Nazi conspiracy and aggression, Volume 02 (of 11)

Chapter XIII on Germanization and Spoliation. This section will attempt

Chapter 2027,237 wordsPublic domain

to trace Frank’s special responsibility, as Governor General, for the policies underlying the crimes committed in the General Government during the period of his administration.

Frank was appointed Governor General of the Occupied Polish Territories by a Hitler decree dated 12 October 1939. The scope of his executive power was defined as follows:

“Section 1. The territories occupied by German troops shall be subject to the authority of the Governor General of the occupied Polish territories, except insofar as they are incorporated within the German Reich.

“Section 2. (1) I appoint Reich Minister Dr. Frank as Governor General of the occupied Polish territories. (2) As Deputy Governor General I appoint Reich Minister Dr. Seyss-Inquart.

“Section 3. (1) The Governor General shall be directly responsible to me. (2) All branches of the administration shall be directed by the Governor General * * *.”(_2537-PS_)

The jurisdiction and functions of Frank in the General Government are described by him in several passages of his diary. For example at a meeting of Department Heads of the General Government on 8 March 1940 in the _Bergakademie_, Frank clarified his status as follows:

“One thing is certain. The authority of General Government as the representative of the Fuehrer and the will of the Reich in this territory is certainly strong, and I have always emphasized that I would not tolerate the misuse of this authority. I have allowed this to be known anew at every office in Berlin, especially after Herr Field Marshall Goering on 12.2.1940 from Karin-hall had forbidden all Administrative Offices of the Reich, including the Police and even the _Wehrmacht_, to interfere in administrative matters of the General Government * * *.

“There is no authority here in the General Government 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 SS. There is here no state within a state but we are the representatives of the Fuehrer and of the Reich. In final conclusion, this applies also to the Party which has here no far-reaching influence except for the fact that very old members of the National Socialist Party and loyal veterans of the Fuehrer take care of general matters.” (_2233-M-PS_)

At a conference of the District _Standartenfuehrer_ of the NSDAP in Cracow on 18 March 1942, Frank explained the relationship between his administration and Himmler:

“As you know I am a fanatic as to unity in administration. * * * It is therefore clear that the Higher SS and Police Officer is subordinated to me, that the Police is a component of the government, that the SS and Police Officer in the district is subordinated to the Governor, and that the _Kreis_ [district] chief has the authority of command over the gendarmerie in his _Kreis_ [district]. This the Reichsfuehrer SS has recognized; in the written agreement all these points are mentioned word for word and signed. It is also self-evident that we cannot set up a closed shop here which can be treated in the traditional manner of small states. It would, for instance, be ridiculous if we would build up here a security policy of our own against our Poles in the country, while knowing that the Polacks in West Prussia, in Posen, in Wartheland and in Silesia have one and the same movement of resistance. The Reichsfuehrer SS 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 my consent. In the General Government, the Police is the Armed Forces. As a result of this, the leader of the Police system will be called by me into the government of the General Government; he is subordinate to me, or to my deputy, as a State Secretary for the Security Systems.” (_2233-R-PS_)

D. _THE PROTOCOL UNDER WHICH THE PURPOSES OF FRANK’S ADMINISTRATION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT WERE DEFINED CONSTITUTES IN ITSELF A CRIMINAL PLAN OR CONSPIRACY._

The protocol of the conversation between Keitel and Hitler, which was dated 20 October 1939 and initialed by General Warlimont, regarding “The Future Shape of Polish Relations with Germany” provided in part as follows:

“(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 only want to draw labor 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 don’t want to do there what we do in the Reich. The responsibility does not rest with the Berlin Ministries since there is no German administrative unit concerned.

“The accomplishment of this task will involve a hard racial struggle [_Volkstumskampf_] 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’ [_polnische Wirtschaft_] must be allowed to develop. The government of the territory must make it possible for us to purify the _Reich territory_ from Jews and Polacks, 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.” (_864-PS_)

Frank’s own statements regarding the purposes of his administration in Poland should be considered in connection with the foregoing document. The economic and political responsibilities which had been conferred on Frank by Hitler, and according to which he “_intended to administer Poland_”, were explained by Frank as follows in an interview that took place on 3 October 1939:

“Poland can only be administered by utilizing the country through means of ruthless exploitation, deportation of all supplies, raw materials, machines, factory installations, etc., which are important for the German war economy, availability of all workers for work within Germany, reduction of the entire Polish economy to absolute minimum necessary for bare existence of the population, closing of all educational institutions, especially technical schools and colleges in order to prevent the growth of the new Polish intelligentsia. ‘Poland shall be treated as a colony; the Poles shall be the slaves of the Greater German World Empire.’” (_EC-344-16 & 17_)

The Hitler-Keitel protocol should also be construed in the light of various passages in Frank’s diary relating to German policy in Poland. Illegality had been made in effect a canon of administration by the protocol, which provided that Frank’s task involved “a hard racial struggle which will not allow any legal restrictions.” Frank emphasized this point to his Department Heads at a conference on 19 December 1940:

“* * * 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 leads sometimes 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.” (_2233-O-PS_)

It was the German purpose from the beginning to administer the General Government as colonial territory in total disregard of the duties imposed by International Law on an occupying power, and Frank’s administrative policies were shaped in accordance with this policy. At the first conference with Department Heads of the General Government on 2 December 1939, Frank stated:

“Decisive in the administrative activities of the General Government is the will of the Fuehrer that this area shall be the first colonial territory of the German nation.” (_2233-K-PS_)

The “hard racial struggle” which Keitel and Hitler agreed could be solved only if attacked without “legal restrictions,” developed into the struggle which had as its ultimate purpose the Germanization of the General Government.

Frank’s adherence to the conspirators’ Germanization policy was clearly expressed by him at an official meeting of political leaders of the NSDAP in Cracow on 5 August 1942. Frank explained on that occasion:

“The situation in regard to Poland is unique insofar as on the one hand—I speak quite openly—we must expand Germanism in such a manner that the area of the General Government becomes pure German colonized land at some decades to come; and, on the other hand under the present war conditions we have to allow foreign racial groups to perform here the work which must be carried out in the service of Greater Germany.” (_2233-V-PS_)

Expediency, and expediency only, tempered Frank’s treatment of the nonGerman population of the General Government in the “hard racial struggle” he was charged with administering. The General Government was destined to become “pure German colonized land”, the valley of the Vistula to be as “German as the valley of the Rhine.” (_2233-H-PS_)

As for the Poles and Ukrainians, Frank’s attitude was clear. They were to be permitted to work for the German economy as long as the war emergency continued. Once the war was won, he told the District _Standortfuehrung_ and Political Leaders at a conference at Cracow on 14 January 1944:

“* * * then, for all I care, mincemeat [_Hackfleisch_] can be made of the Poles and the Ukrainians and all the others who run around here—it does not matter what happens.” (_2233-BB-PS_)

E. _FRANK ADVOCATED AND ADMINISTERED A PROGRAM OF EXTERMINATING JEWS OF POLISH NATIONALITY WITHIN THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT._

Frank’s diary makes it clear that the complete annihilation of Jews, in accordance with the racial program of the Nazi conspirators, was one of the objectives of his administration as Governor General. In the fall of 1940 Frank urged German soldiers to reassure their families in Germany with regard to the hardships of life in the General Government:

“In all these weeks, they [i.e., your families] will be thinking of you, saying to themselves: My God, there he sits in Poland where there are so many lice and Jews, perhaps he is hungry and cold, perhaps he is afraid to write. * * * It would not be a bad idea then to send our dear ones back home a picture, and tell them: well now, there are not so many lice and Jews any more, and conditions here in the Government General have changed and improved somewhat already. Of course, I could not eliminate all lice and Jews in only one year’s time (public amused). But in the course of time, and above all, if you help me, this end will be attained. After all, it is not necessary for us to accomplish everything within a year and right away, for what would otherwise be left for those who follow us to do?” (_2233-C-PS_).

A year later at a Cabinet Session of 16 December 1941 Frank restated the official policy of his administration with respect to Jews:

“As far as the Jews are concerned, I want to tell you quite frankly, that they must be done away with in one way or another. The Fuehrer said once: should united Jewry again succeed in provoking a world war, the blood of not only the nations which have been forced into the war by them, will be shed, but the Jew will have found his end in Europe * * *.

“Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews, wherever we find them and wherever it is possible, in order to maintain here the structure of the Reich as a whole. This will, naturally, be achieved by other methods than those pointed out by Bureau Chief Dr. Hummel. Nor can the judges of the Special Courts be made responsible for it, because of the limitations of the framework of the legal procedure. Such out-dated views cannot be applied to such gigantic and unique events. We must find at any rate, a way which leads to the goal, and my thoughts are working in that direction.

“The Jews represent for us also extraordinarily malignant gluttons. We have now approximately 2,500,000 of them in the General Government, perhaps with the Jewish mixtures and everything that goes with it, 3,500,000 Jews. We cannot shoot or poison those 3,500,000 Jews, but we shall nevertheless be able to take measures, which will lead, somehow, to their annihilation, and this in connection with the gigantic measures to be determined in discussions from the Reich. The General Government must become free of Jews, the same as the Reich. Where and how this is to be achieved is a matter for the offices which we must appoint and create here. Their activities will be brought to your attention in due course.” (_2233-D-PS_)

An earlier passage in the report of this session of the Cabinet explains the references to Dr. Hummel. Hummel had complained that legal formalities were obstructing the process of liquidation:

“In Warsaw, in spite of the setting up of a third court chamber, we have been able to decree only 45 death sentences, only 8 of which have been carried out, since in each individual case, the Pardon Commission [_Gnadenkommission_] in Cracow has to make the final decision. A further 600 sentences were demanded and are under consideration. An effective isolation of the ghetto is not possible by way of the Special Court Procedure. The procedure to be followed up to the liquidation takes too much time; it is burdened with too many formalities and must be simplified.” (_2233-Q-PS_)

Frank himself ordered that every Jew seen outside the Ghetto should be executed:

“Severe measures must and will be adopted against Jews leaving the Ghettos. Death sentences pending against Jews for this reason must be carried out as quickly as possible. This order according to which every Jew found outside the Ghetto is to be executed, must be carried out without fail.” (_2233-Q-PS_)

When ways and means of meeting the food deficit in the General Government created by the increase in quotas to be requisitioned for export to Germany were discussed in August 1942, Frank approved a program which provided in part as follows:

“The feeding of a Jewish population, estimated heretofore at 1.5 million, drops off to an estimated total of 300,000 Jews, who still work for German interests as craftsmen or otherwise. For these the Jewish rations, including certain special allotments which have proved necessary for the maintenance of working capacity, will be retained. The other Jews, a total of 1.2 million, will no longer be provided with foodstuffs.” (_2233-E-PS_)

Frank’s concurrence was expressed in the following terms:

“That we sentence 1.2 million Jews to die of hunger should be noted only marginally. It is a matter of course that should the Jews not starve it would, we hope, result in speeding up anti-Jewish measures.” (_2233-E-PS_)

At an official meeting of the political leaders of the NSDAP on 5 August 1942, Frank made the following progress report:

“What a dirty people made up of Jews swaggered around here before 1939! And where are the Jews today? You scarcely see them. If you see them they are working.” (_2233-V-PS_)

In December 1941, Frank had pointed out that his administration could not shoot or poison all the three and a half million Jews in the General Government. He had promised, however, that he would be able to devise measures which would lead to their annihilation. Two years later, at a special press conference in January 1944, he was able to report that his mission was almost accomplished.

“At the present time we have still in the General Government perhaps 100,000 Jews.” (_2233-F-PS_)

F. _FRANK IMPOSED UPON THE POPULATION OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT A REIGN OF TERROR, OPPRESSION, IMPOVERISHMENT, AND STARVATION._

What had happened in the General Government in the first three and a half years of Frank’s administration was summarized by Frank in a report to Hitler on the situation in Poland, dated 19 June 1943:

“In the course of time, a series of measures or of consequences of the German rule have led to a substantial _deterioration of the attitude_ of the entire Polish people in the German Government. These measures have affected either individual professions or the entire population and frequently also—often with crushing severity—the fate of individuals.

“Among these are in particular:

“1—The entirely insufficient nourishment of the population, mainly of the working classes in the cities, whose majority is working for German interests.

“Until the war of 1939, its food supplies, though not varied, were sufficient and generally secure, due to the agrarian surplus of the former Polish state and in spite of the negligence on the part of their former political leadership.

“2—The confiscation of a great part of the Polish estates and the expropriation without compensation and resettlement of Polish peasants from manoeuvre areas and from German settlements.

“3—Encroachments and confiscations in the industries, in commerce and trade and in the field of private property.

“4—Mass arrests and mass shootings by the German police who applied the system of collective responsibility.

“5—The rigorous methods of recruiting workers.

“6—The extensive paralyzation of cultural life.

“7—The closing of high schools, junior colleges, and universities.

“8—The limitation, indeed the complete elimination of Polish influence from all spheres of State administration.

“9—Curtailment of the influence of the Catholic Church, limiting its extensive influence—an undoubtedly necessary move—and, in addition, until quite recently, the closing and confiscation of monasteries, schools and charitable institutions.” (_437-PS_)

In order to illustrate how completely Frank as Governor General is identified with the criminal policies whose execution is reported in the foregoing document, and the extent to which they were the official policies of his administration, it is proposed to annotate several of the items with passages from Frank’s own diary.

(1) _Undernourishment of Polish population._ The extent of the undernourishment of the Polish population was reported to Frank in September 1941 by _Obermedizinalrat_ Dr. Walbaum:

“_Obermedizinalrat_ Dr. Walbaum expresses his opinion of the _health condition_ of the Polish population. Investigations which were carried out by his department proved that the majority of Poles eat only about 600 calories, whereas the normal requirement for a human being is 2,200 calories. The Polish population was enfeebled to such an extent that it would fall an easy prey to _spotted fever_. The number of diseased Poles amounted today already to 40%. During the last week alone 1000 new spotted fever cases have been officially recorded. * * * If the food rations were to be diminished again, an enormous increase of the number of illnesses could be predicted.” (_2233-P-PS_)

It was clear from this report that starvation was prevalent in the General Government. Nevertheless, in August 1942, Frank approved a new plan which called for much larger contributions of foodstuffs to Germany at the expense of the nonGerman population of the General Government. Methods of meeting the new quotas out of the already grossly inadequate rations of the General Government, and the impact of the new quotas on the economy of the country were discussed at a Cabinet meeting of the General Government, on 18 August 1942 in terms which leave no doubt that not only was the proposed requisition far beyond the resources of the country, but its impact was to be distributed on a discriminatory basis.

Frank’s opening remarks at this meeting defined the scope of the problem and its solution:

“Before the German people are to experience starvation, the occupied territories and their people shall be exposed to starvation. In this moment therefore we here in the General Government must also have the iron determination to help the Great German people, our Fatherland. . . . The General Government therefore must do the following: The General Government has taken on the obligation to send 500,000 tons bread grains to the Fatherland in addition to the foodstuffs already being delivered for the relief of Germany or consumed here by troops of the armed forces, Police or SS. If you compare this with our contributions of last year you can see that this means a six fold increase over that of last year’s contribution of the General Government. The new demand will be fulfilled exclusively at _the expense of the foreign population_. It must be done cold-bloodedly and without pity; * * *” (_2233-E-PS_).

President of the Main Department for Food and Agriculture Naumann (apparently an official of the General Government) then described how the reduced quantity of food available for feeding the population of the General Government should be distributed:

“The feeding of a _Jewish population_, estimated heretofore at 1.5 million, drops off to an estimated total of 300,000 Jews, who still work for German interests as craftsmen or otherwise. For these the Jewish rations, including certain special allotments which have proved necessary for the maintenance of working capacity, will be retained. The other Jews, a total of 1.2 million, will no longer be provided with foodstuffs.

“_Non-German normal consumers_ will receive, from 1 January 1943 to 1 March 1943, instead of 4.2 kg. bread per month, 2.8 kg; from 1 March 1943 to 30 July 1943 the total bread ration for these non-German normal consumers will be cancelled.

“_Those entitled to be supplied_ [_Versorgungsberechtigten_] are composed as follows. We estimate that 3 million persons come into consideration as war workers, the A- and B-card holders and their kin, and that somewhat more than 3 million persons are non-German normal consumers, who do not work directly or indirectly in the interests of Germany. The war workers, A- and B-card holders and their families, about 3 million persons, will however continue to be supplied, up to the harvest of 1943, at the prevailing rates.” (_2233-E-PS_)

Naumann goes on to discuss the difficulties that may be encountered in the process of requisition:

“_The securing of all depots and food processing plants_, as well as their transport facilities must be assured, as otherwise irreplaceable losses result which mean a further burdening of the food budget. I have had maps made of all districts [_Kreise_] on which the depots have all been drawn in. I request that the necessary measures be taken on the part of the police and these depots, which are in the eye of the hungering masses, above all at times when the restrictions are carried out, should be strictly guarded, so that the meager supplies which we have until the new harvest should not be destroyed by sabotage or arson. . . . Finally it must be determined at the beginning of November whether the _martial law for the harvest period_, which has been proclaimed up to 30 November, must be extended to 30 December. Martial law for the harvest period has been extended to all products which are to be seized. The planned quota increase and reduction of ration quantities must be kept secret under all circumstances and may be published only at that time which the Main Department for Food and Agriculture considers proper. Should the reduction of ration quantities and the increase of quotas become known earlier, extremely noticeable disturbances in the seizure would take place. The mass of the Polish population would then go to the land and would become a supplementary competitor of our requisitioning agencies.” (_2233-E-PS_)

Frank’s concluding remarks summarized the position as follows:

“I must point out that some sectors of the administration will feel this very keenly. In the first place the _police_ will feel this, for it will have to deal, if I may say so, with an increased activity of the black market and a neglect of food customs. I will gladly give the police extraordinary powers so that they can overcome these difficulties.

