from the text directly:
I now refer to Document 1130-PS, which is marked Exhibit USA
16q. This document consists of a statement made by one Erich
Koch, Reich Commissar for the Ukraine, on 5th March, 1943,
at a meeting of the National Socialist Party in Kiev. I
quote from the first page of the English text, starting with
the first paragraph, and in the German text it appears at
Page 2, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly again from the English
text, Koch said:-
[Page 291]
MR. DODD: The author of that quotation was the Reichsfuehrer
S.S., Heinrich Himmler.
The next document to which I make reference is 031-PS, which
is Exhibit USA 171. This document is a top secret memorandum
prepared for the Ministry for the Eastern Occupied
Territories on 12th June, 1944, and approved by the
defendant Rosenberg; and from it I wish to quote from the
English text, starting with the first paragraph, and in the
German text the passage appears at Page 2 in the first
paragraph. Quoting directly:-
MR. DODD: No, your Honour, I did not, but I did not want to
refer to it at this time. I will refer to it a little later
on.
THE PRESIDENT Is not it really a part of what follows at the
top of Page 2, the words "Following are the arguments - ."
MR. DODD: I did omit that. I thought you were referring to
the sentence above. I am sorry. "Following are the arguments
against this decision of the minister"; and then, quoting:-
[
Previous |
Index |
Next ]
Home ·
Site Map ·
What's New? ·
Search
Nizkor
© The Nizkor Project, 1991-2012
This site is intended for educational purposes to teach about the Holocaust and
to combat hatred.
Any statements or excerpts found on this site are for educational purposes only.
As part of these educational purposes, Nizkor may
include on this website materials, such as excerpts from the writings of racists and antisemites. Far from approving these writings, Nizkor condemns them and
provides them so that its readers can learn the nature and extent of hate and antisemitic discourse. Nizkor urges the readers of these pages to condemn racist
and hate speech in all of its forms and manifestations.
(Part 1 of 2)
"If fate brings us into conflict with the West, the
possession of extensive areas in the East will be
advantageous. We shall be able to rely upon record
harvests even less in time of war than in peace.
We say the Slave Labour Programme of the Nazi conspirators
was designed to achieve two purposes, both of which were
criminal. The primary purpose, of course, was to satisfy the
labour requirements of the Nazi war machine by compelling
these foreign workers, in effect, to make war against their
own
"The aim of this new, gigantic labour mobilisation is to
use all the rich and tremendous sources, conquered and
secured for us by our fighting Armed Forces under the
Leadership of Adolf Hitler, for the armament of the
Armed Forces and also for the nutrition of the Homeland.
The raw materials as well as the fertility of the
conquered territories and their human labour power are
to be used completely and conscientiously to the profit
of Germany and her allies."
The theory of the master race underlay the conspirators'
labour policy in the East.
"We are the master race and must govern hardly but
justly..I will draw the very last out of this country. I
did not come to spread bliss. I have come to help the
Fuehrer. The population must work, work, and work again.
for some people are getting excited, that the population
may not get enough to eat. The population cannot demand
that, one has only to remember what our heroes were
deprived of in Stalingrad .. We definitely did not come
here to give out manna. We have come here to create the
basis for victory. We are a master race, which must
remember that the lowliest German worker is racially and
biologically a thousand times more valuable than the
population here."
At this point I should like to offer in evidence Document
1919-PS, which is Exhibit USA 170. This is a document which
contains a speech delivered by Himmler, the Reichsfuehrer
S.S., to a group of S.S. Generals on 4th October, 1943, at
Posen, and I am referring to the first page of the English
text, starting with the third paragraph. For the benefit of
the interpreters, in the German text it appears at Page 23
in the first paragraph. Quoting direct from this document,
starting with the third paragraph:-
"What happens to a Russian, or to a Czech, does not
interest me in the slightest. What the nations can offer
in the way of good blood of our type, we will take, if
necessary by kidnapping their children and raising them
here with us. Whether nations live in prosperity or
starve to death interests me only in so far as we need
them as slaves for our Kultur: otherwise, it is of no
interest to me. Whether 10,000 Russian
THE PRESIDENT: Who is the author of that document?
"The Army Group Centre has the intention to apprehend
40,000 - 50,000 youths of the ages of 10 to 14 who are
in the Army area, and to transport them to the Reich..."
I wish to pass now to line 21 of Paragraph 1, and quoting
directly I read as follows:-
"It is intended to allot these juveniles primarily to
the German trades as apprentices, to be used as skilled
workers after 2 years' training. This is to be arranged
through the Organisation Todt, which is especially
equipped for such a task through its technical and other
set-ups. This action is being greatly welcomed by the
German trade since it represents a decisive measure for
the alleviation of the shortage of apprentices."
Passing a little further on in that document, I wish to call
to the attention of the Tribunal Paragraph 1 on Page 2, and
to quote it directly:-
"This action is aimed not only at preventing a direct
reinforcement of the enemy's military strength, but also
at a reduction of his biological potentialities as
viewed from the perspective of the future. These ideas
have been voiced not only by the Reichsfuehrer of the
S.S. but also by the Fuehrer. Corresponding orders were
given during last year's withdrawals in the Southern
Sector."
I call to your Honour's attention particularly, that the
approval of the defendant Rosenberg is noted on Page 3 of
the document. It is a note in ink in the original, and I
quote it-:
"Regarding the above Obergruppenfuehrer Berger received
the memorandum on 14th June. Consequently the Reich
Minister has approved the action."
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, did you mean to leave out the
sentence at the bottom of Page 1?
"This action is not only aimed at preventing direct
reinforcement of any military - "