Part 37

The basic method of the Nazi propagandistic activity lay in the false presentation of facts. This is stated quite frankly in Hitler’s _Mein Kampf_: “With the help of a skilful and continuous application of propaganda it is possible to make the people conceive even of heaven as hell and also make them consider heavenly the most miserly existence” (USA-276).

The dissemination of provocative lies and the systematic deception of public opinion were as necessary to the Hitlerites for the realization of their plans as were the production of armaments and the drafting of military plans. Without propaganda, founded on the total eclipse of the freedom of press and of speech, it would not have been possible for German fascism to realize its aggressive intentions, to lay the groundwork and then to put to practice the War Crimes and the Crimes against Humanity.

In the propaganda system of the Hitler State it was the daily press and the radio that were the most important weapons.

In his court testimony, Defendant Göring named three factors as essential in the successful conduct of modern war according to the Nazi concept, namely, (1) the military operations of the armed forces, (2) economic warfare, (3) propaganda. With reference to the latter he said:

“For what great importance the war of propaganda had, enemy propaganda which extended by way of radio far into the hinterland, no one has experienced more strongly than Germany” (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 15 March 1946).

With such concepts in ascendance it is impossible to suppose that the supreme rulers of the Reich would appoint to the post of the Director of Radio Propaganda who supervised radio activity of all the broadcasting companies and directed their propagandistic content—a man they considered a secondary figure.

The point of view of the verdict contradicts both the evidence submitted and the actual state of affairs.

Beginning with 1942 and into 1945 Fritzsche was not only Chief of the Radio Department of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda but also “Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of Radio in Greater Germany”. This circumstance is fully proven by the sworn affidavit of Fritzsche himself (PS-3469, USA-721). It thus follows that not at all was Fritzsche merely “one of the 12 departmental chiefs in the Ministry of Propaganda” who acquired responsibility for all radio propaganda only toward the end of the war, as the verdict asserts.

Fritzsche was the political director of the German radio up and into 1945, i. e., up to the moment of German defeat and capitulation. For this reason it is Fritzsche who bears responsibility for the false and provocative broadcasts of the German radio during the years of the war.

As Chief of the Press Section inside Germany it was also Fritzsche who was responsible for the activity of the German daily press consisting of 2,300 newspapers. It was Fritzsche who created and perfected the Information Section winning from the Reich Government for the purpose an increase in the subsidy granted the newspapers from 400,000 to 4,000,000 marks. Subsequently Fritzsche participated energetically in the development of the propaganda campaigns preparatory to the acts of aggression against Czechoslovakia and Poland. (Transcript, Morning Session, 23 January 1946). A similar active propaganda campaign was conducted by the defendant prior to the attack on Yugoslavia as he himself admitted on oath in Court (Transcript, Morning Session, 23 January 1946).

Fritzsche was informed of the plan to attack the Soviet Union and was made _au courant_ of the military intentions at a conference with Rosenberg (PS-1039, USA-146, “Rosenberg’s Written Report to Hitler on the Subject of Preliminary Work in Eastern European Questions”).

Fritzsche headed the German press campaign falsifying reports of Germany’s aggressive war against France, England, Norway, the Soviet Union, the United States, and the other States.

The assertion that Fritzsche was not informed of the War Crimes and the Crimes against Humanity then being perpetrated by the Hitlerites in the occupied regions does not agree with the facts. From Fritzsche’s testimony in Court it is obvious that already in May 1942, while in the Propaganda Section of the 6th Army, he was aware of Hitler’s decree ordering execution for all Soviet political workers and Soviet intellectuals, the so-called “Commissar Decree” (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 27 June 1946). It is also established that already at the beginning of hostilities Fritzsche was fully aware of the fact that the Nazis were carrying out their decision to do away with all Jews in Europe. For instance, when commenting on Hitler s statement that “among results of the war there will be the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe” (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 22 November 1945), Fritzsche stated that: “As the Führer predicted it would occur in the event of war in Europe, the fate of the European Jewry turned out to be quite sad” (Transcript, Morning Session, 23 January 1946). It is further established that the defendant systematically preached the anti-social theory of race hatred and characterized peoples inhabiting countries victimized by aggression as “sub-humans” (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 27 June 1946; Transcript, Morning Session, 28 June 1946).

When the fate of Nazi Germany became clear, Fritzsche came out with energetic support of the Defendant Martin Bormann and of other fanatical Hitler adherents who organized the undercover fascist association, the so-called “Werewolf”.

On 7 April 1945, for example, in his last radio address, Fritzsche agitated for all the civilian population of Germany to take active part in the activities of this terroristic Nazi underground organization.

