Part I, Page 247. I quote:

“At the proposal of the President of the Reichstag, on its session of 26 April 1942, the Greater German Reichstag has unanimously approved of the rights which the Führer has postulated in his speech with the following decision:

“There can be no doubt that in the present war, in which the German people is faced with a struggle for its existence or annihilation, the Führer must have all the rights postulated by him which serve to further or achieve victory. Therefore, without being bound by existing legal regulations, in his capacity as leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Governmental Chief and Supreme Executive Chief, as Supreme Justice and as leader of the Party, the Führer must be in the position to force with all means at his disposal every German, if necessary—whether he be a common soldier or officer, low or high, official or judge, leading or subordinate official of the Party, worker or employee—to fulfill his duties. In case of violation of these duties, the Führer is entitled, after conscientious examination, regardless of so-called well-deserved rights, to mete out due punishment and to remove the offender from his post, rank, and position without introducing prescribed procedures.

“At the order of the Führer, this decision is hereby made public. Berlin, 26 April 1942.”

Hitler, himself, perhaps, best summarized the political realities of his Germany which constituted the basis for the Prosecution’s submission that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and its following effectively dominated the State. The core and crux of the matter was stated by Hitler in his speech to the Reichstag on 20 February 1938, when he declared, in effect, that every institution in Germany was under the direction of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.

I cite as the Prosecution’s final exhibit in support of the proposition that the Leadership Corps dominated the German State with resulting responsibility, Document 2715-PS, which is the book containing Hitler’s speech to the Reichstag on the 20th of February 1938, as reported in _Das Archiv_, Volume 47, February 1938, Pages 1441 and 1442. I quote a brief excerpt from Document 2715-PS; and I introduce it as Exhibit USA-331:

“National Socialism has given the German people that leadership which as Party not only mobilizes the nation but also organizes it, so that on the basis of the natural principle of selection, the continuance of a stable political leadership is safeguarded forever. . . . National Socialism . . . possesses Germany entirely and completely since the day when, 5 years ago, I left the house in Wilhelmsplatz as Reich Chancellor. There is no institution in this State which is not National Socialist. Above all, however, the National Socialist Party in these 5 years has not only made the nation National Socialist but also has given itself that perfect organizational structure which guarantees its preservation for all the future. The greatest guarantee of the National Socialist revolution lies in the complete domination of the Reich and all of its institutions and organizations, internally and externally, by the National Socialist Party. Its protection against the world abroad, however, lies in the new National Socialist Armed Forces. . . . In this Reich anybody who has a responsible position is a National Socialist. . . . Every institution of this Reich is under the command of the supreme political leadership. . . . The Party leads the Reich politically; the Armed Forces defend it militarily . . . . There is nobody in any responsible position in this state who doubts that I am the authorized leader of this Reich. . . .”

The supreme power which the Leadership Corps exercised over the German State and Government is pointed out by an article published in this same authoritative magazine _Der Hoheitsträger_, in February 1939. In this article, which was addressed to all Hoheitsträger, the Leadership Corps is reminded that it has conquered the state and possesses absolute and total power in Germany. I cite Document 3230-PS, which is the English translation of an article entitled “Fight and Order”; and I quote from this article, which trumpets forth in what we might term as accents of Caesarism, the battle call of the Leadership Corps in German life. I quote:

“Fight? Why do you always talk of fighting? You have conquered the state, and if something does not please you, then just make a law and regulate it differently. Why must you always talk of fighting? For you have every power. Over what do you fight? Foreign politics? You have the Wehrmacht—it will wage the fight if fight is required. Domestic politics? You have the law and the police which can change everything which does not agree with you.”

THE PRESIDENT: Is this a good time to break off?

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir.

[_A recess was taken._]

COL. STOREY: In view of the domination of the German State and Government by the Nazi Party and the Leadership Corps thereof as established by the foregoing and other evidence heretofore recited in the previous trial briefs, it is submitted that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party is responsible for the measures, including the legislative enactments, taken by the German State and Government in furtherance of the conspiracy formulated and carried out by the co-conspirators and the organizations charged with criminality in the present case.

I now skip and go to the overt acts and crimes of the Leadership Corps. The evidence now to be presented will establish that the membership of the Leadership Corps actively entered into a wide variety of acts and measures designed to advance the course of the conspiracy. The evidence will show that such participation by the Leadership Corps in the conspiracy embraces such measures as anti-Semitic activities, war crimes committed against members of the Allied Forces, participation in the forced-labor program, measures to subvert and undermine the Christian religion and persecute the Christian clergy, the plundering and spoliation of cultural and other property in German occupied territories in Europe, participation in plans and measures leading to the initiation and prosecution of aggressive war, and in general, the wide variety of measures embracing the Crimes against the Peace, War Crimes, and Crimes against Humanity as defined and denounced by the Charter.

The first item of evidence we have to introduce is in connection with the participation of the Gauleiter and Kreisleiter in what the Nazis describe as the “spontaneous uprising of the people” against the Jews throughout Germany on 9 and 10 November 1938. We do not intend to introduce, by diverting from the text, any evidence formerly introduced by Major Walsh on the persecution of the Jews but only to show the connection of a few of the Party officials in connection with the assassination of an official of the German Embassy in Paris on the 7th of November.