“The economy will feel it. The decrease of work rendered will become felt in all sectors, branches and regions. I also assume that our _transport system_ will feel it too. In view of the worsening living conditions an extraordinary hardship will set in for railroad workers and other categories; as the previous quantities of food were already not enough. The monopolies will feel it through a decrease of their incomes, as the amounts of potatoes available for the production of vodka will be less.

“The _Germans_ in this area shall not feel it. We wish in spite of this new plan to see to it that the supplies for Germans will be maintained. Also the _Wehrmacht_ and other encamped units in this area shall not feel it. We hope that it will be possible for us to keep up the whole quotas here.

“To help in this necessity there is a corresponding measure, namely that the supervision of persons traveling from the General Government to the Reich, above all of military personnel, in order to see whether they are _taking food out_ of the General Government, should be suspended. This means that in addition to all that which we must now extract from the land economically, there must take place a complete removal of control over that which is dragged out of the land by thousands upon thousands—doubtless illegally and against our government measures.” (_2233-E-PS_)

The extent of the General Government’s food contribution to the Reich, and its significance in terms of rations within Germany were described by Frank at a meeting of political leaders of the NSDAP in December 1942 at Cracow:

“I will endeavor to get out of the reservoir of this territory everything that is yet to be got out of it. When you consider that it was possible for me to deliver to the Reich 600,000 tons of bread grain, and in addition 180,000 tons to the Armed Forces stationed here; further an abundance amounting to many thousands of tons of other commodities such as seed, fats, vegetables, besides the delivery to the Reich of 300 million eggs, etc.—you can estimate the significance of the consignment from the General Government of 600,000 tons of bread grain; you are referred to the fact that the General Government by this achievement alone covers the raising of the bread ration in the Greater German Reich by two-thirds during the present rationing period. This enormous achievement can rightfully be claimed by us.” (_2233-Z-PS_)

(2) _Resettlement projects._ Although Himmler was given general authority in connection with the conspirators’ program to resettle various districts in the conquered Eastern territories with racial Germans, projects relating to resettling districts in the General Government were submitted to and approved by Frank. On 4 August 1942, for example, the plan to resettle Zamosc and Lublin was reported to him by State Secretary Krueger:

“State Secretary Krueger then continues, saying that the Reichsfuehrer’s next immediate plan until the end of the following year would be to settle the following German racial groups in the two districts (Zamosc and Lublin): 1000 peasant settlements (1 settlement per family of about 6) for Bosnian Germans; 1200 other kinds of settlements; 1000 settlements for Bessarabian Germans; 200 for Serbian Germans; 2000 for Leningrad Germans; 4000 for Baltic Germans; 500 for Wolhynia Germans; and 200 settlements for Flemish, Danish and Dutch Germans: in all 10,000 settlements for 50,000 persons” (_2233-T-PS_). Frank directed that:

“* * * the resettlement plan is to be discussed cooperatively by the competent authorities and declared his willingness to approve the final plan by the end of September after satisfactory arrangements had been made concerning all the questions appertaining thereto (in particular the guaranteeing of peace and order) so that by the middle of November, as the most favorable time, the resettlement can begin.” (_2233-T-PS_)

The way in which the resettlement at Zamosc was carried out was described to Frank at a meeting at Warsaw on 25 January 1943 by State Secretary Krueger:

“When we settled about the first 4000 in Kreis Zamosc shortly before Christmas I had an opportunity to speak to these people. * * * It is understandable that in resettling this area . . . we did not make friends of the Poles. * * * In colonizing this territory with racial Germans, we are forced to chase out the Poles. * * * We are removing those who constitute a burden in this new colonization territory. Actually, they are the asocial and inferior elements. They are being deported, first brought to a concentration camp, and then sent as labor to the Reich. From a Polish propaganda standpoint this entire first action has had an unfavorable effect. For the Poles say: After the Jews have been destroyed then they will employ the same methods to get the Poles out of this territory and liquidate them just like the Jews.” (_2233-AA-PS_)

Although the illegality of this dispossession of Poles to make room for German settlers was clear, and although the fact that the Poles were not only being dispossessed but taken off to concentration camps was drawn to Frank’s attention at this time, he merely directed that individual cases of resettlement should in future be discussed in the same manner as in the case of Zamosc. (_2233-AA-PS_)

(3) _Encroachments and confiscations in the industries and in the field of private property._

Frank explained his policy in respect to Polish property to his Department Heads in the following terms in December 1939:

“Principally it can be said regarding the administration of the General Government: This territory in its entirety is booty of the German Reich, and it thus cannot be permitted that this territory shall be exploited in its individual parts but that the territory in its entirety shall be economically used and its entire economic worth redound to the benefit of the German people.” (_2233-K-PS_)

Whatever encroachments there were on private property rights in the General Government fell squarely within the policy which Frank in an interview on 3 October 1939 stated he intended to administer as General Governor:

“Poland can only be administered by utilizing the country through means of ruthless exploitation, deportation of all supplies, raw materials, machines, factory installations etc. which are important for the German war economy. * * * [It was Frank’s opinion] that the war would be a short one and that it was most important now to make available as soon as possible raw materials, machines and workers to the German industry, which was short in all of these. Most important, however, in Frank’s opinion, was the fact that by destroying Polish industry, its subsequent reconstruction after the war would become more difficult, if not impossible, so that Poland would be reduced to its proper position as an agrarian country which would have to depend upon Germany for importation of industrial products.” (_EC-344-16 & 17_)

The basic decree under which property in the General Government was sequestered was promulgated by Frank on 24 January 1940. This decree authorized sequestration in connection with the “performance of tasks serving the public interest,” the seizure of “abandoned property,” and the liquidation of “antisocial or financially unremunerative property.” It permitted the Higher S.S. and Police Chief to order sequestrations “with the object of increasing the striking power of the units of the uniformed police and armed S.S.” No legal recourse was granted for losses arising from the enforcement of the decree, compensation being solely in the discretion of an official of the General Government. It is clear that the undefined criteria of this decree empowered Nazi officials in the General Government to engage in wholesale seizure of property. (_2540-PS_)

(4) _Principle of collective responsibility._ It was no part of Frank’s policy in administering the General Government that reprisals should be commensurate with the gravity of the offense. Frank was, on the contrary, an advocate of drastic measures in dealing with the Polish people. At a conference of Department Heads of the General Government on 19 January 1940, he explained:

“My relationship with the Poles is like the relationship between ant and plant louse. When I treat the Poles in a helpful way, so to speak tickle them in a friendly manner, then I do it in the expectation that their work performance redounds to my benefit. This is not a political but a purely tactical-technical problem. * * * In cases where in spite of all these measures the performance does not increase, or where the slightest act gives me occasion to step in, I would not even hesitate to take the most draconic action.” (_2233-L-PS_)

At a subsequent meeting of Department Heads on 8 March 1940 Frank became even more explicit:

“Whenever there is the least-attempt by the Poles to start anything, an enormous campaign of destruction will follow. Then I would not mind starting a regime of terror, or fear its consequences.” (_2233-M-PS_)

At a conference of District Standartenfuehrer at Cracow on 18 March 1942 Frank reiterated his policy:

“Incidentally, the struggle for the achievement of our aims will be pursued cold bloodedly. You see how the state agencies work. You see that we do not hesitate before anything, and stand whole dozens of people up against the wall. This is necessary because here simple consideration says that it cannot be our task at this period when the best German blood is being sacrificed, to show regard for the blood of another race. For out of this one of the greatest dangers may arise. One already hears today in Germany that prisoners-of-war, for instance with us in Bavaria or in Thuringia, are administering large estates entirely independently, while all the men in a village fit for service are at the front. If this state of affairs continues then a gradual retrogression of Germanism will show itself. One should not underestimate this danger. Therefore, everything revealing itself as a Polish power of leadership must be destroyed again and again with ruthless energy. This does not have to be shouted abroad, it will happen silently.” (_2233-R-PS_)

And on 15 January 1944 Frank assured the political leaders of the NSDAP at Cracow:

“I have not been hesitant in declaring that when a German is shot, up to 100 Poles shall be shot too.” (_2233-BB-PS_)

(5) _Rigorous methods of recruiting workers._ Force, violence, and economic duress were all advocated by Frank as means for recruiting laborers for deportation to slave labor in Germany. Deportation of Polish laborers to Germany was an integral part of the program announced by Frank for his administration of the General Government (See _EC-344-16 & 17_), and as Governor General he authorized whatever degree of force was required for the execution of his program.

Voluntary methods of recruitment soon proved inadequate. In the spring of 1940 the question of utilizing force came up, and the following discussion took place in the presence of Seyss-Inquart:

“The Governor-General stated that the fact that all means in form of proclamations etc. did not bring success, leads to the conclusion that the Poles out of malevolence, and guided by the intention of harming Germany by not putting themselves at its disposal, refuse to enlist for working duty. Therefore, he asks Dr. Frauendorfer, if there are any other measures, not as yet employed, to win the Poles on a voluntary basis.

“_Reichshauptamtsleiter_ Dr. Frauendorfer answered this question negatively.

“The General Governor emphasized the fact that he now will be asked to take a definite attitude toward this question. Therefore the question will arise whether any form of _coercive measures_ should now be employed.

“The question put by the General Governor to SS Lieutenant General [_Obergruppenfuehrer_] Krueger: does he see possibilities of calling Polish workers by coercive means, is answered in the affirmative by SS Lieutenant General _Krueger_.” (_2233-N-PS_)

At the same conference Frank declared that he was willing to agree to any practical measures, and decreed that unemployment compensation should be discontinued on 1 May 1940 as a means of recruiting labor for Germany.

“The General Governor is willing to agree to any practical measure; however, he wishes to be informed personally about the measures to be taken. One measure, which no doubt would be successful, would be the _discontinuance of unemployment compensation_ for unemployed workers and their _transfer to public welfare_. Therefore, he decrees that, beginning _1 May_, claim for unemployment compensation will cease to exist and only public welfare may be granted. For the time being only men are to report and above those men living in cities. There might be a possibility of combining the moving of the 120,000 Poles from the Warthe district with this measure.” (_2233-N-PS_)

In March 1940 Frank assured the authorities in Berlin that he was prepared to have villages surrounded and the people dragged forcibly out. He reported that, in the course of his negotiations in Berlin regarding the urgent demand for larger numbers of Polish farm workers, he had stated:

“* * * if it is demanded from him, [he] could naturally exercise force in such a manner, that he has the police surround a village and get the men and women in question out by force, and then send them to Germany. But one can also work differently, besides these police measures, by retaining the unemployment compensation of these workers in question.” (_2233-B-PS_)

At a conference of Department Heads of the General Government on 10 May 1940 Frank laid down the following principles for dealing with the problem of conscription labor:

“Upon the demands from the Reich it has now been decreed that compulsion may be exercised in view of the fact that sufficient manpower was not voluntarily available for service inside the German Reich. This compulsion means the possibility of arrest of male and female Poles. . . . The arrest of young Poles when leaving church services or the cinema would bring about an ever-increasing nervousness of the Poles. Generally speaking, he had no objection at all if the rubbish, capable of work yet often loitering about, would be snatched from the streets. The best method for this, however, would be the organization of a raid, and it would be absolutely justifiable to stop a Pole in the street and to question him what he was doing, where he was working, etc.” (_2233-A-PS_)

Frank utilized starvation as a method of recruitment. At a conference on 20 November 1942 the following plan was agreed:

“Starting 1 February 1942 the food ration cards should not be issued to the individual Pole or Ukrainian by the Nutrition Office [_Ernaehrungsamt_], but to the establishments working for the German interest. 2,000,000 people would thus be eliminated from the non-German, normal ration-consuming contingent. Now, if those ration cards are only distributed by the factories, part of those people will naturally rush into the factories. Labor could then be either procured for Germany from them or they could be used for the most important work in the factories of the General Government.” (_2233-Y-PS_)

On 18 August 1942 Frank informed Sauckel that the General Government had already supplied 800,000 laborers to Germany, and that a further 140,000 would be supplied by the end of the year. Regarding the quota for the next year he promised:

“* * * you can, however, next year reckon upon a higher number of workers from the General Government, for we shall employ the Police to conscript them.” (_2233-W-PS_)

Six months after Frank promised Sauckel to resort to police action to round up labor for deportation to Germany, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Main Committee reported to Frank that the program was being carried out as follows:

“The wild and ruthless man-hunt carried on everywhere in towns and country, in streets, squares, stations, even in churches, at night in houses, has badly shaken the feeling of security of the inhabitants. Everybody is exposed to the danger of being seized anywhere and at any time by members of the police, suddenly and unexpectedly, and being brought into an assembly camp. None of his relatives knows what has happened to him, only weeks or months later, one or the other gives news of his fate by a postcard.” (_1526-PS_)

(6) _Closing of schools._ The program outlined by Frank on 3 October 1939 as the program he intended to administer as Governor General included:

“closing of all educational institutions, especially technical schools and colleges in order to prevent the growth of the new Polish intelligentsia.” (_EC-344-16 & 17_)

This decision was taken by Frank before it was determined what schools, if any, might be closed because of failure of instructors to refrain from reference to politics, or refusal to submit to inspection by the occupying authorities. Moreover, the policy was determined, as indicated, in furtherance of the purpose of preventing the rise of an educated class in Poland.

(7) _Other crimes._ There were other grounds for uneasiness in Poland which Frank does not mention in his report to Hitler. He does not mention the Concentration Camps—perhaps because, as the “representative jurist” of National Socialism, Frank had himself defended the system in Germany. As Governor General Frank is responsible for all concentration camps within the boundaries of the General Government. As indicated above, he knew and approved that Poles were taken to concentration camps in connection with the resettlement projects. He had certain jurisdiction, as well, in relation to the notorious extermination camp Auschwitz, to which Poles from the General Government were committed by his administration, although the camp itself lay outside the boundaries of the General Government. In February 1944, Ambassador Counsellor Dr. Schumberg suggested a possible amnesty of Poles who had been taken to Auschwitz for trivial offenses and kept for several months. The report of the conference continues:

“The Governor General will take under consideration an amnesty probably for 1 May of this year. Nevertheless, one must not lose sight of the fact that the German leadership of the General Government must not now show any signs of weakness.” (_2233-BB-PS_)

G. _CONCLUSION._

As legal adviser of Hitler and the leadership corps of the NSDAP, Frank promoted the conspirators’ rise to power. In his various juridical capacities, both in the NSDAP and in the German government, Frank advocated and promoted the political monopoly of the NSDAP, the racial program of the conspirators, and the terror system of the concentration camp and of arrest without warrant. His role in the common plan was to realize “the National Socialist Program in the realm of law”, and to give the outward form of legality to this program of terror, persecution and oppression, which had as its ultimate purpose mobilization for aggressive war.

As a loyal adherent of Hitler and the NSDAP, Frank was appointed Governor General in October 1939 of that area of Poland known as the General Government, which became the testing ground for the conspirators’ program of “_Lebensraum_.” Frank had defined justice in the field of German law as that which benefited the German nation. His five year administration of the General Government illustrates the same principles applied in the field of International Law.

Frank took the office of Governor General under a program which constituted in itself a criminal plan or conspiracy, as Frank well knew and approved, to exploit the territory ruthlessly for the benefit of Nazi Germany, to conscript its nationals for labor in Germany, to close its schools and colleges to prevent the rise of a Polish intelligentsia, and to administer the territory as a colonial possession of the Third Reich in total disregard of the duties of an occupying power toward the inhabitants of occupied territory. Under Frank’s administration this criminal plan was consummated. But the execution went even beyond the plan. Food contributions to Germany increased to the point where the bare subsistence reserved for the General Government under the plan was reduced to the level of mass starvation; a savage program of exterminating Jews was relentlessly executed; resettlement projects were carried out with reckless disregard of the rights of the local population; the terror of the concentration camp followed in the wake of the Nazi invaders.

It has been shown that all of these crimes were committed in accordance with the official policies established and advocated by Frank.

This summary of evidence has been compiled almost entirely from statements by Frank himself, from the admissions found in his diaries, official reports, records of his conferences with his colleagues and subordinates, and his speeches. It is therefore appropriate that a final passage from his diary should be quoted in conclusion. In January 1943, Frank told his colleagues in the General Government that their task would grow more difficult. Hitler, he said, could only help them as a kind of “administrative pillbox”. They must depend on themselves.