He said:

“Let no one be surprised to find the civilian population, wearing civilian clothes, still continuing the fight in the regions already occupied and even after occupation has taken place. We shall call this phenomenon “Werewolf” since it will have arisen without any preliminary planning and without a definite organization, out of the very instinct of life.” (USSR-496)

In his radio addresses Fritzsche welcomed the German use of the new terror weapons in conducting the war, specifically the use of the “V” rockets. On receiving a plan for the introduction of bacterial warfare he immediately forwarded it to the OKW for acceptance. (USSR-484; Evidence submitted during the Afternoon Session, 28 June 1946)

I consider Fritzsche’s responsibility fully proven. His activity had a most basic relation to the preparation and the conduct of aggressive warfare as well as to the other crimes of the Hitler regime.

IV. _Concerning the Sentence of the Defendant Rudolf Hess_

The Judgment of the Tribunal correctly and adequately portrays the outstanding position which Rudolf Hess occupied in the leadership of the Nazi Party and State. He was indeed Hitler’s closest personal confidant and his authority was exceedingly great: In this connection it is sufficient to quote Hitler’s decree appointing Hess as his deputy: “I hereby appoint Hess as my deputy and give him full power to make decisions in my name on all questions of Party leadership” (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 7 February 1946).

But the authority of Hess was not only confined to questions of Party leadership.

The official NSDAP publication _National Socialist Year Book for 1941_ states that:

“In addition to the duties of Party leadership, the deputy of the Führer has far-reaching powers in the field of the State. These are: First—participation in national and state legislation, including the preparation of the Führer’s order. The deputy of the Führer in this way validates the conception of the Party . . . Second—approval of the deputy of the Führer of proposed appointments for official, and labor service leaders. Third—securing the influence of the Party over the self-government of the municipal units.” (USA-255, PS-3163)

Hess was an active supporter of Hitler’s aggressive policy. The Crimes against Peace committed by him are dealt with in sufficient detail in the Judgment. The mission undertaken by Hess in flying to England should be considered as the last of these crimes, as it was undertaken in the hope of facilitating the realization of aggression against the Soviet Union by temporarily restraining England from fighting.

The failure of this mission led to Hess’s isolation and he took no direct part in the planning and commission of subsequent crimes of the Hitler regime. There can be no doubt, however, that Hess did everything possible for the preparation of these crimes.

Hess, together with Himmler, occupied the role of creator of the SS police organizations of German fascism which afterwards committed the most ruthless Crimes against Humanity. The defendant clearly pointed out the “special tasks” which faced the SS formations in occupied territories.

When the Waffen SS was being formed Hess issued a special order through the Party Chancellery which made aiding the conscription of Party members into these organizations by all means compulsory for Party organs. He outlined the tasks set before the Waffen SS as follows:

“The units of the Waffen SS composed of National Socialists are more suitable than other armed units _for the specific tasks to be solved in the occupied Eastern territories_ due to the intensive training in regard to questions of race and nationality” (GB-267, PS-3245).

As early as 1934 the defendant initiated a proposal that the so-called SD under the Reichsführer SS (Security Service) be given extraordinary powers and thus become the leading force in Nazi Germany.

On 9 June 1934 Hess issued a decree in accordance with which the “Security Service of the Reichsführer SS” was declared to be the “sole political news and defense service of the Party” (GB-257).

Thus the defendant played a direct part in the creation and consolidation of the system of special police organs which were being prepared for the commission of crimes in occupied territories.

We find Hess to have always been an advocate of the man-hating “master race” theory. In a speech made on 16 January 1937 while speaking of the education of the German Nation, Hess pointed out: “_Thus, they are being educated to put Germans above the subjects of a foreign nation_, regardless of their positions or their origin” (GB-253, PS-3124).

Hess signed the so-called “Law for the Protection of Blood and Honor” on 15 September 1935 (USA-200, PS-3179). The body of this law states that “the Führer’s deputy is authorized to issue all necessary decrees and directives” for the practical realization of the “Nuremberg decrees”.

On 14 November 1935, Hess issued an ordinance under the Reich citizenship law in accordance with which the Jews were denied the right to vote at elections or hold public office (GB-258, PS-1417).

On 20 May 1938 a decree signed by Hess extended the Nuremberg laws to Austria (GB-259, PS-2124).

On 12 October 1939 Hess signed a decree creating the administration of Polish occupied territories (_Reichsgesetzblatt_, No. 210, 1939, p. 2077). Article 2 of this decree gave the Defendant Frank the power of dictator.

