Twenty-Ninth Day:
Tuesday, January 8th, 1946
[Page 49]
In the territory now called 'Warthegau' more than two
thousand priests exercised their ministry before the
war; they are now reduced to a very small number.
According to accounts received from various quarters by
the Holy See, in the first months of the military
occupation not a few members of the secular clergy were
shot or otherwise put to death, while others-some
hundreds-were imprisoned or treated in an unseemly
manner, being forced into employments unbecoming their
state, and exposed to scorn and derision.
Then, while numbers of ecclesiastics were exiled or
constrained in some other way to take refuge in the
Government General, many others were transferred to
concentration camps. At the beginning of October, 1941,
the priests from the dioceses of the 'Warthegau'
detained in Dachau already numbered several hundreds;
but their number increased considerably in that month,
following a sharp intensification of police measures,
which culminated in the imprisonment and deportation of
further hundreds
[Page 50]
No less painful was the fate reserved for the regular
clergy. Many members of religious orders were shot or
otherwise killed; the great majority of the others were
imprisoned, deported or expelled.
In the same way far-reaching measures were taken against
the institutions preparing candidates for the
ecclesiastical state. The diocesan seminaries of Gniezno
and Poznan, of Wladislavia and of Lodz were closed. The
seminary in Poznan for the training of priests destined
to work among Polish Catholics was also closed.
The noviciates and houses of instruction of the
religious orders and congregations were closed.
Not even the nuns were able to continue their charitable
activities without molestation. For them was set up a
special concentration camp at Bojanowo, where towards
the middle of 1941 about four hundred sisters were
interned and employed in manual labour. To a
representation of the Holy See made through the
Apostolic Nunciature in Berlin your Reich Ministry for
Foreign Affairs replied, in the Memorandum Pol. III,
1886 of 23rd September of the same year, that it was
only a question of a temporary measure, taken with the
consent of the Reichstatthalter for Wartheland, in order
to supply the lack of housing for Polish Catholic
sisters. In the same memorandum it was admitted that as
a result of reorganisation of charitable institutions
many Catholic sisters were without employment.
But, in spite of the fact that this measure was declared
to be temporary, it is certain that towards the end of
1942 some hundreds of nuns were still interned at
Bojanowo. It is established that for some time the nuns
were deprived even of spiritual help.
Likewise in the matter of education and religious
instruction of youth no attention was paid in the
'Warthegau' to the rights of the Catholic Church.
All the Catholic schools were suppressed."
THE PRESIDENT: Who was the Foreign Minister of the Reich at
the time that document was sent?
COLONEL WHEELER: It was the defendant von Ribbentrop.
I turn to Page 4, the tenth paragraph of the English text,
Page 5, fourth paragraph of the German text:
Catholic action was so badly hit as to be completely
destroyed. The National Institute, which was at the head
of the whole Catholic Action Movement in Poland, was
suppressed; as a result all the associations belonging
to it, which were flourishing, as well as all Catholic
cultural, charity and social service institutions, were
abolished.
In the whole of the 'Warthegau' there is no longer any
Catholic Press, and not even a Catholic bookshop.
Grave measures were repeatedly taken with regard to
ecclesiastical property.
Many of the churches closed to public worship were
turned over to profane uses. From such an insult not
even the cathedrals of Gniezno,
[Page 51]
For example, on 19th November, 1931, came a decree of
the Reichs-statthalter by which, among other things, it
was set forth that, as from the previous 13th September,
the property of the former juridical persons of the
Roman Catholic Church should pass over to the 'Romisch-
Katholische Kirche deutscher Nationalitat im Reichsgau
Wartheland' in so far as, on the request of the above-
mentioned 'Religionsgesellschaft' such property shall be
recognised by the Reichsstatthalter as 'non-Polish
property.' In virtue of this decree practically all the
goods of the Catholic Church in the 'Warthegau' were
lost."
In the provinces which were declared annexed to the
German Reich and joined up with the Gaue of East
Prussia, of Danzig-West Prussia, and of Upper Silesia,
the situation is very like that described above in
regard to seminaries, the use of the Polish mother-
tongue in sacred functions, charitable works,
associations of Catholic Action, the separation of the
faithful according to nationality. There, too, one must
deplore the closing of churches to public worship, the
exile, deportation, the violent death of not a few of
the clergy (reduced by two-thirds in the diocese of
Culma and by at least a third in the diocese of
Katowice), the suppression of religious instruction in
the schools, and above all the complete suppression in
fact of the Episcopate. Actually, after the Bishop of
Culma, who had left during the military operations, had
been refused permission to return to his diocese, there
followed - in February, 1941 - the expulsion of the
Bishop of Plock and his Auxiliary, who both died later
in captivity; the Bishop, the venerable octogenarian
Mgr. Julian Anthony Nowowiejski, died at Dzialdowo on
28th May, 1941, and the Auxiliary, Mgr. Leo Wetmanski,
'in a transit camp' on 10th October of the same year.
In the territory called the Government General, as in
the Polish provinces which had been occupied by Soviet
troops in the period between September, 1939, and June,
1941, the religious situation is such as to cause the
Holy See lively apprehension and serious preoccupation.
Without pausing to describe the treatment meted out in
many cases to the clergy (priests imprisoned, deported
and even put to death), the confiscation of
ecclesiastical property, the closing of churches, the
suppression even of associations and publications of
simply and exclusively religious character, the closing
of the Catholic secondary and higher schools and of the
Catholic University of Lublin, let it suffice to recall
two series of specially grave measures: those which
affect the seminaries and those which weigh on the
Episcopate.
When the buildings of the various seminaries had been
completely or in part occupied, the intention for some
time (November, 1940-February,
[Page 52]
COLONEL WHEELER: The Altreich is the Old Reich of Germany.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COLONEL WHEELER:
The treatment of the ecclesiastics interned at Dachau,
which, for a certain time, in 1941, was, in fact,
somewhat mitigated, grew worse again at the end of that
year. Particularly sorrowful were the announcements
which for many months, in 1942, came from that camp of
the frequent deaths of priests, even of some young
priests among them."
This letter lays at the door of the Party Chancellery the
responsibility for determining the policy and exercising
final authority on religious questions in the occupied
territories. I quote from Page 1, the first paragraph of
this letter, and remind the Court that the defendant Bormann
was at that time Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery and
that the defendant Kaltenbrunner was the Chief of the
Reichssicherheitshauptamt, the R.S.H.A. I quote from
Document 3266-PS, beginning with the sixth line:
Your Eminence knows very well that the greatest
difficulty in the way of opening negotiations comes from
the overruling authority which the National Socialist
Party Chancellery exercises in relation to the
chancellery of the Reich and to the single Reich
Ministries. This 'Parteikanzlei' directs the course to
be followed by the State, whereas the Ministries and the
Chancellery of the Reich are obliged and compelled to
adjust their decrees to these directions. Besides, there
is the fact that the Supreme Office for the Security of
the Reich, called the 'Reichssicherheitshauptamt' enjoys
an authority which precludes all legal action and all
appeals.
[Page 53]
On a number of very grave and fundamental issues we have
also presented our complaints to the Supreme Leader of
the Reich, the Fuehrer. Either no answer is given, or it
is apparently edited by the above-mentioned Party
Chancellery, which does not consider itself bound by the
Concordat made with the Holy See."
It is submitted herewith to the International Military
Tribunal in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter of
the Court.
Signed: Dr. Tadeuez Cyprian, Polish Deputy
Representative on the United Nations War Crimes
Commission in London, signing on behalf of the Polish
Government and of the Main Commission for Investigation
of German War Crimes in Poland, whose seal I hereby
attach."
COLONEL WHEELER: This is the only one, Sir, that I have. I
now read from this extract:
11. The general situation of the clergy in the
Archdiocese of Poznan in the beginning
of April, 1940, is summarised in the following words of
Cardinal Hlond's second report:
5 priests shot; 27 priests confined in harsh
concentration camps at Stutthof and in other camps; 190
priests in prison or in concentration camps at Bruczkov,
Chlodowo, Gerusski, Kazimierz, Buskupi, Lad, Lublin and
Puszczykovo; 35 priests seriously ill in consequence of
ill treatment; 122 parishes left entirely without
priests.
12. In the diocese of Chelmno, where about 650 priests
were installed before the War, only 3 per cent. were
allowed to stay, the other 97 per cent. were imprisoned,
executed or put into concentration camps.
13. By January, 1941, about 700 priests were killed,
3,000 were in prison or concentration camps." [Page 54]
The Tribunal will recall, from the previous reading of this
document, the imprisonment of 2,800 priests and lay brothers
in Dachau alone from 1940 to 1945, of whom all but about 800
were dead by April, 1945, including an Auxiliary Bishop.
This document presents a forceful summary of the principal
steps in the struggle of the Nazi conspirators against the
Catholic Church.
To sum up, the Prosecution submits that the evidence
presented to the Court proves that the attempted suppression
of the Christian Churches in Germany, Austria,
Czechoslovakia, and Poland was an integral part of the
defendants' conspiracy to eliminate internal opposition, and
otherwise to prepare for and wage aggressive war and shows
the same conspiratorial pattern as their other War Crimes
and Crimes against Humanity.
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(Part 2 of 10)
[COLONEL LEONARD WHEELER, JR continues] "If the lot of their Excellencies the Bishops has been a
source of anxiety for the Holy See, the condition of an
immense number of priests and members of religious
orders has caused it, and still causes it, no less
grief.
I turn now to Page 4 ...
"The use of the Polish language in sacred functions, and
even in the Sacrament of Penance, was forbidden.
Moreover - and this is a matter worthy of special
mention and is at variance with the natural law and with
the dispositions accepted by the legal systems of all
nations - for the celebration of marriage between Poles
the minimum age limit was fixed at 28 years for men and
25 years for women.
I pass now to the third full paragraph on Page 5, a two-line
paragraph:-
"Even before ecclesiastical property was affected, the
allowances to the clergy had been abolished."
Now, reading from Page 6, the fourth full paragraph of the
English text:
"The administrative regulations published by the
Statthalter's office for the application of the
Ordinance of 13th September, 1941, made the situation of
the Catholics in that region still more difficult.
Now I pass to Page 7, the second full paragraph:-
"If we pass from the 'Warthegau' to the other
territories in the East, we unfortunately find there,
too, acts and measures against the rights of the Church
and of the Catholic faithful, though they vary in
gravity and extension from one place to another.
I omit one paragraph here.
"Mention has several times been made of ecclesiastics
deported or confined in concentration camps. The
majority of them were transferred to the Altreich, where
their number already exceeds a thousand."
THE PRESIDENT: What was the "Altreich"?
"When the Holy See asked that they should be liberated
and permitted to emigrate to neutral countries of Europe
or America (1940), the petition was refused; it was only
promised that they should all be collected in the
concentration camp at Dachau, that they should be
excused too hard labour, and that some should be
permitted to say mass, which the others could hear.
I pass by two paragraphs:
"Polish Catholics are not allowed to contract marriage
in the territory of the Altreich; just as requests for
religious instruction or instruction in preparation for
Confession and Holy Communion for the children of these
workers are, in principle, not accepted."
What happened to complaints - even from the Vatican - as to
religious affairs in the overrun territories is disclosed in
Document 3266-PS, Exhibit USA 573, which I now offer in
evidence. This is a letter from the Cardinal Archbishop of
Breslau to the Papal Secretary of State, dated 7th December,
1942. It bears a Vatican authentication similar to those
already read.
"About some of the gravest injuries inflicted on the
Church I not only protested on each occasion as the
individual incident occurred, but I also made a most
formal protest about them in globo in a document which,
as spokesman of the Hierarchy, I sent to the supreme
Ruler of the State and to the Ministries of the Reich on
10th December, 1941. Not a word by way of answer has
been sent to us.
I now offer in evidence Document number 3279-PS, Exhibit USA
574. This is an excerpt from Charge number 17 against the
defendant Hans Frank, Governor General of Poland, entitled
"Maltreatment and Persecution of the Catholic Clergy in the
Western Provinces," submitted by the Polish Government under
the terms of Article 21 of the Four-Power Agreement of 2nd
August, 1945. This gives further figures indicating the
extent of the persecution of priests. I quote:
"The extract attached hereto and dealing with the
'General Conditions and Results of the Persecution' is
taken from the text of Charge 17, Page 5, paragraph IV,
of the Polish Government against the defendants named in
the Indictment before the International Military
Tribunal, subject: , Maltreatment and Persecution of the
Catholic Clergy in the Incorporated Western Provinces of
Poland.' It is a true translation into English of the
original Polish.
THE PRESIDENT: I do not think you need read such
certificates as that.
"General Conditions and Results of the Persecution:
I refer also to Document 3268-A-PS, Exhibit USA 356,
excerpts from the Allocution of Pope Pius XII to the Sacred
College, 2nd June, 1945, which has already been introduced
into evidence and read from extensively. I shall not