“We are now duty bound to hold together [he continued] * * * We must remember that we who are gathered together here figure on Mr. Roosevelt’s list of war criminals. I have the honor of being Number One. We have, so to speak, become accomplices in the world historic sense.” (_2233-AA-PS_)

* * * * *

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO HANS FRANK

9. WILHELM FRICK

A. _FRICK’S POLITICAL CAREER._

Frick’s important contribution to the Nazi conspiracy was in the field of government administration. He was the administrative brain who organized the German state for Nazism and who geared the machinery of the state for aggressive war. It was Frick who transformed the plans and programs of his fellow conspirators into political action. He was the manager of the Nazi conspiracy. He was entrusted with broad discretion, exercised great power, and knew the criminal purpose of the acts he committed.

The conspiratorial activities of Frick cover a period of 25 years, beginning as early as 1920 (_3086-PS_).

A brief summary of Frick’s activities will show how extensive was his contribution to the Nazi conspiracy. He took part in Hitler’s Munich Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, and was sentenced for his participation. He helped Hitler become a German citizen. To maintain the Nazi regime in the first 2 years of its existence and to achieve some of its most important immediate purposes, Frick signed 235 laws and decrees during that period, most of which are published in the _Reichsgesetzblatt_.

For the first time in German history a uniform police system for the whole German Reich was created. Frick was its creator and its supreme head. He appointed the Gestapo chief, Heinrich Himmler, Chief of the German Police. Frick was the highest controlling authority over concentration camps. He personally inspected these camps. His Ministry of the Interior made the necessary legal arrangements for acquiring land for the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Through his Medical Division, Frick controlled the Nazi asylums and so-called medical institutions in which forced sterilizations and murders of thousands of Germans and of foreign laborers were carried out. The racial legislation, including the Nurnberg Laws, was drafted by Frick and administered under his jurisdiction. Frick introduced the Yellow Star as a sign of stigmatization of the Jews.

In the course of his active participation in the Nazi conspiracy, Frick occupied a number of important positions. Among his Nazi Party positions are the following: member of the Nazi Party from 1925 to 1945; Reich Leader of the Nazi Party from 1933 to 1945; floor leader of the Nazi Party in the Reichstag from 1928 to 1945. His governmental positions were: chief of a division of the Munich Police Department from 1917 to 10 November 1923, 2 days after Hitler’s Putsch; Nazi Minister of the Interior and of Education in the German State of Thuringia from January 1930 to April 1931; Reichsministerof the Interior from 30 January 1933 to 20 August 1943; member of the Reich Defense Council as General Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich from 21 May 1935 to 20 August 1943. On 20 August 1943, Frick was appointed Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, and he held this last position until 1945. (_2978-PS_)

B. _FRICK’S PARTICIPATION IN PROMOTING THE NAZI CONSPIRATORS’ ACCESSION TO POWER._

Frick has admitted that he was one of the men who helped Hitler to power (_3043-PS_).

(1) _Frick’s activities in early days of conspiracy._ In the very beginning of the Nazi Party and its conspiracy, Frick misused his various governmental positions in order to hold a “protecting hand over the National-Socialist Party and Hitler.” This he stated solemnly in his speech before the Munich People’s Court during the Putsch trial (_3119-PS_; see “The Hitler Trial Before the People’s Court in Munich” (_Der Hitler Prozess vor dem Volksgericht in Muenchen_), published by Knorr & Hirth, G.M.B.H., Muenchen, 1924.)

When Hitler was arrested during those early revolutionary days, Frick used his position in the Munich Police Department to release him under his own authority (_3124-PS_).

Frick participated in the Nazi Beer Hall Putsch of 8-9 November 1923, and was tried with Hitler on a charge of complicity in treason. He was convicted and received a suspended sentence of one year and three months in a fortress (_3132-PS_).

Hitler’s appreciation of Frick’s assistance during those years is demonstrated by the fact that Hitler honored Frick by mentioning his name in _Mein Kampf_, the Nazi bible. Only two other defendants in this proceeding, Hess and Streicher, share that honor. In this reference Hitler said of Frick:

“He [Munich Police President Poehner] and his coworker Dr. Frick are in my estimation the only men in government positions, who have the right to collaborate in the establishment of a Bavarian Nation.” (_3125-PS_)

(2) _Frick’s activities as member of Reichstag._ Having been elected to the Reichstag on 4 May 1924, Frick stated that it was his task not to “support, but to undermine the parliamentary system” (_2742-PS_).

In the Reichstag Frick immediately proposed those discriminatory measures against the Jews which were enacted after he and the other Nazi conspirators had come into power in 1933. On 25 August 1924 Frick demanded in the Reichstag that all Jews be removed from public office (_3128-PS_). Two days later he returned with a motion calling for “special legislation for all members of the Jewish race” (_3119-PS_).

In 1930, a significant investigative report was prepared by the Prussian Ministry of the Interior (_2513-PS_). This official report analyzed the criminal activities of Hitler, Frick, and other Nazis. It stated that Frick had to be regarded as the most influential leader of the NSDAP next to Hitler. This document reported that at the 1927 Party Congress in Nurnberg, Frick said that the Nazi Party would first infiltrate into parliament and misuse its privileges, then abolish it and thus open the way for racial dictatorship. The document also reported that Frick stated in a speech in 1929 at Pyritz that this fateful struggle would first be taken up with the ballot, but that this could not continue indefinitely, for history had taught that in a battle “blood must be shed and iron broken.” As early as 1929, according to this same report, Frick announced that a Special Peoples’ Court would be created, in which the enemies of the Nazi Party would be called to account for their political acts (_2513-PS_).

(3) _Frick’s activities as Minister of Interior and Education in Thuringia._ Frick’s prominent role in helping to bring the Nazis to power was recognized when on 23 January 1930 he was appointed Minister of the Interior and Education in the German State of Thuringia, the first ministerial appointment controlled by the National Socialists (_3119-PS_).

It was in this capacity that Frick began his manipulation to provide Adolf Hitler with German citizenship, an essential step toward the realization of the Nazi conspiracy. It must be remembered that Hitler at that time was not a German citizen and was regarded by the Prussian police administration as an undesirable alien. This lack of German citizenship was most damaging to the cause of the Nazi Party because, as an alien, Hitler could not become a candidate for the Reich Presidency in Germany.

In the beginning, Frick was unsuccessful when he tried to grant Hitler German citizenship by appointing Hitler as police officer in Thuringia, thus conferring German citizenship automatically. Later he succeeded with a similar maneuver. This was expressly confirmed by Otto Meissner, former State Secretary and Chief of Hitler’s Presidential Chancellery, in an affidavit which reads in part as follows:

“Frick also, in collaboration with Klagges, Minister of Brunswick, succeeded in naturalizing Hitler as a German citizen in 1932 by having him appointed a Brunswick government official (Counsellor of Government). This was done in order to make it possible for Hitler to run as a candidate for the office of President of the Reich.” (_3564-PS_)

During his tenure as State Minister in Thuringia, Frick again misused his official authority in order to advance the Nazi conspiracy through measures designed to establish Nazi control over the police, and over the administration and curriculum of universities and schools. Three of his measures are specially noteworthy:

(_a_) Appointment of the Nazi race theoretician, Dr. Guenther, as Professor at the University of Jena, against the wishes of the faculty.

(_b_) Compulsory introduction in the schools of Nazi prayers whose nationalistic, militaristic, and blasphemous character was such that three out of five were declared unconstitutional by the German Constitutional Court on 11 July 1930.

(_c_) Infiltration of Nazis in the Police, which twice provoked a rupture in the administrative relations between the State of Thuringia and the Reich Ministry of the Interior, and resulted in the withdrawal of the important police subsidy payment of the Reich to the State. (_3132-PS; 3128-PS_)

C. _FRICK’S PARTICIPATION IN THE ESTABLISHMENT OF TOTALITARIAN CONTROL OVER GERMANY._

Frick’s appointment as Reichsministerof the Interior in the first Hitler Cabinet of 30 January 1933 gave him the task of “strengthening the power of the government and to secure the New Regime” (_3128-PS_).

(1) _Powers of Frick as Minister of Interior._ To this task his Ministry was perfectly suited. As Minister of the Interior Frick became responsible for the realization of a large part of the conspirators’ program, through both legislation and administration. His Ministry was charged especially with the following tasks:

(_a_) Internal Administration (State and local governments; State and Local Civil Service).

(_b_) Relations between Nazi Party and State.

(_c_) Elections.

(_d_) Citizenship.

(_e_) Racial Law and Policy (Jewish Question, Eugenics), National Health.

(_f_) Armed Forces and Reich Defense (Conscription).

(_g_) Establishment of the New Order in occupied and annexed territories.

(_h_) Legislation, Constitutional Law (civil liberties).

(_i_) Police Forces (including Gestapo, protective custody, concentration camps). (_3303-PS_; _3475-PS_)

The names of the men who, according to (_3475-PS_), worked under Frick’s supervision are significant. Among the subordinates of Frick were “Reich Health Leader, Dr. Conti,” “Reich Fuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police, Heinrich Himmler,” and “Reich Labor Service Leader, Konstantin Hierl.” Frick was, therefore, supreme commander of three important pillars of the Nazi state: The Nazi Public Health Service, the Police System, and the Labor Service.

The wide variety of the activities of Frick as Reich Minister of the Interior can be judged from the following catalogue of his functions: He had final authority on constitutional questions, drafted legislation, had jurisdiction over governmental administration and civil defense, and was final arbiter of questions concerning race and citizenship. The Manual for Administrative Officials also lists sections of his ministry concerned with administrative problems for the occupied territories, including annexed territories, the New Order in the South East, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the New Order in the East (_3475-PS_).

The Ministry of the Interior also had considerable authority over the civil service, including such matters as appointment, tenure, promotion, and discharge. The Manual for Administrative Officials (_3475-PS_) states that Frick’s functions included supervision of the general law of civil servants, civil servants’ policies, civil service aspirants, education and training of civil servants and political and other officials. Frick’s Ministry also had extensive jurisdiction over the German civil servants detailed to the administration of the occupied countries. This fact was admitted by Wilhelm Stuckart, former Under Secretary of Frick’s Ministry of the Interior, who stated in an interrogation:

“As far as I know, the officials for the new territories were selected by the Personnel Office [of the Ministry of the Interior] according to their qualifications, their physical condition and maybe also their knowledge of the language.” (_3570-PS_)

In the full use of these broad powers, Frick made his essential contribution to the advancement of the conspiracy.

(2) _Nazi seizure of power of German States._ His first act after the Conspirators’ accession to power was to install Nazi governments and administrations in all German States where they were not already in power. The State governments which refused to hand over their constitutional authority to the Nazi successors designated by Frick were removed on Frick’s orders. This was the case in Bavaria, Hamburg, Bremen, Luebeck, Hesse, Baden, Wuerttemberg, and Saxony.

The manner and purpose of this program was clearly stated in the book, “Dr. Frick and his Ministry,” which was published by his Under-Secretary Wilhelm Pfundner for Frick’s 60th birthday in order to establish the full scope of his contribution to the creation of the Nazis’ “Thousand-Year Reich”:

“While Marxism in Prussia was crushed by the hard fist of the Prussian Prime Minister, Hermann Goering, and a gigantic wave of propaganda was initiated for the Reichstag elections of 5 March 1933, Dr. Frick prepared the complete seizure of power in all states of the Reich. All at once the political opposition disappeared. All at once the Main [River] line was eliminated. From this time on only one will and one leadership reigned in the German Reich.” (_3119-PS_; _3132-PS_)

(3) _Abolition of political opposition._ Frick then proceeded to destroy all opposition parties in order to establish the political monopoly of the Nazi Party over Germany. Here again he acted by legislative fiat against all parties which did not dissolve voluntarily. Among the laws which he initiated for this purpose were the law of 26 May 1933 confiscating Communists’ property (_1396-PS_); the law of 14 July 1933 confiscating property inimical to nation and state (_1388-PS_); the law of 7 July 1933 voiding the mandates of all Social Democrat candidates elected to Reich state and local diets (_2058-PS_); and the law of 14 July 1933 outlawing all political parties other than the Nazi Party (_1388-A-PS_; see _2403-PS_).

Frick drafted and administered the laws which assured the control of the Nazi Party over the State and “placed the government machinery * * * at the disposal of the Party.” Chief among these enactments were the Law to Secure the Unity of Party and State, of 1 December 1933, which provided that all government agencies should “lend legal and administrative aid to the Party agencies” (_1395-PS_), and the law of 1 August 1934 consolidating the positions of Chief of State and Leader of the Party (_2003-PS_; see _3119-PS_).

The success of this series of measures was accurately described by Frick himself in the following terms:

“In National Socialist Germany, leadership is in the hands of an organized community, the National Socialist Party; and as the latter represents the will of the nation, the policy adopted by it in harmony with the vital interests of the nation is, at the same time, the policy adopted by the country * * *.” (_3258-PS_)

(4) _Consolidation of power in Reich Cabinet._ Frick’s next task was to consolidate the executive and legislative control thus achieved. First he drafted the law of 24 March 1933, which gave the Reich Cabinet the power to legislate by decree. This law marked the end of parliamentary government in Germany (_2001-PS_).

As a further step in the same direction, Frick prepared a series of laws which destroyed all autonomous State and local government. Through these laws, all governmental power in Germany was consolidated in the Reich Cabinet. Administration of these laws was placed in the hands of Frick. These enactments include the Temporary Law for the Coordination of the States with the Reich, of 31 March 1933 (_2004-PS_); the Law for the Coordination of the States with the Reich, of 7 April 1933 (_2005-PS_); the law of 30 January 1934 transferring the sovereignty of the states to the Reich; the first ordinance under the law of 30 January 1934 subjecting state legislation to Reich approval, 2 February 1934; the second Reich Governor Law of 30 January 1935; the German Municipality Act of 30 January 1935 (_2008-PS_); and the law of 14 February 1934 abolishing the Reichsrat. (see _3119-PS_; _2380-PS_).

Frick drafted the laws which abolished the independence of the civil service, including functionaries of the Reich and the States, judges, and university teachers. As Reichsminister of the Interior, he was charged with the administration of these laws. Among these laws was the Civil Service Act of 7 April 1933, paragraphs 3 and 4 of which provided for the elimination of civil servants on the basis of religious or political beliefs (_1397-PS_; see _3119-PS_).

This complete subjection of the civil servants to the Nazi-controlled Ministry of Interior was well illustrated by an order of Frick demanding a report on civil servants who had failed to vote in the Reichstag elections of 29 March 1936 (_D-43_).

(5) _Establishment of the Police State._ Having thus taken possession of the entire government machinery, Frick organized a huge Reich police in order to maintain the conspirators’ power against all opposition.

It should be emphasized that before this time there was no unified Reich police system; each individual German State had a police force of its own. Even then, Frick had complete control over the police forces, through the Reich Governor Act which subjected the State governments to the authority of the Reich government, in the person of the Reich Minister of the Interior (_2005-PS_; _L-82_).

The decisive change-over to centralized totalitarianism was effected by the Act of 17 June 1936 (RGBl, 1936, Part I, p. 487), which was signed by Frick and Hitler (_2073-PS_). Section 1 of this decree reads as follows:

“For the unification of police duties in the Reich, a Chief of German Police is instituted in the German Ministry of the Interior, to whom is assigned the direction and conduct of all police affairs.” (_2073-PS_)

Section 2 shows that it was Frick and Hitler, the signers of the decree, who appointed Himmler as Chief of the German Police. Paragraph 2, section 2 of the decree states that Himmler was “subordinated individually and directly to the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior” (_2073-PS_). In other words, Frick not only appointed Himmler but himself became, pursuant to this decree, the supreme commander of the Reich police system in his capacity as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior.

The official chart of the German police system (_1852-PS_; _see Chart Number 16_) clearly shows the position of Reichsministerof the Interior Frick as the head of the entire German police system. This includes the notorious RSHA, of which Kaltenbrunner became chief under Frick in January 1943 (_3119-PS_).

Frick used this newly created authority for the promotion of the Nazi conspiracy. By his decree of 12 February 1936 he established in detail the jurisdiction of the Secret State Police (Gestapo), especially over the concentration camps and in the field of political police information (_2108-PS_).

By his decree of 20 September 1936, published in the Ministerial Gazette of the Reich (_Ministerialblatt des Reichs-und Preussischen Ministerium des Innern_), 1936, page 1343, (_2245-PS_), Frick reserved for himself the authority to appoint inspectors of security police and ordered their close cooperation with the Party and with the Army. Furthermore, in an ordinance dated 18 March 1938 (RGBl, 1938, Part I, page 262) (_1437-PS_) concerning the reunion of Austria with the Reich, Frick authorized Himmler to take security measures in Austria without regard to previous legal limitations. Similarly, in his Decree of 11 November 1938 Frick ordered that all authorities cooperate closely with the SD and RSHA under Himmler (_1638-PS_).

Frick’s direct control over Himmler’s Reich police can also be shown in numerous other instances. It is necessary only to mention Himmler’s order of 26 June 1936 by which he authorized Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the SD, and Kurt Daluege, Chief of the regular police, to sign “By order of the Minister of the Interior” (_1551-PS_; _1680-PS_).

As a result, the Police and part of Himmler’s SS became in fact merged under Frick’s jurisdiction. An order by Hitler dated 17 August 1938 regulated the functions of the SS, which “have entered into close connection with the duties of the German police” in the Ministry of Interior (_647-PS_; see _1637-PS_).