There is sufficiently convincing evidence showing that this defendant did not limit himself to this general directive which introduced into the occupied Polish territories a regime of unbridled terror. As is shown in the letter of the Reichsminister of Justice to the Chief of the Reich Chancellery dated 17 April 1941, Hess was the initiator in the formation of special “penal laws” for Poles and Jews in occupied Eastern territories. The role of this defendant in the drawing up of these “laws” is characterized by the Minister of Justice in the following words:

“In accordance with the opinion of the Führer’s deputy I started from the point of view that the Pole is less susceptible to the infliction of ordinary punishment . . . . Under these new kinds of punishment, prisoners are to be lodged outside prisons in camps and are to be forced to do heavy and heaviest labor . . . . The introduction of corporal punishment, which the deputy of the Führer has brought up for discussion has not been included in the draft. I can not agree to this type of punishment . . . . The procedure for enforcing prosecution has been abrogated, for it seemed intolerable that Poles or Jews should be able to instigate a public indictment. Poles and Jews have also been deprived of the right to prosecute in their own names or join the public prosecution in an action . . . . From the very beginning it was intended to intensify special treatment in case of need: When this necessity became actual a supplementary decree was issued to which the Führer’s deputy refers to in his letter . . . .” (GB-268, R-96)

Thus, there can be no doubt that Hess together with the other major war criminals is guilty of Crimes against Humanity.

Taking into consideration that among political leaders of Hitlerite Germany Hess was third in significance and played a decisive role in the crimes of the Nazi regime, I consider the only justified sentence in his case can be death.

V. _Incorrect Judgment with regard to the Reich Cabinet_

The Prosecution has posed before the Tribunal the question of declaring the Reich Cabinet a criminal organization. The verdict rejects the claim of the Prosecution, unfoundedly refusing to declare the Hitler Government a criminal organization.

With such a decision I cannot agree.

The Tribunal considers it proven that the Hitlerites have committed innumerable and monstrous crimes.

The Tribunal also considers it proven that these crimes were as a rule committed intentionally and on an organized scale, according to previously prepared plans and directives (“Plan Barbarossa”, “Night and Fog”, “Bullet”, etc.).

The Tribunal has declared criminal several of the Nazi mass organizations founded for the realization and putting into practice the plans of the Hitler Government.

In view of this it appears particularly untenable and rationally incorrect to refuse to declare the Reich Cabinet the directing organ of the State with a direct and active role in the working out of the criminal enterprises, a criminal organization. The members of this directing staff had great power, each headed an appropriate Government agency, each participated in preparing and realizing the Nazi program.

In confirmation it is deemed proper to cite several facts:

1. Immediately after the Nazi accession to power—on 24 March 1933—there was a law passed entitled “The Law of Defense of the People and the State” whereby the Reich Cabinet, besides the Reichstag, was empowered to enact new laws.

On 26 May 1933 the Reich Government issued a decree ordering the confiscation of the property of all Communist organizations and on 14 June, the same year, it also confiscated the property of the Social Democrat organizations. On 1 December 1933 the Reich Government issued the law “Ensuring Party and State Unity”.

Following through its program of liquidating democratic institutions, in 1934 the Government passed a law of the “Reconstruction of the Reich” whereby democratic elections were abolished for both central and local representative bodies. The Reichstag thereby became an institution without functional meaning. (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 22 November 1945)

By the law of 7 April 1933 and others, all Reich Government employees, including judges, ever noted for any anti-Nazi tendencies or ever having belonged to leftist organizations, as well as all Jews, were to be removed from the Government service and replaced by Nazis. In accordance with the “Basic Positions of the German Law on Government Employees” of 26 January 1937, “the inner harmony of the official and the Nazi Party is a necessary presupposition of his appointment to his post . . . . Government employees must be the executors of the will of the National Socialist State, directed by the NSDAP.” (Defense Document Number 28)

On 1 May 1934 there was created the Ministry of Education instructed to train students in the spirit of militarism, of racial hatred, and in terms of reality thoroughly falsified by Nazi ideology (PS-2078).

Free trade unions were abolished, their property confiscated, and the majority of the leaders jailed.

To suppress even a semblance of resistance the Government created the Gestapo and the concentration camps. Without any trial or even a concrete charge hundreds of thousands of persons were arrested and then done away with merely on a suspicion of an anti-Nazi tendency.

There were issued the so-called “Nuremberg Laws” against the Jews. Hess and Frick, both members of the Reich Government, implemented these by additional decrees.

It was the activity of the Reich Cabinet that brought on the war which took millions of human lives and caused inestimable damage in property and in suffering borne by the many Nations.

On 4 February 1938, Hitler organized the Secret Council of Ministers defining its activity as follows: “To aid me by advice on problems of foreign policies I am creating this Secret Council” (_Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1938, Part I, p. 112, PS-2031). The foreign policy of the Hitler Government was the policy of aggression. For this reason the members of the Secret Council should be held responsible for this policy. There were attempts in Court to represent the Secret Council as a fictitious organization, never actually functioning. This however is an inadmissible position. It is sufficient to recall Rosenberg’s letter to Hitler where the former insistently tried to be appointed member of the Secret Council of Ministers—to appreciate fully the significance of the Council.

