Nineteenth Day:
Thursday, 13th December, 1945
[Page 361]
1. To the Gestapo has been entrusted the mission by the
Fuehrer to watch over and to eliminate all enemies of
the Party and the National Socialist State, as well as
all disintegrating forces of all kinds directed against
both. The successful solution of this mission forms one
of the most essential prerequisites for the unhampered
and frictionless work of the Party. The Gestapo, in
their extremely difficult task, are to be granted
support and assistance in every possible way by the
N.S.D.A.P."
THE PRESIDENT: What was the date of that document that you
have been referring to, 1723-PS?
MR. DODD: 25th January, 1938. This document consists of an
affidavit of Gerhart H. Segar, and I wish to read only from
Page 1, Paragraph 2 of that affidavit:
[Page 362]
MR. DODD: Yes, the defendant Frick.
There are many additional cases of the use of the
concentration camp against the men who wanted peace. There
was, for example, a group called the Bibelforschers, that
is, Bible Research Workers, most of whom were known as
Jehovah's Witnesses. They were pacifists, and so the
conspirators provided not only for their prosecution in the
regular courts but also for their confinement in the
concentration camps after they had served the judicial
sentences, and we refer to Document D-84, Exhibit USA 236.
This document is dated 5th August, 1937, and it is an order
by the Secret State Police at Berlin, and I refer
particularly to the first and last paragraphs of this order,
as follows:-
[Page 363]
THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the sentence before
that the two lines before it. The words are: "The arrestee
has no right to appeal against the decree of protective
custody."
MR. DODD: "The arrestee has no right to appeal against the
decree of protective custody." Then comes a title "Reasons":-
Special care should be taken that the Jews arrested in
accordance with these instructions are not mistreated." [Page 365]
Document R-91 is Exhibit USA 241. This document consists of
a communication dated 16th December, 1942, sent by Muller to
Himmler, for the Chief of the Security Police and S.D., and
deals with the seizure of Polish Jews for deportation to
concentration camps in Germany. I am beginning with the
first paragraph. It says, quoting directly:-
1. Total number: 45,000 Jews.
2. Start of transportation: 11th January, 1943.
End of transportation: 31st January, 1943. The Reich
railroads are unable to provide special trains for the
evacuation during the period from 15th December, 1942,
to 10th January, 1943, because of the increased traffic
of Armed Forces leave trains.
3. Composition: The 45,000 Jews are to consist Of 30,000
Jews from the district of Byalystock. 20,000 Jews from
the Ghetto Theresienstadt, 5,000 of whom are Jews fit
for work who heretofore had been used for smaller jobs
required for the ghetto, and 5,000 Jews who are
generally incapable of working, also Jews over 60 years
old." [Page 366]
The others passed before an S.S. doctor who, on sight,
indicated who was fit for work and who was not. Those
unfit were sent to the gas chambers, while the others
were distributed in various labour camps."
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, do not you want Page 5 for the
numbers which you have stated-up to 27th June, 1944? You
have not yet given us any authority for the numbers that you
have stated.
MR. DODD: Oh, yes. On Page 5 of that same Document, 2605-PS,
quoting: "Up to 27th June, 1944, 475,000 Jews were
deported."
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(Part 4 of 10)
[MR. DODD continues]
"In a summary of all the previously issued decrees on
the co-operation between the Party and the Gestapo I
refer to the following and ordain:-
The conspirators then were directing their apparatus of
terror against the "enemies of the State", against
"disintegrating forces", against those people who endangered
the State "with their attitude". Whom did they consider as
belonging to those broad categories? Well, first, there were
the men in Germany who wanted peace. We refer to Document L-
83, Exhibit USA 231.
"2. During the period after World War One, up to my
commitment to the Leipzig Gaol and Oranienburg
Concentration Camp in the spring of 1933, following the
Nazi accession to power in January of that year, my
business and political affiliations exposed me to the
full impact of the Nazi theories and practice of violent
regimentation and terroristic tactics. My conflict with
the Nazis by virtue of my identification with the peace
movement and as a duly elected member of the Reichstag
representing a political faith (Social Democratic Party)
hostile to
Passing to Page 5 of the same document, and the paragraph
marked (e):-
"That the Nazis had already conceived the device of the
Concentration Camp as a means of suppressing and
regimenting opposition elements, was forcefully brought
to my attention during the course of a conversation
which I had with Dr. Wilhelm Frick in December, 1932,
Frick at that time was Chairman of the Foreign Affairs
Committee of the Reichstag, of which I was a member.
When I gave an emphatic answer to Frick concerning the
particular matter discussed, he replied, 'Do not worry,
when we are in power we shall put all of you into
Concentration Camps.' When the Nazis came into power,
Frick was appointed Reichsminister of the Interior and
promptly carried out his threat in collaboration with
Goering, as Chief of the Prussian State Police, and
Himmler."