Similarly, Frick gave direct orders to the State Gestapo offices. Thus on 6 November 1934 Frick issued an order addressed, among others, to the Prussian Gestapo, prohibiting the publication of Protestant church announcements (_1498-PS_), and also issued a secret circular addressed, among others, to the Prussian Gestapo, subjecting Catholic youth organizations to severe restrictions (_1482-PS_).

It is not necessary here to repeat the evidence concerning the criminal activities of the German police, over which Frick had supreme authority. Reference is made to Chapter XI on Concentration Camps, Chapter XII on Persecution of the Jews, Section 6, Chapter VII on Persecution of the Church, and Chapter XV on the criminal organizations, such as the SA, SS, the Gestapo, and SD. Frick’s personal familiarity with these illegal activities may be illustrated by two striking instances. The first instance is contained in a synopsis of correspondence between the Reich Ministry of the Interior and its field offices from November 1942 through August 1943, concerning the legal aspects of the confiscation of property by the SS for the enlargement of the concentration camp at Auschwitz (_1643-PS_). This document contains the minutes of a meeting held on 17 and 18 December 1942 concerning the confiscation of this property. These minutes indicate that a further discussion was to be held on this subject on 21 December 1942, between the representatives of the Reichsminister of the Interior and the Reichsfuehrer SS. There is also a summary of a teletype letter, 22 January 1943, from Dr. Hoffman, representing the Reichsministerof the Interior, to the _Regierungspraesident_ in Kattowitz, a provincial administrator under the direct jurisdiction of the Reichsministerof the Interior. The summary begins significantly with the sentence:

“The territory of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp will be changed into an independent estate.” (_1643-PS_)

A second illustration of Frick’s personal interest in the activities of Himmler’s police and SS is the fact that in 1943 Frick visited the concentration camp at Dachau, where he personally acquainted himself with the forced malaria inoculation of healthy camp inmates and with other experiments on human beings carried out by Dr. Rascher. This is borne out by the affidavit of Dr. Franz Blaha, a former inmate of the concentration camp at Dachau, who has stated that Frick made a special tour of inspection of the malaria and cooling experimental stations at Dachau (_3249-PS_).

(6) _Suppression and terrorization of opponents._ Having established this powerful police organization under his command, Frick used it especially in order to suppress all internal opposition. That this would be his aim he had repeatedly announced even in the years before 1933, when he declared that he was ready to establish the power of the conspirators with terror and violence (_2513-PS_).

As early as 1932, Frick threatened his opponents in the Reichstag with these words:

“Don’t worry, when we are in power we shall put all of you guys in concentration camps.” (_L-83_)

In pursuance of this long-planned campaign of political terrorism, Frick drafted and signed a series of decrees legalizing all those uses of the political police which he considered necessary in order to establish the dictatorial power of the conspirators within Germany.

Five days after the accession of the conspirators to power Frick signed the first law limiting the freedom of assembly and of the press in Germany. Then, on 28 February 1933, the day after the Reichstag fire, civil rights in Germany were abolished altogether by decree signed by Frick (_1390-PS_).

The preamble of this decree, which was published on the morning after the Reichstag fire, stated that the suspension of civil rights was decreed as a defense measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the State. At the time of publication of this decree, the Nazi government announced that a thorough investigation had proven that the Communists had set fire to the Reichstag building. It is not necessary here to go into the controversial question of who set fire to the Reichstag, but it should be stressed that the official Nazi statement that the Communists had set fire to the building, on which Frick’s law was predicated, was issued without any investigation. Proof of this fact is contained in an interrogation of Goering on 13 October 1945, which contains the following passage:

“Q. How could you tell your press agent, one hour after the Reichstag caught fire, that the Communists did it, without investigation? A. Did the public relations officer say that I said that? Q. Yes. He said you said it. A. It is possible when I came to the Reichstag, the Fuehrer and his gentlemen were there. I was doubtful at the time but it was their opinion that the Communists had started the fire. Q. But you were the highest law enforcement official in a certain sense. Daluege was your subordinate. Looking back at it now, and not in the excitement that was there once, wasn’t it too early to say without any investigation that the Communists had started the fire? A. Yes, that is possible, but the Fuehrer wanted it this way. Q. Why did the Fuehrer want to issue at once a statement that the Communists had started the fire? A. He was convinced of it. Q. It is right when I say he was convinced without having any evidence or any proof of that at this moment? A. That is right, but you must take into account that at that time the Communist activity was extremely strong, that our new government as such was not very secure.” (_3593-PS_)

This Act of 28 February 1933 also constituted the basis for the establishment of the concentration camps. Frick himself established in detail the handling of so-called “protective custody” under which inmates were held in concentration camps (_779-PS_; _1723-PS_; _L-302_).

Frick also signed two laws designed specifically to suppress all criticism and opposition to the Government and the Nazi Party (_1652-PS_; _1393-PS_).

Frick also signed the laws which brought about the suppression of independent labor unions as a potential source of opposition inside Germany to the progress of the Nazi conspiracy (_405-PS_; _1861-PS_; _1770-PS_). Among these decrees was the law providing for the confiscation of all labor union property in favor of the German Labor Front (_1403-PS_).

Furthermore, Frick and his subordinates took an active part in the persecution of the independent churches. An order of the Reichsminister of the Interior dated 6 November 1934 prohibited the publication of Protestant church announcements (_1498-PS_); likewise Frick issued a circular letter to Reich officials imposing severe restrictions on Catholic youth organizations (_1482-PS_). Frick further on 5 May 1938 wrote to the heads of government agencies proposing methods for invalidating the concordat between Austria and the Holy See (_680-PS_). His Ministry was also in correspondence with the SD from 1940-1942 concerning the confiscation of church property (_R-101-A, through R-101-D_).

D. _FRICK’S PROMOTION OF RACIAL PERSECUTION AND RACISM._

Frick promoted the program of racial persecution and racism, involving the wiping out of the Jews, and the killing of the allegedly insane and others for whom the German war machine had no further use.

In addition to its many other responsibilities, the vast administrative empire of Frick controlled the enactment and administration of racial and eugenic legislation. The “Manual for German Administrative Officials” (_3475-PS_) shows the following additional functions of Frick’s Ministry: Health Administration, Social Hygiene; Heredity and Racial Welfare; Reich Plenipotentiary for Sanitaria and Nursing Homes; Board for the Examination of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists; and Reich Committee for Public Hygiene. Accordingly, Frick was the administrative guardian and protector of the German race.

(1) _Persecution of Jews._ Frick took charge of the legislative and administrative program through which the Nazi conspirators sought to wipe out the “non-Aryan” part of the German population. Here again he drafted, signed, and administered the basic legislation. Among these discriminatory enactments were the following: the Reich Citizens Law of 15 September 1935 depriving Jews of their citizenship rights (_1416-PS_); the law for the protection of German blood and honor, 15 September 1935, prohibiting mixed marriages (_2000-PS_); the first ordinance under the Reich Citizens Law, 14 November 1935, depriving Jews of the right to vote (_1417-PS_); the Civil Service Act of 7 April 1933 providing for the elimination of non-Aryan government workers (_1397-PS_); the decree of 20 May 1938 introducing the Nurnberg laws in Austria; the decree of 31 May 1941 introducing the Nurnberg laws in the annexed eastern territories (_see 3119-PS_).

Extending his program of persecution even to the religious practices of the Jews, Frick signed the decree which outlawed ritual slaughtering.

But the activities of Frick’s Ministry were not restricted to the commission of such crimes, camouflaged in the form of legislation. The police field offices, subordinates to Frick, participated in the organization of such terroristic activities as the pogrom of 9 November 1938. The pogrom was organized through a series of secret teletype orders issued by Heydrich (_374-PS_; _3051-PS_). Afterward Heydrich reported on the loss of Jewish life and property resulting from the pogrom (_3058-PS_).

The pogroms gave the Nazi conspirators occasion to proceed to the complete elimination of the Jews from economic life and the confiscation of most of their property (_1662-PS_; _1409-PS_).

Three days after this pogrom of 9 November 1938 Frick, his undersecretary Stuckart, and his subordinates Heydrich and Daluege, participated in a conference on the Jewish question under the chairmanship of Goering. At this meeting various measures were discussed which the individual governmental departments should initiate against the Jews. Goering’s concluding remark in that conference was:

“Also the Minister of the Interior and the Police will have to think over what measures will have to be taken.” (_1816-PS_).

It was, accordingly, Frick’s duty to follow up by administrative action the pogrom organized by Frick’s own subordinates.

Thereafter, Frick signed the Law of 23 July 1938 ordering a special registration for all Jews, in order to establish the strictest possible control over the Jewish population.

After the outbreak of the war Heydrich issued an order in Frick’s name, compelling all Jews to wear a yellow star in public (_2118-PS_).

Among the Ordinances which Frick issued under the Reich Citizen Law of 15 September 1935, special mention should be made of the 11th Ordinance of 25 November 1941, which ordered the confiscation of the property of all deported or emigrated Jews; and the 13th Ordinance, under which the Jews were deprived of all legal protection and completely handed over to the jurisdiction of the police (_1422-PS_; _3085-PS_).

Stuckart, Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, characterized this legislation as the essential preparation for the “final solution of the Jewish question” (_3131-PS_).

(2) _Measures against “Inferior Racial Stock.”_ The Public Health Service was administered as a division of Frick’s Ministry. One of its subdivisions was devoted to race and heredity problems (_3123-PS_). In his capacity as chief of this service Frick drafted the basic law controlling sterilization of persons afflicted with “hereditary diseases” (_3067-PS_). Its administration was in the hands of his Ministry (_D-181_; _L-305_).

E. _FRICK’S PARTICIPATION IN THE PREPARATIONS FOR AGGRESSIVE WAR._

Frick wholeheartedly supported the conspirators’ preparations for war. It was his position that:

“Germany would observe her international undertakings only so long as it suited Germany’s interests to do so.” (_2385-PS_)

Frick, as Reich Minister of the Interior, was

“The ‘civilian’ defense minister and as such cooperated prominently * * * in the important field of ‘defense legislation’ and thereby in the development of * * * Germany’s armed forces.” (_3119-PS_)

Frick’s Ministry had a division entitled “Armed Forces and Reich Defense” (_3303-PS_).

(1) _Rearmament and reinstitution of military service._ Frick took a leading part in Germany’s rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty. He drafted the basic laws on military sevice. These include the law of 16 March 1935 reintroducing universal military conscription (_1654-PS_); the decree of 6 March 1936 extending military and labor service to German citizens abroad; the decree of 16 June 1938 extending the military service law to Austria (_1660-PS_); and the decree of 30 April 1940 extending the Military Service Law to the incorporated eastern territories (_see 3043-PS_; _1389-PS_; _388-PS, item 20_).

Frick also supported the military training program of the SA, for the financing of which his Ministry of Interior was called upon to supply funds (_1850-PS_).

Additional evidence that Frick contributed to Germany’s rearmament for aggressive war is contained in a secret order, 25 July 1933, from the Supreme Command of the SA on the subject, “Publications of the SA.” This order states that several days before 25 July 1933 the Reich Ministry of the Interior at the request of the Foreign Office gave strict instructions to all Reich authorities that the most severe control was to be exercised over all publications which might give other countries an opportunity to construe German activities as infringements of the Versailles Treaty (_D-44_).

(2) _Fifth column activities abroad._ In further preparation for the aggressive wars planned by the conspirators, Frick used his power, prestige, and funds as Minister of the Interior in order to command support for the organization of a Fifth Column abroad among foreign nationals of German ancestry. In a circular of 24 February 1933 issued less than a month after the conspirators had taken over the government of Germany, Frick ordered all State governments to support, especially financially, the organization work of the League for Germandom Abroad among the

“30 million Germans in foreign countries [_Auslandsdeutschen._] outside of the present contracted borders of the Reich [who] are an integral part of the entire German people.” (_3258-PS_)

Frick at a later date stated even more clearly the true purpose of this German Fifth Column he was helping to organize abroad. In his speech at the twentieth annual meeting of the official German Foreign Institute held in Stuttgart, on 11-15 August 1937, Frick stated that—

“the new Germany has recognized that its attention and devotion to the welfare of the millions of Germans who have not the fortune to owe political allegiance to Germany, but who are condemned to live abroad, are not merely a matter of natural sympathy and solidarity, but are in a higher degree dictated by the strong political and economic interests of the Reich.” (_3258-PS_)

(3) _Organization of civilian agencies for war._ Frick’s principal contribution to the war preparations of the Nazi conspirators lay in his role as General Plenipotentiary for the Administration of the Reich. He occupied this position as a member of the Reich Defense Council, beginning on 21 May 1935 (_2978-PS_).

In this capacity, Frick had complete authority over

“the uniform direction of the nonmilitary administration with the exception of the economic administrations.”

He was given control over the Ministries of Interior, Justice, Education, Churches, and the Office for Spatial Planning, in order to direct their entire planning activities in preparation of war (_2986-PS_; _2194-PS_). This was Frick’s responsibility during the more than 4 years that elapsed before the actual launching of the conspirators’ first aggressive war.

As General Plenipotentiary for the Administration, Frick was a member of the so-called Three-Man Committee, with Schacht, later Funk (Economy), and Keitel (OKW). This small group, which was empowered to legislate by decree on all matters relating to war preparedness, represented during these decisive years, from 1935 to 1939, a compact, powerful body in which could be concentrated the conspirators’ preparations for war (_2986-PS_; see also Section 3, chapter XV on the Reich Cabinet).

In a speech made on 7 March 1940 at the University of Freiburg, Frick admitted the significant part he played in the preparations for war and as a member of the triumvirate created by the secret Reich Defense Law.

“* * * The organization of the nonmilitary national defense fits organically into the entire structure of the National Socialist government and administration. This state of affairs is not exceptional, but a necessary and planned part of the National Socialist order. Thus, the conversion of our administration and economy to wartime conditions has been accomplished very quickly and without any friction—avoiding the otherwise very dangerous changes of the entire structure of the State.

“The planned preparation of the administration for the possibility of a war has already been carried out during the peace. For this purpose, the Fuehrer appointed a Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration and a Plenipotentiary General for the Economy. The Plenipotentiary General for the Administration was placed in charge of the coordination of the nonmilitary administrations, with the exception of the Administration of Economics.” (_2608-PS_)

F. _FRICK’S PARTICIPATION IN THE CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT WAR CRIMES._

Frick, as Minister of the Interior, was charged with the administrative policy for all occupied and annexed territories. For this purpose, the Ministry contained a Division for Incorporated Territories, with Subdivisions entitled Reorganization in the South-East, the Protectorate, the East, and the West (_3475-PS_).

When the Nazi conspirators embarked on their program of “bloodless” territorial aggrandizement, Frick was in control of the incorporation and administration of these territories. Thus, it was Frick’s Ministry which introduced the German New Order and German law throughout the territories of Europe occupied by the German Armed Forces. Frick exercised these powers in the Saar; in Austria (_2307-PS_; _3075-PS_); in the Sudetenland (_3076-PS_); in Bohemia and Moravia (_2119-PS_); in Memel; and in Danzig (_3077-PS_).

When the conspirators started their aggressive Wars, Frick was specifically charged with the organization and integration of the territories illegally annexed by Germany. Among the territories over which Frick was given control were the Incorporated Eastern Territories, the Gouvernment-General of Poland, Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnot, and Norway.

In the exercise of this over-all administrative control:

(1) Frick provided in detail for the administration of occupied Polish Territory. It was Frick who was responsible for the installation of an SS Chief in the Territory in charge of the Police and the forced resettlement program (_3304-PS_).

(2) Frick provided the administrative personnel for the government of these occupied territories. Thus, he arranged for the selection and assignment of hundreds of occupation officials for Russia before the invasion had even begun (_1039-PS_).

Similarly, Wilhelm Stuckart, former Under-Secretary of the Interior under Frick, has stated in an interrogation:

“As far as I knew, the officials for the new territories were selected by the Personnel Office [of the Ministry of the Interior] according to their qualifications, their physical condition, and maybe also their knowledge of the language.” (_3570-PS_)

(3) Frick had complete charge of the program of denationalization, under which certain groups of citizens in annexed territories were forced during the progress of the war to abandon their original national allegiance and to accept German nationality. The decree of 4 March 1941 established a German Racial Registry under which allied nationals of German stock were required to accept German nationality and to remove to German territory (_2917-PS_). Among the conquered territories in which these activities of Frick were felt were Bohemia and Moravia, Upper Corinthia and Lower Styria, Eupen, Malmedy, and Moresnot, and the Incorporated Eastern Territories (see _3225-PS_).

These measures place upon Frick a full share of responsibility for the war crimes committed by the conspiracy in the occupied and annexed territories.

G. _FRICK’S PARTICIPATION IN THE CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY._

Frick actively participated in the execution of the conspirators’ program of atrocities and Crimes against Humanity. Even without such personal participation, however, Frick has admitted that he could properly be charged with having for 12 years continued in the Reich Cabinet, after he had realized the direction the conspiracy was taking (_3043-PS_).

The scope of Frick’s personal and direct responsibility for Nazi Crimes against Humanity is so broad that reference need be made only to a few of the most significant instances.

(1) _Gestapo atrocities and concentration camps._ Frick, as jurisdictional head of the German Police Administration, is responsible for the crimes and atrocities perpetrated by the German police, especially the Gestapo and SD, inside and outside of Germany. (See _1643-PS_; also Chapter XI on Concentration Camps.)

As already stated, Frick demonstrated particular interest in the “medical” experiments carried on in the concentration camps under the personal direction of Himmler. Frick paid a personal visit to Germany’s oldest concentration camp, Dachau, in 1943, for the purpose of inspecting the malaria station and Dr. Rascher’s Experimental Station (_3249-PS_). There he could personally acquaint himself with the forced subjection of healthy camp inmates to malarial mosquitos and the air-pressure and freezing experiments on human beings carried on by Dr. Rascher.

(2) _Oppression of inhabitants of occupied territories._ As administrative head of the occupied territories, Frick issued decrees depriving the inhabitants of their rights and subjecting them to a cruel and discriminatory regime. Among these enactments were the decree of 4 December 1941 establishing a special penal law for the Polish and Jewish inhabitants of the Gouvernment General (_R-96_), (_1249-PS_); the decree of 1 July 1943 depriving Jews of rights remaining to them under the decree of 4 December 1941 (_1422-PS_); and the Himmler ordinance of 3 July 1943 charging the Gestapo with the execution of the decree of 1 July 1943 (published in Frick’s Ministry of Interior Gazette 1943, p. 1085) (_3085-PS_).

Similarly, the Decree on the Utilization of Eastern Workers, which required that they be paid salaries substantially below those fixed for German workers holding similar jobs, was signed in Frick’s name by his Secretary of State.

(3) _Systematic killing of insane, ill, aged, and incapacitated foreign slave laborers._ Frick’s greatest guilt perhaps rests on his responsibility, as Reich Minister of the Interior, for the systematic killing of the insane, the sick, and the aged, including those foreign forced laborers who were no longer able to work. These killings were carried out in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums. Frick, in his capacity of Reichsminister of the Interior, had full jurisdiction over all these institutions (_3475-PS_).

Proof that the Reichministry of the Interior under Frick actually exercised this jurisdiction is to be found in a letter of 2 October 1940 (_621-PS_) from the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers, to the Reichsminister of Justice. The letter informed the Minister of Justice that the Chief Prosecutors’ reports concerning the death of inmates of nursing homes had been transmitted to the Reichsminister of the Interior for further action (_621-PS_). Through other correspondence Frick’s Ministry of the Interior was informed of the unexplained deaths of insane persons (_1696-PS_; _1969-PS_).

The most striking example of the continued killings in these institutions, which were under Frick’s jurisdiction, is the famous Hadamar case. Systematic killing started at the Hadamar nursing home as early as 1939. At least as early as 1941 Frick was officially acquainted with the fact that these killings had become public knowledge. Proof is found in a letter from the Bishop of Limburg of 13 August 1941 to the Reichsminister of Justice, copies of which were sent to the Reichsminister of the Interior and the Reichsministerfor Church Affairs. The letter reads in part as follows:

“* * * About 8 kilometers from Limburg, in the little town of Hadamar, on a hill overlooking the town, there is an institution which had formerly served various purposes and of late had been used as a nursing home; this institution was renovated and furnished as a place in which, by consensus of opinion, the above-mentioned Euthenasia has been systematically practiced for months—approximately since February 1941. The fact has become known beyond the administrative district of Wiesbaden, because death certificates from a Registry Hadamar-Moenchberg are sent to the home communities. * * *

“Several times a week buses arrive in Hadamar with a considerable number of such victims. School children of the vicinity know this vehicle and say: ‘There comes the murder-box again.’ After the arrival of the vehicle, the citizens of Hadamar watch the smoke rise out of the chimney and are tortured with the ever-present thought of the miserable victims, especially when repulsive odors annoy them, depending on the direction of the wind.

“The effect of the principles at work here are: Children call each other names and say, ‘You’re crazy; you’ll be sent to the baking oven in Hadamar.’ Those who do not want to marry, or find no opportunity, say ‘Marry, never! Bring children into the world so they can be put into the bottling machine!’ You hear old folks say, ‘Don’t send me to a state hospital! After the feeble-minded have been finished off, the next useless eaters whose turn will come are the old people.’

“* * * The population cannot grasp that systematic actions are carried out which in accordance with Par. 211 of the German criminal code are punishable with death! * * *

“Officials of the Secret State Police, it is said, are trying to suppress discussion of the Hadamar occurrences by means of severe threats. In the interest of public peace, this may be well intended. But the knowledge and the conviction and the indignation of the population cannot be changed by it; the conviction will be increased with the bitter realization that discussion is prohibited with threats but that the actions themselves are not prosecuted under penal law.

“_Facta loquuntur._

“I beg you most humbly, Herr Reich Minister, in the sense of the report of the Episcopate of July 16 of this year, to prevent further transgressions of the Fifth Commandment of God.

“(Signed) Dr. Hilfrich” (_615-PS_).

Nevertheless, the killings in these institutions continued year after year. This is shown by a certified copy of the charge, specifications, and findings of the U. S. Military Commission at Wiesbaden, against the individuals who operated the Hadamar Sanitarium, where many Russians and Poles were done away with. In this particular proceeding, seven defendants were charged with the murder in 1944 and 1945 of 400 persons of Polish and Russian nationality. Three of the defendants were sentenced to be hanged; the other four were sentenced to confinement at hard labor (_3592-PS_).

But the murdering in Hadamar was only part of a systematic program. The official report of the Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission, entitled “Detailed Statement on the Murdering of Ill and Aged People in Germany,” shows that Frick was one of the originators of the secret law of 1940, which authorized the killing of sick and aged persons and under which the Hadamar “murder mill” was operated until 1945. The first 3 paragraphs of that report read as follows:

“1. The murdering can be traced back to a secret law which was released some time in the summer of 1940.

“2. Besides the Chief Physician of the Reich, Dr. L. Conti, the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler, the Reichsminister of the Interior Dr. Frick, as well as other men, the following participated in the introduction of this secret law * * *.

“3. As I have already stated, there were—after careful calculation—at least 200,000 mainly mentally deficient, imbeciles, besides neurological cases and medically unfit people—these were not only incurable cases—and at least 75,000 aged people.” (_1556-PS_).

Thus, Frick bears full responsibility for the systematic killing of the “unproductive eaters,” for whom the Nazi war machine had no use.

(4) _Oppression in Bohemia and Moravia._ The final phase of Frick’s criminal activities began with his appointment as Protector in Bohemia and Moravia, on 20 August 1943 (_3086-PS_).

His authority was clearly defined in a Secret Decree issued on 29 August 1943. That Decree provided that the Reich Protector was “the representative of the Fuehrer in his capacity as Chief of State.” In addition to this over-all authority, Frick was given jurisdiction “to confirm the members of the government of the Protectorate, to appoint, dismiss and retire the German civil servants in the Protectorate.” He was given full power “to grant pardons and to quash proceedings in all cases except in cases before the Military and SS Police Courts” (_1366-PS_).

These broad powers establish the clear responsibility of Frick for the crimes committed in the Protectorate under his administration during the last 20 months of the War. As representative of the Fuehrer in the Protectorate, he covered these criminal acts with Hitler’s name and absolute power.

As a single example of these crimes, reference may be made to Supplement 6 to the official Czechoslovak Report on German Crimes Against Czechoslovakia:

“During the tenure of office of defendant Wilhelm Frick as Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia from August 1943 until the liberation of Czechoslovakia in 1945, many thousands of Czechoslovak Jews were transported from the Terezin ghetto in Czechoslovakia to the concentration camp at Oswiecziem (Auschwitz) in Poland and were there killed in the gas chambers.” (_3589-PS_).

Frick was also fully responsible for the multiple and notorious miscarriages of justice by which the population of the Protectorate was systematically persecuted and oppressed. His failure to correct these miscarriages of justice through the exercise of his right to grant pardons and to quash legal proceedings is tantamount to a confirmation of the cruel and illegal sentences imposed upon the inhabitants of the Protectorate (_1556-PS_; _3589-PS_).

Frick’s specific responsibility on these counts must be added to the over-all responsibility which he bears because of the fact that he was in power as Reich Protector while such Crimes against Humanity were committed against the population of Bohemia and Moravia (_3443-PS_).

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.

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 into 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. When 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, Czechoslovakia.

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

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 (_3123-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 1935-20 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_).

* * * * *

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO WILHELM FRICK

│ │ │ Document │ Description │ Vol. │ Page │ │ │ │Charter of the International Military │ │ │ Tribunal, Article 6. │ I │ 5 │International Military Tribunal, │ │ │ Indictment Number 1, Section IV (H);│ │ │ Appendix A. │ I │ 29, 60 │ ———— │ │ │Note: A single asterisk (*) before a │ │ │document indicates that the document │ │ │was received in evidence at the │ │ │Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**)│ │ │before a document number indicates │ │ │that the document was referred to │ │ │during the trial but was not formally │ │ │received in evidence, for the reason │ │ │given in parentheses following the │ │ │description of the document. The USA │ │ │series number, given in parentheses │ │ │following the description of the │ │ │document, is the official exhibit │ │ │number assigned by the court. │ │ │ ———— │ │ *374-PS │TWX Series of Orders signed by │ │ │Heydrich and Mueller, issued by │ │ │Gestapo Headquarters Berlin, 9-11 │ │ │November 1938, concerning treatment of│ │ │Jews. (USA 729) │ III │ 277 │ │ │ *388-PS │File of papers on Case Green (the plan│ │ │for the attack on Czechoslovakia), │ │ │kept by Schmundt, Hitler’s adjutant, │ │ │April-October 1938. (USA 26) │ III │ 305 │ │ │ 405-PS │Law Concerning Trustees of Labor, 19 │ │ │May 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, part│ │ │I, p. 285. │ III │ 387 │ │ │ 615-PS │Letter from Bishop of Limburg, 13 │ │ │August 1941, concerning killings at │ │ │Hadamar Asylum. (USA 717) │ III │ 449 │ │ │ *621-PS │Letter from Dr. Lammers to Minister of│ │ │Justice, 2 October 1940, concerning │ │ │deaths of Nursing Home inmates. (USA │ │ │715) │ III │ 451 │ │ │ *647-PS │Secret Hitler Order, 17 August 1938, │ │ │concerning organization and │ │ │mobilization of SS. (USA 443) │ III │ 459 │ │ │ 680-PS │Letter by Frick to heads of Agencies, │ │ │5 May 1938, proposing methods for │ │ │invalidating Concordat between Austria│ │ │and the Holy See. │ III │ 483 │ │ │ 779-PS │Directive by Frick, regulating │ │ │“protective custody”, 12 April 1934. │ III │ 555 │ │ │ *1039-PS │Report concerning preparatory work │ │ │regarding problems in Eastern │ │ │Territories, 28 June 1941, found in │ │ │Rosenberg’s “Russia File”. (USA 146) │ III │ 695 │ │ │ **1060-PS │Order pursuant to law concerning │ │ │Reunion of Austria with German Reich, │ │ │16 March 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt,│ │ │part I, p. 249. (Referred to, but not │ │ │offered in evidence.) │ III │ 717 │ │ │ 1249-PS │Ordinance, 1 June 1942, issued under │ │ │Decree of 4 December 1941 for │ │ │establishment of courts-martial in │ │ │annexed Eastern Territories of Upper │ │ │Silesia. │ III │ 851 │ │ │ 1366-PS │Decree of 29 August 1943 on the │ │ │position, duties, and authorities of │ │ │the Reich Protector in Bohemia and │ │ │Moravia; Budget of the Reich │ │ │Protectorate for 1944. │ III │ 925 │ │ │ 1388-PS │Law concerning confiscation of │ │ │Property subversive to People and │ │ │State, 14 July 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 479. │ III │ 962 │ │ │ 1388-A-PS │Law against the establishment of │ │ │Parties, 14 July 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 479. │ III │ 962 │ │ │ 1389-PS │Law creating Reich Labor Service, 26 │ │ │June 1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, │ │ │part I, p. 769. │ III │ 963 │ │ │ 1390-PS │Decree of the Reich President for the │ │ │Protection of the People and State, 28│ │ │February 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt,│ │ │part I, p. 83. │ III │ 968 │ │ │ 1393-PS │Law on treacherous attacks against │ │ │State and Party, and for the │ │ │Protection of Party Uniforms, 20 │ │ │December 1934. 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt,│ │ │part I, p. 1269. │ III │ 973 │ │ │ *1395-PS │Law to insure the unity of Party and │ │ │State, 1 December 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 1016. │ │ │(GB 252) │ III │ 978 │ │ │ 1396-PS │Law concerning the confiscation of │ │ │Communist property, 26 May 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 293. │ III │ 979 │ │ │ 1397-PS │Law for the reestablishment of the │ │ │Professional Civil Service, 7 April │ │ │1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, │ │ │p. 175. │ III │ 981 │ │ │ 1398-PS │Law to supplement the Law for the │ │ │restoration of the Professional Civil │ │ │Service, 20 July 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 518. │ III │ 986 │ │ │ 1403-PS │Law on the granting of indemnities in │ │ │case of confiscation or transfer of │ │ │property, 9 December 1937. 1937 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 1333. │ III │ 991 │ │ │ 1409-PS │Order concerning utilization of Jewish│ │ │property, 3 December 1938. 1938 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 1709. │ IV │ 1 │ │ │ 1416-PS │Reich Citizen Law of 15 September │ │ │1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, │ │ │p. 1146. │ IV │ 7 │ │ │ *1417-PS │First regulation to the Reichs │ │ │Citizenship Law, 14 November 1935. │ │ │1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. │ │ │1333. (GB 258) │ IV │ 8 │ │ │ 1422-PS │Thirteenth regulation under Reich │ │ │Citizenship Law, 1 July 1943. 1943 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 372. │ IV │ 14 │ │ │ 1437-PS │Law concerning reuniting of Austria │ │ │with German Reich, 18 March 1938. 1938│ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 262. │ IV │ 17 │ │ │ *1482-PS │Secret letter, 20 July 1935 to │ │ │provincial governments and the │ │ │Prussian Gestapo from Frick, │ │ │concerning Confessional Youth │ │ │Organizations. (USA 738) │ IV │ 51 │ │ │ *1498-PS │Order of Frick, 6 November 1934, │ │ │addressed inter alios to Prussian │ │ │Gestapo prohibiting publication of │ │ │Protestant Church announcements. (USA │ │ │739) │ IV │ 52 │ │ │ 1551-PS │Decree assigning functions in Office │ │ │of Chief of German Police, 26 June │ │ │1936. 1936 Reichs Ministerialblatt, │ │ │pp. 946-948. │ IV │ 106 │ │ │ *1556-PS │Czechoslovakian report, December 1941,│ │ │naming Frick as one of the originators│ │ │of secret law authorizing the killing │ │ │of sick and aged persons. (USA 716) │ IV │ 111 │ │ │ 1637-PS │Order of Himmler, 23 June 1938, │ │ │concerning acceptance of members of │ │ │Security Police into the SS. 1938 │ │ │Reichs Ministerialblatt, pp. │ │ │1089-1091. │ IV │ 138 │ │ │ 1638-PS │Circular of Minister of Interior, 11 │ │ │November 1938, on cooperation of SD │ │ │and other authorities. 1938 Reichs │ │ │Ministerialblatt, p. 1906. │ IV │ 142 │ │ │ *1643-PS │Documents concerning confiscation of │ │ │land for the establishment of the │ │ │Auschwitz Extermination Camp. (USA │ │ │713) │ IV │ 155 │ │ │ 1652-PS │Decree of the Reich President for │ │ │protection against treacherous attacks│ │ │on the government of the Nationalist │ │ │movement, 21 March 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 135. │ IV │ 160 │ │ │ **1654-PS │Law of 16 March 1935 reintroducing │ │ │universal military conscription. 1935 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 369. │ │ │(Referred to but not offered in │ │ │evidence.) │ IV │ 163 │ │ │ 1660-PS │Decree for registration for active │ │ │service in Austria in the year 1938 of│ │ │16 June 1938. 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, │ │ │part I, p. 631. │ IV │ 171 │ │ │ 1662-PS │Order eliminating Jews from German │ │ │economic life, 12 November 1938. 1938 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 1580. │ IV │ 172 │ │ │ *1680-PS │“Ten Years Security Police and SD” │ │ │published in The German Police, 1 │ │ │February 1943. (USA 477) │ IV │ 191 │ │ │ 1696-PS │Correspondence with Ministry of │ │ │Interior showing unexplained deaths of│ │ │insane persons. │ IV │ 199 │ │ │ *1723-PS │Order concerning cooperation of Party │ │ │offices with the Secret State Police, │ │ │25 January 1938, published in Decrees,│ │ │Regulations, Announcements, 1937, vol.│ │ │II, pp. 430-439. (USA 206) │ IV │ 219 │ │ │ 1770-PS │Law concerning factory representative │ │ │councils and economic organizations, 4│ │ │April 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, │ │ │part I, p. 161. │ IV │ 343 │ │ │ *1816-PS │Stenographic report of the meeting on │ │ │The Jewish Question, under the │ │ │Chairmanship of Fieldmarshal Goering, │ │ │12 November 1938. (USA 261) │ IV │ 425 │ │ │ *1850-PS │Conferences, 1933, calling for │ │ │financing of military training of SA │ │ │from Ministry of Interior funds. (USA │ │ │742) │ IV │ 478 │ │ │ *1852-PS │“Law” from The German Police, 1941, by│ │ │Dr. Werner Best. (USA 449) (See Chart │ │ │No. 16.) │ IV │ 490 │ │ │ 1861-PS │Law on the regulation of National │ │ │labor, 20 January 1934. 1934 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 45. │ IV │ 497 │ │ │ 1969-PS │Correspondence of party officials, │ │ │concerning killing of insane. │ IV │ 602 │ │ │ 2000-PS │Law for protection of German blood and│ │ │German honor, 15 September 1935. 1935 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, No. 100, p.│ │ │1146. │ IV │ 636 │ │ │ 2001-PS │Law to Remove the Distress of People │ │ │and State, 24 March 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 141. │ IV │ 638 │ │ │ 2003-PS │Law concerning the Sovereign Head of │ │ │the German Reich, 1 August 1934. 1934 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 747. │ IV │ 639 │ │ │ 2004-PS │Preliminary law for the coordination │ │ │of Federal States under the Reich, 31 │ │ │March 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, │ │ │part I, p. 153. │ IV │ 640 │ │ │ 2005-PS │Second law integrating the “Laender” │ │ │with the Reich, 7 April 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 173. │ IV │ 641 │ │ │ 2008-PS │German Communal Ordinance, 30 January │ │ │1935. 1935 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, │ │ │p. 49. │ IV │ 643 │ │ │ *2018-PS │Fuehrer’s decree establishing a │ │ │Ministerial Council for Reich Defense,│ │ │30 August 1939. 1939 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 1539. │ │ │(GB 250) │ IV │ 650 │ │ │ 2058-PS │Decree for the securing of the State │ │ │Leadership, 7 July 1933. 1933 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 462. │ IV │ 699 │ │ │ 2073-PS │Decree concerning the appointment of a│ │ │Chief of German Police in the Ministry│ │ │of the Interior, 17 June 1936. 1936 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 487. │ IV │ 703 │ │ │ 2108-PS │Decree for execution of Law on Secret │ │ │State Police of 10 February 1936. 1936│ │ │Preussische Gesetzsammlung, pp. 22-24.│ IV │ 732 │ │ │ 2118-PS │Police decree on identification of │ │ │Jews, 1 September 1941. 1941 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 547. │ IV │ 750 │ │ │ 2119-PS │Decree of the Fuehrer and Reich │ │ │Chancellor concerning the Protectorate│ │ │of Bohemia and Moravia, 16 March 1939.│ IV │ 751 │ │ │ 2124-PS │Decree introducing the Nurnberg Racial│ │ │Laws into Austria, 20 May 1938. 1938 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 594. (GB│ │ │259) │ IV │ 755 │ │ │ *2194-PS │Top secret letter from Ministry for │ │ │Economy and Labor, Saxony, to Reich │ │ │Protector in Bohemia and Moravia, │ │ │enclosing copy of 1938 Secret Defense │ │ │Law of 4 September 1938. (USA 36) │ IV │ 843 │ │ │ 2245-PS │Frick decree of 20 September 1936 │ │ │concerning employment of Security │ │ │Police Inspectors. 1936 Reichs │ │ │Ministerialblatt, pp. 1343-1344. │ IV │ 928 │ │ │ *2307-PS │Law concerning reunion of Austria with│ │ │German Reich, 13 March 1938. 1938 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 237. (GB│ │ │133) │ IV │ 997 │ │ │ *2380-PS │Articles from National Socialist │ │ │Yearbook, 1935. (USA 396) │ V │ 6 │ │ │ *2381-PS │Extracts from The Greater German Diet,│ │ │1943. (USA 476) │ V │ 7 │ │ │ *2385-PS │Affidavit of George S. Messersmith, 30│ │ │August 1945. (USA 68) │ V │ 23 │ │ │ 2403-PS │The End of the Party State, from │ │ │Documents of German Politics, vol. I, │ │ │pp. 55-56. │ V │ 71 │ │ │ *2513-PS │Extract from The National Socialist │ │ │Workers’ Party as an Association │ │ │Hostile to State and to Republican │ │ │Form of Government and Guilty of │ │ │Treasonable Activity. (USA 235) │ V │ 252 │ │ │ *2608-PS │Frick’s lecture, 7 March 1940, on “The│ │ │Administration in Wartime”. (USA 714) │ V │ 327 │ │ │ 2742-PS │Passage written by Frick in National │ │ │Socialist Yearbook, 1927, p. 124. │ V │ 383 │ │ │ 2917-PS │Decree concerning German people’s list│ │ │and German nationality in the │ │ │incorporated Eastern Territories of 4 │ │ │March 1941. 1941 Reichsgesetzblatt, │ │ │part I, p. 118. │ V │ 587 │ │ │ *2978-PS │Frick’s statement of offices and │ │ │positions, 14 November 1945. (USA 8) │ V │ 683 │ │ │ *2986-PS │Affidavit of the defendant, Wilhelm │ │ │Frick, 19 November 1945. (USA 409) │ V │ 688 │ │ │ 3043-PS │Affidavit of Frick, November 1945. │ V │ 755 │ │ │ *3051-PS │Three teletype orders from Heydrich to│ │ │all stations of State Police, 10 │ │ │November 1938, on measures against │ │ │Jews, and one order from Heydrich on │ │ │termination of protest actions. (USA │ │ │240) │ V │ 797 │ │ │ *3058-PS │Letter from Heydrich to Goering, 11 │ │ │November 1938, reporting action │ │ │against the Jews. (USA 508) │ V │ 854 │ │ │ 3067-PS │Law for the prevention of offspring │ │ │with Hereditary diseases, 14 July │ │ │1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, │ │ │p. 529. │ V │ 880 │ │ │ 3075-PS │Law for the building up of │ │ │administration in Ostmark, 14 April │ │ │1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, │ │ │p. 777. │ V │ 884 │ │ │ 3076-PS │Law for building up of administrations│ │ │in Reich Gau Sudetenland, 14 April │ │ │1939. 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, │ │ │p. 780. │ V │ 889 │ │ │ 3077-PS │Law regarding reunion of Free City of │ │ │Danzig with German Reich of 1 │ │ │September 1939. 1939 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 1547. │ V │ 891 │ │ │ 3085-PS │Himmler’s ordinance of 3 July 1943 │ │ │charging Gestapo with execution of │ │ │Thirteenth Ordinance under Reich │ │ │Citizen Law. 1943 Ministerial Gazette │ │ │of Reich and Prussian Ministry of │ │ │Interior, p. 1085. │ V │ 892 │ │ │ 3086-PS │Appointment of Frick as Reich │ │ │Protector, published in The Archives, │ │ │August 1943, p. 347. │ V │ 893 │ │ │ *3119-PS │Extract from Dr. Wilhelm Frick and His│ │ │Ministry. (USA 711) │ V │ 893 │ │ │ 3123-PS │Extracts from Manual for │ │ │Administrative Officials, 1943. │ V │ 900 │ │ │ *3124-PS │Extracts from Rudolf Hess—Speeches. │ │ │(GB 253) │ V │ 902 │ │ │ 3125-PS │Extract of Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler,│ │ │39th edition, 1933, p. 403. │ V │ 904 │ │ │ 3127-PS │Announcement of 60th anniversary of │ │ │Dr. Frick in National Socialist │ │ │Monthly, 1937, p. 346. │ V │ 905 │ │ │ 3128-PS │Extracts from Our Reich Cabinet, 1936.│ V │ 905 │ │ │ 3131-PS │Extract from Racial Eugenics in the │ │ │Reich Legislation, 1943, p. 14. │ V │ 906 │ │ │ 3132-PS │Extracts from Dates of the History of │ │ │the NSDAP, 1939. │ V │ 906 │ │ │ 3225-PS │Extract from 1942 Reorganization of │ │ │Law and Economy. │ V │ 936 │ │ │ *3249-PS │Affidavit of Dr. Franz Blaha, 24 │ │ │November 1945. (USA 663) │ V │ 949 │ │ │ *3258-PS │Extracts from National Socialism Basic│ │ │Principles, Their Application by the │ │ │Nazi Party’s Foreign Organization, and│ │ │the Use of Germans Abroad for Nazi │ │ │Aims, by U. S. Government Printing │ │ │Office, Washington, 1943. (GB 262) │ V │ 997 │ │ │ 3303-PS │Extract from Handbook of the German │ │ │Reich, 1936. │ V │ 1099 │ │ │ 3304-PS │Second Order for execution of decree │ │ │of Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor │ │ │concerning formation and │ │ │administration of Eastern Territories,│ │ │2 November 1939. 1939 │ │ │Reichsgesetzblatt, part I, p. 2133. │ V │ 1100 │ │ │ 3399-PS │Affidavit of R. M. W. Kempner, 11 │ │ │December 1945. │ VI │ 116 │ │ │ 3443-PS │Supplement No. 5 to official │ │ │Czechoslovak report, containing an │ │ │official memorandum on activities of │ │ │defendant Wilhelm Frick. │ VI │ 151 │ │ │ *3475-PS │Manual for Administrative Officials, │ │ │1943. (USA 710) │ VI │ 200 │ │ │ *3564-PS │Affidavit of Otto L. Meissner, 27 │ │ │December 1945, concerning Frick. (USA │ │ │709) │ VI │ 253 │ │ │ 3565-PS │Affidavit of Franz Ritter von Epp, 27 │ │ │December 1945, concerning Frick. │ VI │ 253 │ │ │ 3570-PS │Interrogation testimony of Wilhelm │ │ │Stuckart, former State Secretary of │ │ │Interior, at Oberursel, 21 September │ │ │1945. │ VI │ 263 │ │ │ *3589-PS │Supplement No. 6 to Official │ │ │Czechoslovak Report called “German │ │ │Crimes against Czechoslovakia”, 7 │ │ │January 1946. (USA 720) │ VI │ 287 │ │ │ *3592-PS │Charges, specifications, findings and │ │ │sentence of Alfons Klein and others │ │ │tried at Wiesbaden, Hadamar Case. (USA│ │ │718) │ VI │ 296 │ │ │ *3593-PS │Interrogation of Hermann Goering, 13 │ │ │October 1945. (USA 712) │ VI │ 298 │ │ │ *3601-PS │Affidavit of Sidney Mendel, 28 │ │ │December 1945, concerning the │ │ │connection of Frick’s Ministry of │ │ │Interior with concentration camps. (GB│ │ │324) │ VI │ 313 │ │ │ D-43 │Official circular, 26 March 1936, │ │ │concerning Reichstag elections on 29 │ │ │March 1936. │ VI │ 1024 │ │ │ D-44 │Circular, 25 July 1933, referring to │ │ │publications of SA activities. (USA │ │ │428) │ VI │ 1024 │ │ │ *D-181 │Circular from Gauleiter of South │ │ │Westphalia, 21 January 1937, │ │ │concerning Hereditary Health Law. (GB │ │ │528) │ VI │ 1073 │ │ │ L-82 │Decrees of 26 April 1933, 30 November │ │ │1933, 10 February 1936, on the │ │ │organization of the Gestapo from 1933 │ │ │Preussische Gesetzsammlung, p. 122. │ VII │ 855 │ │ │ *L-83 │Affidavit of Gerhart H. Seger, 21 July│ │ │1945. (USA 234) │ VII │ 859 │ │ │ L-302 │Dr. Werner Spehr: The Law of │ │ │Protective Custody, Berlin, 1937, p. │ │ │11-13. │ VII │ 1100 │ │ │ L-305 │Correspondence concerning compulsory │ │ │sterilization on orders of Ministry of│ │ │Interior of all descendants of colored│ │ │occupation troops. │ VII │ 1102 │ │ │ *R-96 │Correspondence of Minister of Justice │ │ │in preparation of the discriminatory │ │ │decree of 4 December 1941 regarding │ │ │criminal justice against Poles and │ │ │Jews in annexed Eastern Territories. │ │ │(GB 268) │ VIII │ 72 │ │ │ *R-101-A │Letter from Chief of the Security │ │ │Police and Security Service to the │ │ │Reich Commissioner for the │ │ │Consolidation of German Folkdom, 5 │ │ │April 1940, with enclosures concerning│ │ │confiscation of church property. (USA │ │ │358) │ VIII │ 87 │ │ │ R-101-B │Letter from Himmler to Dr. Winkler, 31│ │ │October 1940, concerning treatment of │ │ │church property in incorporated │ │ │Eastern countries. │ VIII │ 89 │ │ │ R-101-C │Letter to Reich Leader SS, 30 July │ │ │1941, concerning treatment of church │ │ │property in incorporated Eastern │ │ │areas. (USA 358) │ VIII │ 91 │ │ │ *R-101-D │Letter from Chief of Staff of the │ │ │Reich Main Security Office (RSHA) to │ │ │Reich Leader SS, 30 March 1942, │ │ │concerning confiscation of church │ │ │property. (USA 358) │ VIII │ 92 │ │ │ *Chart No. 1 │National Socialist German Workers’ │ │ │Party. (2903-PS; USA 2) │ VIII │ 770 │ │ │ *Chart No. 16 │The Structure of the German Police. │ │(1852-PS; USA 449) │ End of VIII

10. JULIUS STREICHER

Through his words and his deeds Julius Streicher assumed for himself the unofficial title of “Jew-baiter Number One” of Nazi Germany. For the course of some twenty-five years, Streicher educated the German people in hatred and incited them to the persecution and to the extermination of the Jewish race. He was an accessory to murder, on a scale perhaps never attained before.

A. _STREICHER’S CAREER AND POSITIONS._

Streicher was born in 1885. He became a school teacher in Nurnberg and formed a party of his own, which he called the German Socialist Party. The chief policy of that party was anti-semitism. In 1922 he handed over his party to Hitler, who wrote a glowing account of Streicher’s generosity in _Mein Kampf_ (_M-3_).

The appointments which Streicher held in the Party and state were few. From 1921 until 1945, he was a member of the Nazi Party. In 1925 he was appointed Gauleiter of Franconia, and he remained as such until about February 1940. From the time that the Nazi government came into power in 1933 until 1945 he was a member of the Reichstag. In addition to that, he held the title of Obergruppenfuehrer in the SA (_2975-PS_).

The propaganda which Streicher carried out throughout those years was chiefly done through the medium of his newspapers. He was the editor and publisher of “_Der Stuermer_” from 1922 until 1933, and thereafter the publisher and owner of the paper. In 1933 he also founded and thereafter published a daily newspaper called the “_Fraenkische Tageszeitung_.”

In addition, in later years he published several other papers, mostly local journals, from Nurnberg.

B. _STREICHER’S PART IN THE REMOVAL OF OPPOSITION THROUGH ANTI-JEWISH PROPAGANDA AND INCITEMENT._

The course of Streicher’s incitement and propaganda may be traced more or less in chronological order by referring to short extracts from “_Der Stuermer_.” The extracts which follow were selected at random. They were selected with a view to showing the various methods which Streicher employed to incite the German people against the Jewish race, but his newspapers are crowded with them, week after week, day after day. It is impossible to pick up any copy without finding the same kind of invective and incitement in the headlines and in the articles.

In a speech which Streicher made in 1922 in Nurnberg, after abusing the Jews in the first paragraph, he went on to say:

“We know that Germany will be free when the Jew has been excluded from the life of the German people.” (_M-11_).

In a speech in 1924 he stated:

“I beg you and particularly those of you who carry the cross throughout the land to become somewhat more serious when I speak of the enemy of the German people, namely, the Jew. Not out of irresponsibility or for fun do I fight against the Jewish enemy, but because I bear within me the knowledge that the whole misfortune was brought to Germany by the Jews alone.

“I ask you once more, what is at stake today? The Jew seeks domination not only among the German people but among all peoples. The communists pave the way for him. Do you not know that the God of the Old Testament orders the Jews to consume and enslave the peoples of the earth?

“The government allows the Jew to do as he pleases. The people expect action to be taken. You may think about Adolf Hitler as you please, but one thing you must admit. He possessed the courage to attempt to free the German people from the Jew by a national revolution. That was action indeed.” (_M-12_).

In a speech in April 1925 Streicher declared:

“You must realize that the Jew wants our people to perish. That is why you must join us and leave those who have brought you nothing but war, inflation, and discord. For thousands of years the Jew has been destroying the nations. Let us make a new beginning today so that we can annihilate the Jews.” (_M-13_).

This appears to be the earliest expression of one of the conspirators’ primary objectives—the annihilation of the Jewish race. Fourteen years later it became the official policy of the Nazi Government.

In April 1932 Streicher made the following statement:

“For 13 years I have fought against Jewry.”

* * * * * *

“We know that the Jew whether he is baptized as a Protestant or as a Catholic, remains a Jew. Why cannot you realize, you Protestant clergymen, you Catholic priests, you who have scales before your eyes and serve the god of the Jews who is not the God of Love but the God of Hate. Why do you not listen to Christ, who said to the Jews, ‘You are children of the devil’.” (_M-14_).