Even more important practically in conducting aggressive warfare was the Reich Defense Council headed by Hitler and Göring. The following were members of the Defense Council, as is well known: Hess, Frick, Funk, Keitel, Raeder, Lammers (PS-2194; PS-2018).

Göring characterized the function of the Defense Council and its role in war preparations as follows, during the Court session of 23 June 1939: “The Defense Council of the Reich _was the deciding Reich organ on all questions concerning preparation for war_“ (PS-3787, USA-782).

At the same time Göring emphasized the fact that “the meeting of the Defense Council always took place for the purpose of making the most important decisions”. From the minutes of these meetings, submitted as evidence by the Prosecution, it is quite clear that the Council made very important decisions indeed. The minutes also show that other Cabinet Ministers sometimes took part in the meetings of the Defense Council alongside the members of the Council when war enterprises and war preparedness were discussed.

For example, the following Cabinet Ministers took part in the meeting of 23 June 1939: of Labor, of Food and Agriculture, of Finance, of Communication, and a number of others, while the minutes of the meeting were sent to all the members of the Cabinet (USA-782).

The verdict of the Tribunal justly points out certain peculiarities of the Hitler Government as the directing organ of the State, namely: the absence of regular cabinet meetings, the occasional issuance of laws by the individual Ministers having unusual independence of action, the tremendous personal power of Hitler himself. These peculiarities do not refute but on the contrary further confirm the conclusion that the Hitler Government is not an ordinary rank and file cabinet but a criminal organization.

Certainly Hitler had an unusual measure of personal power but this in no way frees of responsibility the members of his Cabinet who were his convinced followers and the actual executors of his program until and when the day of reckoning arrived.

I consider that there is every reason to declare the Hitler Government a criminal organization.

VI. _Incorrect Judgment with regard to the General Staff and the OKW_

The verdict incorrectly rejects the accusation of criminal activity directed against the General Staff and the OKW.

The rejection of the accusation of criminal activity of the General Staff and of the OKW contradicts both the actual situation and the evidence submitted in the course of the Trial.

It has been established beyond doubt that the Leadership Corps of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, together with the SS-Party machine, represented the most important agency in preparing and realizing the Nazi aggressive and man-hating program. This was constantly and forcefully reiterated by the Hitlerites themselves in their official bulletins meant for the officer personnel of the armed forces. In the Nazi Party bulletin called “Politics and the Officer in the III Reich” it is quite clearly stated that the Nazi regime is founded on

“. . . two pillars: the Party and the Armed Forces. Both are forms of expression of the same philosophy of life . . . the tasks before the Party and the Armed Forces are in an organic relationship to each other and each bears the same responsibility . . . both these agencies depend on each other’s success or failure.” (PS-4060, USA-928)

This organic inter-relationship between the Nazi Party and the SS on the one hand and the Nazi Armed Forces on the other hand, was particularly evident among the upper circles of military hierarchy which the Indictment groups together under the concept of criminal organization—that is, among the members of the General Staff and the OKW.

The very selection of members of the Supreme Command of the Army in Nazi Germany was based on the criteria of their loyalty to the regime and their readiness not to pursue aggressive militaristic policies but also to fulfill such special directives as related to treatment meted out to prisoners of war and to the civilian populations of occupied territories.

The leaders of the German Armed Forces were not merely officers who reached certain levels of the military hierarchy. They represented, first of all, a closely-knit group which was entrusted with the most secret plans of the Nazi leadership. Evidence submitted to the Tribunal has fully confirmed the contention that the military leaders of Germany justified this trust completely and that they were the convinced followers and ardent executors of Hitler’s plans.

It is not accidental that at the head of the Air Force stood the “second man” of the Nazi Reich, namely Göring; that the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy was Dönitz, subsequently designated by Hitler to be the latter’s successor; that the command of the Ground Forces was concentrated in the hands of Keitel who signed the major part of the decrees concerning the execution of the prisoners of war and of the civilians in occupied territories.

Thus the comparisons made with the organization of the supreme commands in Allied countries cannot be considered valid. In a democratic country, not one self-respecting military expert would agree to prepare plans for mass reprisals and merciless killings of prisoners of war side by side with plans of a purely military and strategic character.

Meanwhile it is precisely such matters that occupied the supreme command of the General Staff and of the OKW in Nazi Germany. The commission by them of the heaviest Crimes against Peace, of the War Crimes, and of the Crimes against Humanity is not denied but is particularly emphasized in the verdict of the Tribunal. And yet the commission of these crimes has not brought the logical conclusion.

The verdict states: “They have been a disgrace to the honorable profession of arms. Without their military guidance the aggressive ambitions of Hitler and his fellow Nazis would have been academic and sterile . . . .”

And subsequently: