The Nizkor Project: Remembering the Holocaust (Shoah)

The Trial of German Major War Criminals

Sitting at Nuremberg, Germany
7th January to 19th January, 1946

Thirty-First Day: Thursday, January 10th, 1946
(Part 2 of 10)


[Page 140]

In his speech on the occasion of the Day of the Reich University Professors of the National Socialist Lawyers' League on 3rd November, 1936, the defendant Frank explained to the gathering of professors, the elimination of Jews from the legal field, in accordance with the Nazi plan. Our partial translation of the speech appears as Document 2536- PS, at Page 62 of the document book. The official text appears likewise in "Dokumente der Deutschen Politik," in Volume IV, Pages 225 to 230. I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this. It deals, to summarise -

THE PRESIDENT: I do not think you need it because we have already had documents of the same sort.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: As the leading Nazi Jurist, the defendant Frank accepted, condoned and promoted the system of concentration camps and of arrest without warrant. He apparently had no hesitancy in subverting his professional ethics, if he had any, while subverting the legal framework of the German State to Nazi ends. He explains that outrageous departure from civilisation - the concentration camps - in an article on "Legislation and Judiciary in the Third Reich," published in 1936 in the official journal of the Academy of German Law, of which, of course, he was the editor. The partial translation of this article appears as our Document 2533-PS, at Page 61 of the document book. The official German text of the extract appears in "Zeitschrift der Akademie fur Deutsches Recht," 1936, at Page 141, and I will ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this. Since the extract is short, I will ask permission to read it. Frank says:

"Before the world we are blamed again and again because of the concentration camps. We are asked, 'Why do you arrest without a warrant of arrest'? I say, put yourselves into the position of our nation. Remember that the very great and still untouched world of Bolshevism cannot forget that here on our German soil we have made final victory for them impossible in Europe."
It can be seen, therefore, that just as other defendants mobilised the military, economic and diplomatic resources for aggressive war, the defendant Frank, in the field of legal policy, geared the German judicial machine for a war of aggression, which war of aggression, as he explained in 1942 to the N.S.D.A.P. political leaders of Galicia at a mass meeting in Lemberg - and I now quote from the "Frank Diary," our Document 2233-PS-S, at Page 50 in the document book, the original of which I offer into evidence as Exhibit USA 607 - bad for its purpose, and I quote:
"To expand the living space for our people in a natural manner."
The distortions and warpings of German law which defendant Frank engineered for the Party gave him, if not the world, vast satisfaction. He reported this to the powerful Academy for German Law in November, 1939, one month after becoming Governor-General of Occupied Poland. This speech is partially translated in our Document 3445-PS, at Page 73 in the document book. The official text of the speech appears in "Deutsches Recht," 1939, Volume 2, the week of 23rd-30th December, 1939, beginning at Page 2121, and we ask the Court to take judicial notice of this, but would like permission to read the excerpt, as it is very short.

Frank stated:

"To-day we are proud to have formulated our legal principles from the very beginning in such a way that they need not be changed in the case of war. For the rule - right is that which is useful to the nation, and wrong is that which harms it - which stood at the beginning of our legal

[Page 141]

work, and which established the idea of the people's community as the only standard of the law - this rule also dominates the social order of these times."
If this sentiment has a familiar ring to it, it is because it is a restatement of a Party commandment tailored and furnished by the Party lawyer to fit the Party's concept of law. I allude, of course, to the Party commandment previously commented upon (Page 30, Part 3) in the treatment of the Leadership Corps, which commandment stated, and I quote: "Right is that which serves the movement and thus Germany."

It follows, I think, that the prosecution conceives the defendant Frank to be jointly responsible for all those cruel and discriminatory enabling acts and decrees through which the Nazis crushed minorities in Germany, and consolidated their control over the German State, and prepared it for its early entry upon aggression. It matters not, in our view, that the signature of this lawyer does not appear at the foot of every decree. Enough has been shown, in our submission, to indicate culpability in this regard. There is sufficient, we believe, now in this record - and I refer to decrees cited by Major Walsh in his treatment of the persecution of the Jews and by Colonel Storey in his treatment of the Reich Cabinet - to demonstrate that type of enactment and the consequences thereof, for which we hold the defendant Frank liable. In following this theory, may it please the Tribunal, we are only arriving at conclusions already arrived at for us by the defendant Frank himself.

I now pass to that second and well-known phase of the defendant Frank's official life, wherein he, for five years as chief Party and Government Agent, was bent upon the elimination of a whole people. He was appointed Governor- General of the Occupied Polish Territory by a decree signed by his then Fuehrer, on 12th October, 1939. The decree defined the scope of Frank's executive power and is contained in our Document 2537-PS, at Page 66 in the document book. I shall ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this, since it appears in Reichsgesetzblatt, 1939, Part 1, Page 2077.

It merely states that Dr. Frank is appointed as Governor- General of the Occupied Polish Territory; that Dr. Seyss- Inquart is appointed as Deputy Governor-General and that "the Governor-General shall be directly responsible to me," meaning Hitler, he having signed the decree.

While some of the outside world was prone in earlier days to wonder at the apparent efficiency of Nazi administration, we now know that it was often riddled with the petty jealousies of small men in positions of some authority and with jurisdictional fractiousness. No such difficulty existed with the defendant Frank, however, for though he was not without the threat of divided authority, he insisted upon, and was granted, the favour of supreme command within the territorial confines of the General Government. Only two references from his diary, one in 1940 and one in 1942, are necessary to show how all-embracing was his direction and authority.

At a meeting of Department Heads of the Government General on 8th March, 1940, in the Bergakademie, the defendant Frank clarified his status as Governor-General, and these remarks appear in the diary and in our document 2233-PS-N, at Page 42 in the document book, the original of which I offer into evidence as Exhibit USA 173.

In the German text, the extracts appear in the Department Head Meetings, Volume for 1939-40, Pages 6, 7 and 8. Frank says:

"One thing is certain. The authority of Governor-General as the representative of the Fuehrer and the will of the Reich in this territory is certainly strong, and I have always emphasised that I would not tolerate misuse of this authority. I have allowed this to be known anew at every office in Berlin, especially after Herr Field Marshal Goering on 12th February, 1940, from Karin Hall, had forbidden all Administrative Offices

[Page 142]

of the Reich, including the Police and even the Wehrmacht, to interfere in administrative matters of the Government General..."
He goes on to say:
"There is no authority here in the Government General which is higher as to rank, influence and authority than that of the Governor-General Even the Wehrmacht has no governmental or official functions of any kind in this connection; it has only security functions and general military duties - it has no political power whatsoever. The same applies here to the Police and the SS. There is here no State within a State, but we are Representatives of the Fuehrer and of the Reich."
Later, in 1942, at a conference of the District political leaders of the N.S.D.A.P. in Cracow on 18th March, defendant Frank further explained the relationship between the administration and the Reichsfuehrer S.S. Himmler. These remarks appear in the diary and in our Document 2233-PS-R and at Page 48 of the document book, the original of which I offer into evidence, as Exhibit USA 608. In the German text, the extract to be quoted appears at Page 185, of diary volume 1942, Part 1. I quote:
"As you know" - says Frank - "I am a fanatic as to unity in administration.... It is, therefore, clear that the Higher S.S. and Police Leader is subordinated to me, that the Police is a component of the Government, that the S.S. and Police Leader in the district is subordinated to the Governor, and that the district chief has the authority of command over the Police in his district. This, the Reichsfuehrer S.S. has recognised; in the written agreement all these points are mentioned word for word and signed.

It is also self-evident that we cannot establish a closed set-up here which can be treated in the traditional manner of small States."

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Do you think all this has to be read?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: It is considered important, Sir, by the United States prosecution, in view of the fact that this is the later extract from the diary, and communicates that two years later Frank considered himself to be the Supreme Authority in the Government General. This is a point which we conceive to be of importance, Sir.

May I proceed ?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN:

"It would, for instance, be ridiculous if we were to build up here a security police of our own against our Poles in the country, while knowing that the Poles in West Prussia, in Posen, in Wartheland and in Silesia have one and the same Movement of Resistance. The Reichsfuehrer S.S. and Chief of the German Police thus must be able to carry out, with the aid of his agencies, his police measures concerning the interests of the Reich as a whole. This, however, will be done in such a way that the measures to be adopted will first be submitted to me, and carried out only when I give up consent. In the Government General, the Police are the Armed Forces. As a result of this, the Leader of the Police system will be called by me into the Government of the Government General; he is subordinate to me, or to my deputy, as a State Secretary for the Security System."
At this juncture, it is appropriate to mention that the man who filled the position of State Secretary for Security in the Government General was Frank's Higher S.S. and Police Leader, Kruger.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you read the next page?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: May it please the Tribunal, I shall come to that excerpt later.

[Page 143]

THE PRESIDENT: In the same document?

LIEUTENANT-COLONEL BALDWIN: Yes, Sir. It seems more appropriate at another point.

The Tribunal may recall that the reports of the extermination of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto were made in the spring of 1943 by S.S. Leader Stroop - who immediately supervised the operation - to this same Kruger, who was still at that time one of the most influential members of Frank's Cabinet, as State Secretary for Security.

It was inevitable that the grand Common Plan or Conspiracy should have, as its component parts, a host of small plans, each dealing with a particular sphere of activity. These plans, differing from the master plan only in size, are the blueprints for a specific action drawn from the broad policies. Occupied Poland was no exception to this rule. The plan for the administration of Poland was contained in a top secret memorandum of a conference between Hitler and the Chief of the O.K.W., defendant Keitel, entitled, "Regarding Future Relations of Poland to Germany" and dated 20th October, 1939. This report was initialled by General Warlimont. It is our Document 964-PS and may be found at Page 3 of the document book, and I shall offer it into evidence as Exhibit USA 609.

I shall quote, if the Court please, only from paragraphs 1, 3, 4 and 6:

"1. The Armed Forces will welcome it if they can dispose of administrative questions in Poland.

On principle, there cannot be two administrations.

3. It is not the task of the Administration to make Poland into a model province or a model State of the German Order or to put her economically or financially on a sound basis.

The Polish intelligentsia must be prevented from forming a ruling class. The standard of living in the country is to remain low; we want only to draw labour forces from there. Poles are also to be used for the administration of the country. However, the forming of national political groups may not be allowed.

4. The administration has to work on its own responsibility and must not be dependent on Berlin. We do not want to do there what we do in the Reich. The responsibility does not rest with the Berlin Ministries, since there is no German administration unit concerned.

The accomplishment of this task will involve a hard racial struggle which will not allow any legal restrictions. The methods will be incompatible with the principles otherwise adhered to by us.

The Governor General is to give the Polish nation only bare living conditions and is to maintain the basis for military security.

6. Any tendencies towards the consolidation of conditions in Poland are to be suppressed. The 'Polish Muddle' must be allowed to develop. The government of the territory must make it possible for us to purify the Reich territory from Jews and Poles too. Collaboration with new Reich provinces (Posen and West Prussia) only for resettlements (compare Mission Himmler).

Purpose: Shrewdness and severity must be the maxims in this racial struggle, in order to spare us from going to battle on account of this country again."

The defendant Frank was the chosen executor of this programme. He knew its aims, approved of them, and actively carried out the scheme. The Tribunal's attention has already been invited to Exhibit USA 297 wherein (Page 422, Part 2) the defendant Frank expounded the mission which his Fuehrer had assigned to him and according to which he intended to administer in Poland. It contemplated, in brief, ruthless exploitation, deportation of all supplies and

[Page 144]

workers, reduction of the entire Polish economy to absolute minimum necessary for bare existence of the population, and the closing of all schools. No more callous statement exists than one Frank made in this report, wherein he said, "Poland shall be treated as a colony; the Poles shall be the slaves of the Greater German World Empire."

In December, 1940, Frank submitted to his department heads that the task of administering Poland did truly involve a hard racial struggle which would not allow any legal restrictions. I refer to our Document 2233PS-O, which may be found at Page 45 in the document book. It is taken from the "Frank Diary," and I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA 173. In the German text the extract to be quoted appears in the volume of the diary entitled "Department Heads Meetings 1939-40," on Pages 12 and 13. I now quote:

"In this country the force of a determined leadership must rule. The Pole must feel here that we are not building him a legal State, but that for him there is only one duty, namely to work and to behave himself. It is clear that this must sometimes lead to difficulties, but you must, in your own interest, see that all measures are ruthlessly carried out in order to become master of the situation. You can rely on me absolutely in this."
As for the Poles and Ukrainians, defendant Frank's attitude was clear. They were to be permitted to slave for the German economy as long as the war emergency continued. Once the war was won, even this cynical interest would cease. I refer to a speech before German political. leaders at Cracow on 12th January, 1944. It appears in the "Frank Diary" and as our Document 2233PS-B at Page 60 in the document book. It is the first passage on that page. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit USA 295. In the diary, the German text will be found in the loose-leaf volume covering the period from 1st January to 28th February, 1944, at the entry for 14th January, 1944, at Page 24:

"Once the war is won," Frank tells these leaders - and here we have, may it please the Court, the classic example of the completely brutal statement" Once the War is won, then for all I care, mincemeat can be made of the Poles and the Ukrainians and all the others who run around here-it does not matter what happens."

In accordance with the racial programme of the Nazi conspirators, the defendant Frank makes it quite clear in his diary that the complete annihilation of Jews was one of his cherished objectives. In Exhibit USA 271, Frank stated in late 1940 in his diary that he could not eliminate all lice and Jews in a year's time. In Exhibit USA 281, he says in his diary in the year 1942 that a programme of starvation rations sentencing, in effect, 1,200,000 Jews to die of hunger, should be noted only marginally. In Exhibit USA 295, he confided to a secret Press conference that in the year 1944 - and this, too, is from the diary - there were still in the Government General perhaps 100,000 Jews.


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