(1) _The Anti-Jewish Boycott of 1933._

When the Nazi Party came to power, they officially started their campaign against the Jews by the boycott of 1 April 1933. The boycott was agreed on and approved by the whole government, as appears from Goebbels’ diary (_2409-PS_).

Streicher was appointed the chairman of the central committee for the organization of that boycott. He started his work on Wednesday, 29 March (_2156-PS_).

On that same day the central committee issued a proclamation announcing that the boycott would start on Saturday at 10:00 AM sharp:

“Jewry will realize whom it has challenged.” (_M-7_).

On 30 March, two days before the boycott was due to start, an article was published under the title, “Defeat the Enemy of the World!—by Julius Streicher, official leader of the central committee to combat the Jewish atrocity and boycott campaign” (_2153-PS_). The article stated, in part:

“Jewry wanted this battle. It shall have it until it realizes that the Germany of the brown battalions is not a country of cowardice and surrender. Jewry will have to fight until we have won victory.

“National Socialists! Defeat the enemy of the world. Even if the world is full of devils, we shall succeed in the end.” (_2153-PS_).

As head of the central committee for that boycott, Streicher outlined in detail the organization of the boycott in orders which the committee published on 31 March 1933 (_2154-PS_). The committee stressed that no violence should be employed against the Jews during the boycott, but not for humanitarian reasons. The order was issued because, if no violence were employed, Jewish employers would have no grounds for discharging their employees without notice, and for refusing to pay them any wages. The Jews were also reported, apparently, to be transferring businesses to German figureheads in order to alleviate the results of this persecution; accordingly the committee declared that any property so transferred was to be considered as Jewish for the purpose of the boycott (_2154-PS_).

It is therefore clear that early in 1933 Streicher was taking a leading part, as appointed by the Government, in the persecution against the Jews.

Further extracts from Streicher’s newspapers illustrate the form which his propaganda developed as the years went on. An article in the New Year’s issue of a new paper founded and edited by Streicher—a semimedical paper called “The People’s Health Through Blood and Soil”—is an example of the remarkable lengths to which he went in propagandizing against the Jews:

“It is established for all eternity; alien albumen is the sperm of a man of alien race. The male sperm in cohabitation is partially or completely absorbed by the female, and thus enters her bloodstream. One single cohabitation of a Jew with an Aryan woman is sufficient to poison her blood forever. Together with the alien albumen she has absorbed the alien soul. Never again will she be able to bear purely Aryan children, even when married to an Aryan. They will all be bastards, with a dual soul and a body of a mixed breed. Their children will also be crossbreeds; that means, ugly people of unsteady character and with a tendency to illnesses. Now we know why the Jew uses every artifice of seduction in order to ravish German girls at as early an age as possible; why the Jewish doctor rapes his patients while they were under anaesthetic. He wants the German girl and the German woman to absorb the alien sperm of the Jew. She is never again to bear German children. But the blood products of all animals right down to the bacteria like the serum, lymph, extracts from internal organs etc., are all alien albumen. They have a poisonous effect if directly introduced into the blood stream either by vaccination or by injection. By these products of sick animals the blood is ravished, the Aryan is impregnated with an alien species. The author and abettor of such action is the Jew. He has been aware of the secrets of the race question for centuries, and therefore plans systematically the annihilation of the nations which are superior to him. Science and authorities are his instruments for the enforcing of pseudo-science and the concealment of truth.” (_M-20_).

At the beginning of 1935, the following extract, entitled “The Chosen People of the Criminals,” appeared in “_Der Stuermer_”:

“* * * and all the same, or, let us say, just because of this, the history book of the Jews, which is usually called the Holy Scriptures, impresses us as a horrible criminal romance, which makes the 150 penny-dreadfuls of the British Jew, Edgar Wallace, go green with envy. This ‘holy’ book abounds in murder, incest, fraud, theft, and indecency.” (_2697-PS_).

In a speech on 4 October 1935 (the month following the proclamation of the Nurnberg Decrees) Streicher made a speech which is reported in the _Voelkischer Beobachter_ and is entitled in that newspaper “Safeguard of German Blood and German Honor.” The report in that article reads in part:

“Gauleiter Streicher speaks at a German Labor Front mass demonstration for the Nurnberg laws.”

* * * * * *

“We have therefore, to unmask the Jew, and that is what I have been doing for the past fifteen years.” (_M-34_).

In a leading article in “_Der Stuermer_” Streicher again emphasized the part which he himself had taken in this campaign:

“_The ‘Stuermer_’s’ 15 years of work of enlightenment has already led an army of those who know—millions strong—to National Socialism. The continued work of the ‘_Stuermer_’ will help to ensure that every German down to the last man will, with heart and hand, join the ranks of those whose aim it is to crush the head of the serpent Pan-Juda beneath their heels. He who helps to bring this about helps to eliminate the devil, and this devil is the Jew.” (_M-6_).

The extraordinary length to which Streicher went in his propaganda is illustrated by the publication in “_Der Stuermer_” of a photograph of the burning hull of the airship “Hindenburg,” which caught fire in June 1937 in America. The caption beneath the picture includes the comment:

“The first radio picture from the United States of America shows quite clearly that a Jew stands behind the explosion of our airship Hindenburg. Nature has depicted clearly and quite correctly that devil in human guise.”

Although it is not clear from that photograph, the meaning of that comment is apparently that the cloud of smoke in the air is in the shape of a Jewish face.

In a speech in September 1937 at the opening of the Wilhelm Gustloff bridge in Nurnberg, Streicher declared:

“The man who murdered Wilhelm Gustloff had to come from the Jewish people, because the Jewish text books teach that every Jew has the right to kill a non-Jew, and, indeed, that it is pleasing to the Jewish God to kill as many non-Jews as possible.

“Look at the way the Jewish people have been following for thousands of years past; everywhere murder, everywhere mass murder. Neither must we forget that behind present-day wars there stands the Jewish financier who pursues his aims and interests. The Jew always lives on the blood of other nations; he needs such murder and such victims. For us who know, the murder of Wilhelm Gustloff is the same as ritual murder.”

* * * * * *

“It is our duty to tell the children at school and the bigger ones what this memorial means.”

* * * * * *

“The Jew no longer shows himself among us openly as he used to. But it would be wrong to say that victory is ours. Full and final victory will have been achieved only when the whole world has been rid of Jews.” (_M-4_).

Extracts from the correspondence columns of “_Der Stuermer_,” show another method which Streicher employed in his propaganda (_M-26_; _M-27_; _M-28_). The correspondence columns of every issue are full of purported “letters” from Germans protesting that some German has been buying shoes from a Jewish shop, etc., thus by printing these letters assisting in the general boycott of the Jews.

(2) _“Ritual Murder” Propaganda._

Another form of propaganda employed by Streicher concerned the “Ritual Murder.” Sometime in 1934 “_Der Stuermer_” began publishing accounts of Jewish ritual murder which horrified the whole world to such an extent that even the Archbishop of Canterbury, together with people from every country in the world, protested that any government should allow such matter to be published in their national newspapers.

Streicher based his ritual murder propaganda on a medieval belief that during their Eastertide celebrations the Jews were in the habit of murdering Christian children. Streicher misrepresented this medieval belief to make it appear that not only was this done in the Middle Ages, but that the Jews are still doing it and still want to do it. A few passages from “_Der Stuermer_” together with descriptions of photographs published therein will illustrate the type of propaganda that Streicher was putting out concerning “ritual murder”:

“This the French front-line soldier should take with him to France: The German people have taken a new lease of life. They want peace, but if anyone tries to attack them, if anyone tries to torture them again, if anyone tries to push them back into the past, then the world would see another heroic epic; then heaven will decide where righteousness lies—here, or where the Jew has the whiphand and where he instigates massacres, one could almost say the biggest ritual murders of all times. If the German people are to be slaughtered according to the Jewish rites, the whole world will be thus slaughtered at the same time.”

* * * * * *

“As you have drummed morning and evening prayers into your children’s heads, so now drum this into their heads, so that the German people may gain the spiritual power to convince the rest of the world which the Jews desire to lead against us.” (_M-2_).

A photograph published in “_Der Stuermer_” in April 1937 purports to show three Jews ritually murdering a girl by cutting her throat, with the blood pouring out into a bucket on the ground. The caption underneath that photograph is as follows:

“Ritual murder at Polna. Ritual murder of Agnes Hruza by the Jews Hilsner, Erdmann[_sic_], and Wassermann, taken from a contemporary postcard.”

Another article in “_Der Stuermer_”, in April 1937, describes what is alleged to happen when ritual murder takes place, and the blood is mixed with the bread and drunk by the Jews in their feast. During the feast the head of the family is supposed to explain:

“May all gentiles perish—as the child whose blood is contained in the bread and wine.” (_2699-PS_).

An article in “_Der Stuermer_” for July 1938 has these further remarks to make on “ritual murder”:

“Whoever had the occasion to be an eye-witness during the slaughtering of animals or to see at least a truthful film on the slaughtering will never forget this horrible experience. It is atrocious. And unwillingly, he is reminded of the crimes which the Jews have committed for centuries on men. He will be reminded of the ritual murder. History points out hundreds of cases in which non-Jewish children were tortured to death. They also were given the same incision through the throat as is found on slaughtered animals. They also were slowly bled to death while fully conscious.” (_2700-PS_).

On special occasions, or when Streicher had some particular subject matter to put before Germany, he was in the habit of issuing special editions of “_Der Stuermer_.” “Ritual murder” was such a special subject that he issued one of these special editions dealing solely with it, in May 1939. One of the photographs published in this issue shows a child having knives stuck into its side, from which blood is spurting; and below the pedestal on which the child stands are five presumably dead children bleeding on the ground. The caption beneath that picture reads as follows:

“In the year 1476 the Jews in Regensburg murdered six boys. They drew their blood and tortured them to death in an underground vault which belongs to the Jew Josfel. The judges found the body of the murdered boys; and blood stains are on an altar.”

Two other pictures are explained by their captions. One reads:

“For the Jewish New Year celebrations in 1913, World Jewry published this picture. On the Jewish New Year and on the Day of Atonement the Jews slaughtered a so-called ‘kapores’ cock; that is to say, dead cock, whose blood and death is intended to purify the Jews. In 1913 the ‘kapores’ cock had the head of the Russian Czar Nicholas II. By publishing this postcard the Jews intended to say that Nicholas II would be their next purifying sacrifice. On the 6th of July 1918, the Czar was murdered by the Jews Jurowsky and Goloschtschekin.”

The other picture shows the Jews holding a similar bird:

“* * * the ‘kapores’ cock which has the head of the Fuehrer. The Hebrew script says that one day Jews will kill all Hitlerites. Then the Jews will be delivered from all misfortunes, but in due course the Jews will realize that they have reckoned without an Adolf Hitler.”

In addition to reproductions of a number of previous articles on “ritual murder” beneath a picture of Streicher, another picture bears the caption:

“At the Passover Meal. The wine and Matzoh, unleavened bread, contains non-Jewish blood. The Jew prays before the meal. He prays for death to all non-Jews.”

The fifth page of this same issue reproduces some of the European and American newspaper articles and letters protesting against this propaganda on “ritual murder.” Among these is the “_Stuermer_’s” answer to the letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury, written to the editor of the London _Times_ in protest (_M-10_).

Page 6 contains another picture of a man having his throat cut; again the usual spurt of blood falling into a basin on the floor, with the following caption:

“The ritual murder of the boy Heinrich. In the year 1345 the Jews in Munich slaughtered a non-Jewish boy. The martyr was declared holy by the church.”

On page 8 appears another picture entitled:

“The Holy Gabriel. This boy was crucified and tortured to death by the Jews in the year 1690. The blood was drawn off him.”

Page 11 reproduces a piece of sculpture on the wall of the Wallfahrts Chapel, representing the ritual murder of a boy named Werner. The picture shows the boy strung up by his feet and being murdered by two Jews. Page 12 reproduces another picture taken from the same place. The caption is:

“The embalmed body of Trient who was tortured to death by the Jews.”

Page 13 contains another picture; somebody else having a knife stuck into him; more blood coming out into a basin. On page 14 are two pictures. One is said to show the ritual murder of the boy Andreas. The other is the picture of a tombstone, and the caption reads as follows:

“The tombstone of Hilsner. This is the memorial to a Jewish ritual murderer, Leopold Hilsner. He was found guilty of two ritual murders and was condemned to death by hanging in two trials. The emperor was bribed and pardoned him. Masaryk, the friend of the Jews, liberated him from penal servitude in 1918. On his tombstone lying Jewry calls this twofold murderer an innocent victim.”

The next page produces yet another picture of a woman being murdered by having her throat cut in the same way. Page 17 produces a picture of the Archbishop of Canterbury together with a picture of an old Jewish man, with a caption reading:

“Dr. Lang, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the highest dignitary of the English Church, and his allies, a typical example of the Jewish Race.”

The last page contains a picture of “Holy Simon, who was tortured to death.”

This issue of “_Der Stuermer_” is nothing but an incitement to the people of Germany who read it, an incitement to murder. It is filled with pictures of murder, murder alleged to be against the German people. It is an encouragement, to all who read it to avenge themselves in the same way.

In January 1938 the persecution of the Jews became more and more severe—another special issue of “_Der Stuermer_” was published. A passage from the leading article in that issue written by Streicher, states:

“* * * The supreme aim and highest task of the state is therefore to conserve people, blood, and race. But if this is the supreme task, any crime against this law must be punished with the supreme penalty. ‘_Der Stuermer_’ takes therefore the view that there are only two punishments for the crime of polluting the race:

“1. Penal servitude for life for attempted race pollution.

“2. Death for committing race pollution.” (_M-39_).

The following are some of the headlines on the articles contained in that edition:

“Jewish race polluters at work.”

* * * * * *

“Fifteen year old non-Jewess ravaged.”

* * * * * *

“A dangerous race polluter. He regards German women as fair game for himself.”

* * * * * *

“The Jewish sanatorium. A Jewish institution for the cultivation of race pollution.”

* * * * * *

“Rape of a feeble-minded girl.”

* * * * * *

“The Jewish butler. He steals from his Jewish masters and commits race pollution.” (_M-40_).

Another article appearing in “_Der Stuermer_,” written by Streicher’s editor, Karl Holz, states:

“The revenge will break loose one day and will exterminate Jewry from the surface of the earth.” (_M-35_).

Again, in September 1938, “_Der Stuermer_” published an article describing the Jews as follows:

“A parasite, an enemy, an evil-doer, a disseminator of diseases who must be destroyed in the interest of mankind.” (_M-36_).

This is no longer propaganda for the persecution of the Jews; this is propaganda for the extermination of Jews, and for the murder not of one Jew but of all Jews (see _2698-PS_).

A picture published in “_Der Stuermer_” in December 1938 shows a girl being strangled by a man whose hands are around her neck. The shadow of the man’s face, which is shown against the background, has quite obvious Jewish features. The caption under that picture is as follows:

“Castration for Race Polluters. Only heavy penalties will preserve our womenfolk from a tighter grip from ghastly Jewish claws. The Jews are our misfortune.”

(3) _The Anti-Jewish demonstrations of November 1938._

While his anti-Jewish propaganda was becoming constantly fiercer, Streicher took a leading part in the organized demonstrations against the Jews which took place on 9 and 10 November 1938. In the autumn of that year, on the occasion of a meeting of press representatives in Nurnberg, Streicher organized the breaking-up of the Nurnberg synagogues. It was announced that Streicher personally would set the crane in motion with which the Jewish symbols would be torn down from the synagogues (_1724-PS_). The event was described as follows:

“* * * the synagogue is being demolished! Julius Streicher himself inaugurates the work by a speech lasting more than an hour and a half. By his order—so to speak as a prelude of the demolition—the tremendous Star of David came off the cupola.” (_2711-PS_).

Streicher took active part in the November demonstrations of that year, particularly in his _Gau_ of Franconia. The Nurnberg demonstrations were reported as follows in the “_Fraenkische Tageszeitung_,” which was Streicher’s paper, on 11 November:

“* * * In Nurnberg and Furth it resulted in demonstrations by the crowd against the Jewish murders. These lasted until the early hours of the morning. Far too long had one watched the activities of the Jews in Germany.”

* * * * * *

“After midnight the excitement of the populace reached its peak and a large crowd marched to the synagogues in Nurnberg and Furth and burned these two Jewish buildings, where the murder of Germans had been preached.

“The fire-brigades, which had been notified immediately, saw to it that the fire was continued[_sic_] to the original outbreak. The windows of the Jewish shopkeepers, who still had not given up hope of selling their junk to the stupid Goims, were smashed. Thanks to the disciplined behavior of the SA men and the police, who had rushed to the scene, there was no plundering.” (_M-42_).

On 10 November, the day of the demonstrations, Streicher made a speech stating in part as follows:

“From the cradle, the Jew is not being taught, like we are, such texts as, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,’ or ‘If you are smitten on the left cheek, offer then your right one.’ No, he is told: ‘With the non-Jew you can do whatever you like.’ He is even taught that the slaughtering of a non-Jew is an act pleasing to God. For 20 years we have been writing about this in ‘_Der Stuermer_’; for 20 years we have been preaching it throughout the world and we have made millions recognize the truth.”