This paragraph shows that, even before the Nazis had seized
power in Germany, they had conceived the plan to repress any
potential opposition by terror, and Frick's statement to
Segar is completely consistent with an earlier statement
which he made on the 18th October, 1929. We refer to
Document 2513-PS, Exhibit USA 235, which has also been
received in evidence and has been included in Exhibit USA B.
We refer to the first page of the English translation, Page
48 of the German text. On Page 1 the quotation begins:-
"This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the
ballot, but this cannot continue indefinitely, for
history has taught us that in a battle blood must be
shed and iron broken. The ballot is the beginning of the
fateful struggle. We are determined to promulgate by
force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini
exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also
succeed in accomplishing the same through dictatorship
and terror."
THE PRESIDENT: This is the defendant, is it?
"The Reichsminister of Justice had informed me that he
does not share the opinion voiced by subordinate
departments on various occasions, according to which the
arrest of the Bibelforschers, after they have served a
sentence, is supposed to jeopardise the authority of the
Law Courts. He is fully aware of the necessity for
measures by the State Police after the sentence has been
served. He asks, however, not to bring the
Bibelforschers into protective custody under
circumstances detrimental to the respect of the Law
Courts."
"If information regarding the impending release of a
Bibelforscher from arrest is received from the
authorities carrying out the sentence, my decision
regarding the ordering of measures by the State Police
will be asked for in accordance with my circular decree
dated 22nd April, 1937, so that transfer to a
Concentration Camp can take place immediately after the
sentence has been served. Should a transfer into
concentration camp immediately after the serving of the
sentence not be possible, Bibelforschers will be
detained in police prisons."
The Labour Unions, of which I think it is safe to say the
majority are traditionally opposed to wars of aggression,
also felt the full force of Nazi terror. A member of the
American staff, Major Wallis, has already submitted evidence
before this Tribunal concerning the conspirators' campaign
against the trade unions. But the concentration camp was an
important weapon in this campaign, and the Tribunal will
recall that in Document 2324-PS, to which I made reference
this morning, the defendant Goering made it plain that
members of the Social Democratic Party were to be confined
in concentration camps. Now labour leaders were very largely
members of that Party, and they soon learned the horrors of
protective custody. We refer to Document 2330-PS, Exhibit
USA 237, which has already been received as part of Exhibit
USA G, which consists of an order that one Joseph Simon
should be placed in protective custody. We refer to the
middle of the first page of the English translation of that
order, beginning with the material under the word "Reasons".
"Simon was for many years a member of the Socialist
Party and temporarily a member of the Union Socialists
Populaire. From 1907 to 1918 he was Lantag deputy of the
Socialist Party; from 1908 to 1930 Social Democratic
City Counsellor (Stadtrat) in Nuremberg. In view of the
decisive role which Simon played in international
socialism, and in regard to his connection with
international Marxist leaders and central agencies,
which he continued after the national recovery, he was
placed under protective custody on the 3rd May, 1933,
and was kept, until 25th January, 1934, in the Dachau
Concentration Camp. Simon was strongly suspected, even
after this date, of playing an active part in the
illegal continuation of the Socialist Party. He took
part in meetings which aimed at the illegal continuation
of the Socialist Party and propagation of illegal
Marxist printed matter in Germany. Through this radical
attitude, which is hostile to the State, Simon directly
endangered public security and order."
We do not wish to burden these proceedings with a
multiplication of such instances, but I refer the Tribunal
to documents which have already been offered in connection
with the presentation of the evidence concerning the
destruction of the trade unions. In particular, we wish to
refer to Document 2334-PS and Document 2928-PS, Exhibits USA
238 and 239, both of which are included within Exhibit USA
G.
[Page 364]
Thousands of Jews, as the world so well knows, were, of
course, confined in these concentration camps. The evidence
on this point will be developed in a later presentation by
another member of the prosecuting staff of the United
States. But among the wealth of evidence available on this
point showing the confinement of Germans only because they
were Jews, we wish to offer a Document 3051-PS, Exhibit USA
240. This is a copy of a teletype from S.S. Gruppenfuehrer
Heydrich, and it is dated 16th November, 1938. It was sent
to all Headquarters of the State Police and all Districts
and Sub-districts of the S.D. We refer to Paragraph 5 of
this teletype. Paragraph 5 is found on Page 3 of the English
translation. It begins at the bottom of Page 2 and runs over
to Page 3. Quoting from Paragraph 5:
"As soon as the course of events of this night allows
the use of the officials employed for this purpose, as
many Jews, especially rich ones, as can be accommodated
in the existing prisons are to be arrested in all
districts. For the time being only healthy men, not too
old, are to be arrested. Upon their arrest, the
appropriate concentration camps should be contacted
immediately, in order to confine them in these camps as
soon as possible.
Himmler in 1943 indicated that use of the concentration camp
against the Jews had been motivated not simply by Nazi
racialism. He indicated that this policy had been motivated
by a fear that the Jews might have been an obstacle to
aggression. There is no necessity to consider whether this
fear was justified. The important consideration is that the
fear existed, and with reference to it we refer to Document
1919-PS, Exhibit USA 170. The document is a speech delivered
by Himmler at the meeting of the S.S. Major Generals at
Posen on 4th October, 1943, in the course of which he sought
to justify the Nazi anti-Jewish policy. We refer to a
portion of this document of this speech which is found on
Page 4, Paragraph 3, of the English translation, starting
with the words "I mean the clearing out of the Jews".
"I mean the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination
of the Jewish race. It is one of those things it is easy
to talk about. 'The Jewish race is being exterminated',
says one party member, 'that is quite clear, it is in
our programme, elimination of the Jews, and we are doing
it, exterminating them'. And then there come 80,000,000
worthy Germans, and each one has his 'decent Jew'. Of
course, the others are vermin, but this one is 'an A-1
Jew'. Not one of all those who talk this way has
witnessed it, not one of them has been through it. Most
of you must know what it means when 100 corpses are
lying side by side, or 500 or 1,000. To have stuck it
out and at the same time - apart from exceptions caused
by human weakness - to have remained decent fellows,
that is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory
in our history which has never been written and is never
to be written, for we know how difficult we should have
made it for ourselves, if - with bombing raids, the
burden and privations of war - we still had Jews today
in every town as secret saboteurs, agitators and trouble-
mongers."
It is clear, we say, from the foregoing that prior to the
launching of the Nazi aggression, the concentration camp had
been one of the principal weapons by which the conspirators
achieved the social cohesion which was needed for the
execution of their plans for aggression. After they launched
"In connection with the increase of the transfer of
labour to the concentration camps, ordered to be
completed by 30th January, 1943, the following procedure
may be applied in the Jewish section:
And passing the next sentence:-
"As heretofore only such Jews would be taken for the
evacuation who have no particular connections and who
are not in possession of any high, decorations. 3,000
Jews from the occupied Dutch territories, 2,000 Jews
from Berlin - 45,000. The figure Of 45,000 includes the
invalid (old Jews and children). By use of a practical
standard the screening of the arriving Jews in Auschwitz
should yield at least 10,000 to 15,000 people fit for
work."
The Jews of Hungary suffered the same tragic fate. Between
19th March, 1944, and the 1st August, 1944, more than
400,000 Hungarian Jews were rounded up. Many of these were
put in wagons and sent to extermination camps, and we refer
to Document 2605-PS, Exhibit USA 242. This document is an
affidavit made in London by Dr. Rudolph Kastner, a former
official of the Hungarian Zionist Organisation. We refer to
Page 3 of the document, the third full paragraph:-
"In March, 1944," - quoting - "together with the German
Military Occupation arrived in Budapest a 'Special
Section Commando' of the German Secret Police, with the
sole object of liquidating the Hungarian Jews. It was
headed by Adolf Aichmann, S.S. Obersturmbannfuehrer,
Chief of Section IV. B of the Reich Security Head
Office. His immediate collaborators were: S.S.
Obersturmbannfuehrer Hermann Krumcy, Hauptsturmfuehrer
Wisliczeny, Hunsche, Novak, Dr. Seidl, and later
Danegger, Wrtok. They arrested and later deported to
Mauthausen all the leaders of Jewish political and
business life, and journalists, together with the
Hungarian democratic and anti-Fascist politicians.
Taking advantage of the 'interregnum' following upon the
German occupation and lasting four days, they placed
their Quislings in the Ministry of the Interior."
"Commanders of the death camps gassed only on direct or
indirect instructions of Aichmann [sic]. The particular
officer of IV. B who directed the deportations from some
particular country had the authority to indicate whether
the train should go to a death camp or not, and what
should happen to the passengers. The instructions were
usually carried by the S.S. - N.C.O. escorting the
train. The letter 'A' or "M" - capital letters "A" or
"M" - "on the escorting instruction documents indicated
Auschwitz or Majdanck; it means that the passengers were
to be gassed."
And passing over the next sentence, we come to these words:-
"Regarding Hungarian Jews the following general ruling
was laid down in Auschwitz: children up to the age of 12
or 14, older people over 50, as well as the sick, or
people with criminal records, who were transported in
specially marked wagons, were taken immediately on their
arrival to the gas chambers.
In the so-called "Eastern territories" these victims were
apprehended for extermination -