* * * * * *

“The Jew slaughtered in one night 75,000 people; when he emigrated to Egypt he killed all the first-born, i.e. a whole future generation of Egyptians. What would have happened if the Jew had succeeded in driving the nations into war against us, and if we had lost the war? The Jew protected by foreign bayonets, would have fallen on us and would have slaughtered and murdered us. Never forget what history has taught us.” (_M-41_)

After the November 1938 demonstrations, irregularities occurred in the Gau of Franconia in connection with the organized Aryanization of Jewish property. Aryanization of Jewish property was regulated by the Nazi State, which had decreed that the proceeds of the transfer of Jewish properties to Aryans were to go to the State. In Streicher’s _Gau_ of Franconia, however, a good deal of the proceeds never found their way as far as the State. As a result Goering set up a commission to investigate what had taken place. The report of that commission (_1757-PS_) describes what had been taking place in Streicher’s _Gau_:

“* * * Following upon the November demonstrations the Deputy Gauleiter, Holz, took up the Jewish questions. His reasons can be given here in detail on the basis of his statement of the 25th of March, 1939:

“The 9th and 10th of November 1938.

“In the night of the 9th and 10th November and on the 10th of November 1938, events took place throughout Germany which I [Holz] considered to be the signal for a completely different treatment of the Jewish question in Germany. Synagogues and Jewish schools were burnt down and Jewish property was smashed both in shops and in private houses. Besides this, a large number of particular Jews were taken to concentration camps by the police. Toward midday we discussed these events in the Gauleiter’s house. All of us were of the opinion that we now faced a completely new state of affairs on the Jewish question. By the great action against the Jews, carried out in the night and morning of the 10th of November, all guiding principles and all laws on the subject had been made illusory. We were of the opinion (particularly myself) that we should now act on our own initiative in this respect. I proposed to the Gauleiter that in view of the great existing lack of housing, the best thing would be to put the Jews into a kind of internment camp. Then the houses would become free in a twinkling, and the housing shortage would be relieved, at least in part. Besides that, we would have the Jews under control and supervision. I added ‘The same thing happened to our prisoners of war and war internees.’ The Gauleiter said that this suggestion was for the time being impossible to carry out. Thereupon I made a new proposal to him. I said that I considered it unthinkable that, after the Jews had had their property smashed, they should continue to be able to own houses and land. I proposed that these houses and this land ought to be taken away from them, and declared myself ready to carry through such an action. I declared that by the Aryanization of Jewish land and houses a large sum could accrue to the Gau out of the proceeds. I named some million of marks. I stated that, in my opinion, this Aryanization could be carried out as legally as the Aryanization of shops. The Gauleiter’s answer was something to this effect: ‘If you think you can carry this out, do so. The sum gained will then be used to build a Gau school.’”

* * * * * *

“The Aryanization was accomplished by the alienation of properties, the surrender of claims, especially mortgage claims, and reductions in buying price.

“The payment allowed the Jews was basically 10% of the nominal value or nominal sum of the claim. As a justification for these low prices, Holz claimed at the Berlin meeting of the 6th of February 1939, that the Jews had mostly bought their property during the inflation period for a tenth of its value. As has been shown by investigating a large number of individual cases selected at random, this claim is not true.” (_1757-PS_)

The second part of this report, which contains the findings of the commission, reads in part as follows:

“* * * Gauleiter Streicher likes to beat people with a riding whip but only if he is in the company of several persons assisting him. Usually the beatings are carried out with sadistic brutality.

“The best known case is that of Steinruck, whom he beat bloodily in the prison cell, together with Deputy Gauleiter Holz and SA Brigadier General Koenig. After returning from this scene to the _Deutscher Hof_ he said: ‘Now I am relieved. I needed that again!’ Later he also stated several times that he needed another Steinruck case in order to ‘relieve’ himself.

“In August 1938, he beat Editor Burker at the District House together with District Office Leader Schoeller and his Adjutant Koenig.

“On the 2nd of December 1938 he asked to have three youthful criminals (15 to 17 years old) who had been arrested for robbery brought to the room of the director of the Criminal Police Office in Nurnberg-Furth. Streicher, who was accompanied by his son, Lothar, had the youths brought in singly and question them about their sex life and in particular, through clear and detailed questioning, he laid stress on determining whether and since when they masturbated. * * *

“* * * The last one of these three boys he beat with his riding whip, with blows on the head and on the rest of the body.” (_1757-PS_)

A later passage shows the authority and power which Streicher held in his Gau:

“According to reports of reliable witnesses Gauleiter Streicher is in the habit of pointing out on the most varied occasions that he alone gives orders in the district of Franconia. For instance, at a meeting in the Colosseum in Nurnberg in 1935 he said that nobody could remove him from office. In a meeting at Herkules Hall, where he described how he had beaten Professor Steinruck, he emphasized that he would not let himself be beaten by anybody, not even by an Adolf Hitler.

“For, this also must be stated here, in Franconia the Gau acts first and then orders the absolutely powerless authorities to approve.” (_1757-PS_)

That report shows the kind of treatment and persecution which the Jews were receiving in the Gau over which Streicher ruled. It further shows the absolute authority with which Streicher acted in his district.

As a result either of that investigation or of some other matter, Streicher was relieved of his position as Gauleiter in February 1940, but he did not cease from propaganda or from control of his newspaper. In an article written in “_Der Stuermer_,” on 4 November 1943, Streicher declared:

“It is really the truth that the Jews, so to speak, have disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish reservoir of the East, from which the Jewish plague has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe, has ceased to exist. However, the Fuehrer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass.” (_1965-PS_).

That article, signed by Streicher, shows that he had knowledge of the Jewish exterminations which were going on in the East. Streicher’s article was written in November 1943. In April 1943 the Warsaw ghetto was destroyed. Between April 1942 and April 1944 more than 1,700,000 Jews were killed in Auschwitz and Dachau. It seems clear from this article that Streicher knew what was happening, perhaps not the details, but the fact that Jews were being exterminated.

(4) _Perversion of Youth._

Streicher paid particular attention to the instruction and perversion of the children and youth of Germany. He was not content with inciting the German population. He started to poison the minds of the children at school at the earliest possible date. He continually emphasized the need for teaching children anti-semitism. In a speech as early as June 1925 Streicher said:

“I repeat, we demand the transformation of the school into a national German institution of education. If we let German children be taught by German teachers, then we shall have laid the foundations for the national German school. This national German school must teach racial doctrine.”

* * * * * *

“We demand, therefore, the introduction of racial doctrine into the school.” (_M-30_)

The “_Fraenkische Tageszeitung_” of 19 March 1934 reports Streicher’s address at a girls’ school at Preisslerstrasse:

“Then Julius Streicher spoke about his life and told them about a girl who at one time went to his school and who fell for a Jew and was finished for the rest of her life.” (_M-43_)

Every summer in Nurnberg a youth celebration was held. At this pagan rite the youth of Nurnberg were rallied, organized, and incited, encouraged by Streicher. Streicher’s speech to the Hitler Youth on the “Holy Mountain” near Nurnberg on 22 June 1935 contained the following statements:

“Boys and girls, look back to a little more than 10 years ago. A great war—the World War—had whirled over the peoples of the earth and had left in the end a heap of ruins. Only one people remained victorious in this dreadful war, a people of whom Christ said its father is the devil. That people had ruined the German nation in body and soul. Then Adolf Hitler, unknown to anybody, arose from among the people and became the voice which called to a holy war and battle. He cried to the people for everybody to take courage again and to rise and get a helping hand to take the devil from the German people, so that the human race might be free again from these people that have wandered about the world for centuries and millenia, marked with the sign of Cain.

“Boys and girls, even if they say that the Jews were once the chosen people, do not believe it, but believe us when we say that the Jews are not a chosen people. Because it cannot be that a chosen people should act among the peoples as the Jews do today.” (_M-1_)

A report of Streicher’s address to 2,000 children at Nurnberg at Christmas-time, 1936, states:

“‘Do you know who the Devil is,’ he asked his breathlessly listening audience. ‘The Jew, the Jew,’ resounded from a thousand children’s voices.” (_M-44_)

Streicher was not content with writing and talking. He issued a book for teachers, written by one Fink and published from the “_Der Stuermer_” offices, called “The Jewish Question and School Instruction.” This book emphasizes the necessity of anti-semitic teaching in schools, and suggests ways in which the subject can be introduced and handled. The preface, written by Streicher, reads in part as follows:

“The National Socialist state brought fundamental changes into all spheres of life of the German people.

“It has also presented the German teacher with some new tasks. The National Socialist state demands that its teachers instruct German children in social questions. As far as the German people is concerned the racial question is a Jewish question. Those who want to teach the child all about the Jew must themselves have a thorough knowledge of the subject.

“Those who take to heart all that has been written with such feeling by Fritz Fink, who for many years has been greatly concerned about the German people, will be grateful for the creator of this outwardly insignificant publication.” (_M-46_).

The preface is signed by Julius Streicher, City of the Reich Party Rallies, Nurnberg, in the year 1937.

The introduction to this book reads as follows:

“Racial and Jewish questions are the fundamental problems of the National Socialist ideology. The solution of these problems will secure the existence of National Socialism and with this the existence of our nation for all time. The enormous significance of the racial question is recognized almost without exception today by all the German people. In order to attain this recognition our people had to travel through a long road of suffering.

“No one should be allowed to grow up in the midst of our people without this knowledge of the monstrous character and dangerousness of the Jew.” (_M-46_).

A later passage in the book contains this statement:

“One who has reached this stage of understanding will inevitably remain an enemy of the Jews all his life and will instill this hatred into his own children.” (_M-46_).

“_Der Stuermer_” also published some children’s books. Although Streicher himself did not write the books, they were published from his publishing business, and they are on the same line of everything else published and issued from that business. Among these books was one entitled “Don’t trust the Fox in the green meadow nor the Jew on his oath.” It is a picture book for children. The pictures all depict Jews in an offensive light. And opposite each picture there is a little story. For instance, opposite one picture, which portrays an unpleasant-looking Jewish butcher cutting up meat, there appears the following comment:

“The Jewish butcher: he sells half refuse instead of meat. A piece of meat lies on the floor; the cat claws another. This doesn’t worry the Jew butcher since the meat increases in weight. Besides one mustn’t forget he won’t have to eat it himself.” (_M-32_).

The story opposite another picture reads as follows:

“Jesus Christ says ‘The Jew is a murderer through and through’. And when Christ had to die the Lord didn’t know any other people who would have tortured Him to death so he chose the Jews. That is why the Jews pride themselves on being the chosen people.” (_M-32_).

Other pictures in this book portray: a girl being led away by an evil-appearing Jew; Streicher smiling benignly at a children’s party, greeting the little children; children looking at copies of “_Der Stuermer_” posted on a wall; Jewish children being taken away from an Aryan school by an unpleasant-looking father, with all the Aryan children shouting and dancing and enjoying the fun very much (_M-32_).

Another book, called “The Poisonous Fungus,” is very similar in character and appearance, and likewise calculated to poison the minds of readers. One of the pictures in this book shows a girl sitting in a Jewish doctor’s waiting room. The story that goes with this picture is not a very pleasant story, but it is only by adverting to these matters that it becomes possible to believe the kind of education which German children received from Streicher. The story reads as follows:

“Inge sits in the reception room of the Jew doctor. She has to wait a long time. She looks through the journals which are on the table. But she is much too nervous to read even a few sentences. Again and again she remembers the talk with her mother. And again and again her mind reflects on the warnings of her leader of the League of German Girls: ‘A German must not consult a Jew doctor. And particularly not a German girl. Many a girl that went to a Jew doctor to be cured, found disease and disgrace!’

“When Inge had entered the waiting room, she experienced an extraordinary incident. From the doctor’s consulting room she could hear the sound of crying. She heard the voice of a young girl: ‘Doctor, doctor, leave me alone!’

“Then she heard the scornful laughing of a man. And then, all of a sudden, it became absolutely silent. Inge had listened breathlessly.

“‘What may be the meaning of all this?’ she asked herself and her heart was pounding. And again she thought of the warning of her leader in the League of German Girls.

“Inge was already waiting for an hour. Again she takes the journals in an endeavor to read. Then the door opens. Inge looks up. The Jew appears. She screams. In terror she drops the paper. Horrified she jumps up. Her eyes stare into the face of the Jewish doctor. And this face is the face of the devil. In the middle of this devil’s face is a huge crooked nose. Behind the spectacles two criminal eyes. And the thick lips are grinning, a grinning that expresses: ‘Now I got you at last, you little German girl!’

“And then the Jew approaches her. His fleshy fingers stretch out after her. But now Inge has composed herself. Before the Jew can grab hold of her, she smacks the fat face of the Jew doctor with her hand. One jump to the door. Breathlessly Inge runs down the stairs. Breathlessly she escapes the Jew house.” (_1778-PS_).

Another photograph shows youthful admirers standing around looking at Streicher’s picture, with the following commentary:

“‘Without a solution of the Jewish question there will be no salvation for mankind.’ That is what he shouted to us. All of us could understand him. And when, at the end, he shouted ‘_Sieg Heil_’ for the Fuehrer, we all acclaimed him with tremendous enthusiasm. For two hours Streicher spoke at that occasion. To us it appeared to have been but a few minutes.” (_1778-PS_).

The effect of all this propaganda is evident from the columns of “_Der Stuermer_” itself. In April 1936 there was published a letter, which is typical of many others that appear in other copies from children of all ages. The third paragraph of this letter, signed by the boys and girls of the National Socialist Youth Hostel at Grossmuellen, reads:

“* * * Today we saw a play on how the devil persuades the Jew to shoot a conscientious National Socialist. In the course of the play the Jew did it too. We all heard the shot. We would have all liked to jump up and arrest the Jew. But then the policeman came and after a short struggle took the Jew along. You can imagine, dear _Stuermer_, that we heartily cheered the policeman. In the whole play not one name was mentioned, but we all knew that this play represented the murder by the Jew Frankfurter. We were very sick when we went to bed that night. None felt like talking to the others. This play made it clear to us how the Jew sets to work.” (_M-25_).

C. _STREICHER’S USE OF HIS AUTHORITY AS GAULEITER IN THE SERVICE OF THE CONSPIRACY._

Streicher’s authority as a Gauleiter was extensive. The Organization Book of the NSDAP for 1938 describes the duties and authority of Gauleiters as follows:

“The Gauleiter bears over-all responsibility for the Fuehrer for the sector of sovereignty entrusted to him. The rights, duties and jurisdiction of the Gauleiter result primarily from the mission assigned by the Fuehrer and, apart from that, from detailed direction.” (_1814-PS_).

Streicher’s association with the Fuehrer and other Nazi conspirators may also be seen from the newspapers. On the occasion of Streicher’s 50th birthday, Hitler paid a visit to Nurnberg to congratulate him. The account of that meeting is published in the “_Voelkischer Beobachter_” of 13 February 1934 as follows:

“Adolf Hitler spoke to his old comrades in battle and to his followers in words which went straight to their hearts. By way of introduction he remarked that it was a special pleasure to be present for a short while in Nurnberg, the town of the National Socialist community which had been steeled in battle, at this day of honor of Julius Streicher, and to be within the circle of the standard bearers of the National Socialist idea during many years.

“Just as they, all of them, had during the years of oppression unshakeably believed in the victory of the movement, so his friend and comrade in the battle, Streicher, had stood faithfully at his side at all times. It had been this unshakeable belief that had moved mountains.

“For Streicher it would surely be a solemn thought, that this 50th anniversary meant not only the halfway point of a century, but also of a thousand years of German history to him. He had in Streicher a companion of whom he could say that here in Nurnberg was a man who would never waver for a single second and who would unflinchingly stand behind him in every situation.” (_M-8_).

A letter from Himmler, published in “_Der Stuermer_” of April 1937, declared:

“If in future years the history of the reawakening of the German people is written, and if already the next generation will be unable to understand that the German people was once friendly to the Jews, it will be stated that Julius Streicher and his weekly paper ‘_Der Stuermer_’ have contributed a great deal towards the enlightenment regarding the enemy of humanity. “(Signed) For the Reichsfuehrer SS, Himmler.” (_M-22_).

Finally, a letter from von Schirach, the Reich Youth Leader, published in “_Der Stuermer_” of January 1938, had this to say:

“It is the historical merit of ‘_Der Stuermer_’ to have enlightened the broad masses of our people in a popular way as to the Jewish world danger. ‘_Der Stuermer_’ is right in refusing to fulfill its task in the tone of the aesthetic drawing room. Jewry has shown no regard for the German people. We have, therefore, no cause to be considerate and to spare our worst enemy. What we fail to do today our youngsters of tomorrow will have to suffer for bitterly.” (_M-45_).

D. _CONCLUSION._

It may be that Streicher is less directly involved in the physical commission of the crimes against Jews than some of his coconspirators. The submission of the Prosecution is that his crime is no less worse for that reason. No government in the world, before the Nazis came to power, could have embarked upon and put into effect a policy of mass Jewish extermination in the way in which they did, without having a people who would back them and support them, and without having a large number of people who were prepared to carry out the murder themselves. (See