The evidence relating to these pogroms has been thoroughly presented in connection with the Prosecution’s evidence in other phases of the case, particularly of the persecution of the Jews. I shall therefore limit myself to two documents and will request the Tribunal to recall that in the teletyped directive from SS Gruppenführer Heydrich, issued the 10th of November 1938 to all police headquarters and SD districts, all chiefs of the State Police were ordered to contact the political leaders in the Gaue and the Kreise and to arrange with these high officials in the Leadership Corps the organization of the so-called spontaneous demonstrations against the Jews.

The evidence previously presented shows that pursuant to this directive a large number of the Jewish shops and businesses were pillaged and wrecked, synagogues set on fire, individual Jews beaten up, and large numbers taken to concentration camps. This evidence forcibly illustrates the employment and participation of all the Kreisleiter and Gauleiter in illegal and inhuman measures designed to further the anti-Semitic program which was an original and continuous objective of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. I simply refer again to Document 3051-PS, Exhibit Number USA-240, and simply call Your Honors’ attention to the different political leaders that were named in that document; and I will not attempt to read nor refer to it again.

Diverting again from the text, I want to offer at this time in evidence . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, is it addressed to these various ranks in the Leadership Corps?

COL. STOREY: Your Honor, I notice on the first page it is addressed—I am not good in German—but to the State Police, to the SD, and to some other SD officials.

THE PRESIDENT: What has that got to do with the Leadership Corps?

COL. STOREY: It has to do with directions to Party officials to take part in these demonstrations. In other words, through certain officials of the Leadership Corps this directive was dispatched and directed.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you sure the State Police and SD are any of these ranks in the Leadership Corps?

COL. STOREY: If Your Honors will refer to this original chart, this big one, you will notice that the SA, and SS, and several of the organizations are listed on the left-hand part of that big chart. I think it is in the folder there on Your Honors’ desk. In other words, the close examination of that directive will show that they were to contact different political leaders in connection with the carrying into effect of this demonstration of the 9th and 10th of November. That is the only purpose for which it is offered. It has been introduced in evidence, but the reason I mention it at this time . . .

THE PRESIDENT: I can’t see that it shows it. It seems to me to be a letter from the Chief of the Security Police to all headquarters and stations of the State Police.

COL. STOREY: I don’t have the English translation before me at this moment, Your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, go on.

COL. STOREY: I now offer in evidence Document 3063-PS, Exhibit USA-332. This was a report from the Chief Party Judge Buch to the Defendant Göring, dated the 13th of February 1939, concerning actions taken by the Supreme Party Court for excesses in connection with the demonstrations of 9 and 10 November 1938. I don’t believe this, if Your Honors please, is in the document book—3063-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it is.

COL. STOREY: I beg your pardon. I had forgotten whether it is in here. I quote just a brief portion of it:

“When all the synagogues burned down in one night it must have been organized in some way and can only have been organized by the Party.”

It is a long document, and that is the only portion I quote. I don’t have the reference to it.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What page?

COL. STOREY: I am sorry, Sir, I don’t have the reference book.

THE PRESIDENT: On Page 1. As you say you don’t have the document before you, there isn’t much use referring you to it.

COL. STOREY: I gave the German text over there, Sir.

“When all the synagogues burned down in one night it must have been organized in some way, and can only have been organized by the Party.”

The first paragraph, Page 7.

Now I turn to illustrate the crimes against the Allied airmen. The members of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in and shared the responsibility for the murder, beating, and ill-treatment of Allied airmen who landed in German or German-controlled territory. Many Allied airmen who bailed out of disabled planes over Germany were not treated as prisoners of war but were beaten and murdered by German civilians with the active condonation, indeed at the instigation, of some of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. Such a course of conduct by the Leadership Corps represented a flagrant and deliberate violation by the German Government of its obligations under the Geneva Convention to protect prisoners of war against acts of violence and ill-treatment.

As shown by Document 2473-PS—it is necessary to turn to that—which is a list of the Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party appearing in the _National Socialist Yearbook_ of 1943 and by Document 2903-PS, which is this large chart, Heinrich Himmler was a Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party and thus a top official in the Leadership Corps by virtue of his positions as Reichsführer of the SS and Delegate for German Folkdom. I now offer in evidence an original order signed by Himmler, Document R-110 as Exhibit Number USA-333. It is dated 10 August 1943, and I quote:

“It is not the task of the police to interfere in clashes between Germans and English and American terror fliers who have bailed out.”

This order was transmitted in writing to all senior executive SS and Police officers, and orally to their subordinate officers and to all Gauleiter. As shown in Document 2473-PS and by the chart, Joseph Goebbels . . .

THE PRESIDENT: I was only thinking that the police are not part of the Leadership Corps, are they?

COL. STOREY: But Himmler, if Your Honor pleases, combined the offices himself of the Reichsführer of the SS and head of the German police. He was an officer of the State; he was an officer of the Party; and he issued this to officials of the Leadership Corps.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And your point is, this order of Himmler’s would be proof against the 600,000 members that you have spoken of?

COL. STOREY: Not against the members, but I said against the organization as a criminal organization, because from the top it disseminated orders of this type through the channels of the Leadership Corps.

THE PRESIDENT: But that is what I was putting to you, that it was not through the channels of the Leadership Corps, but through the channels of the police.

COL. STOREY: But the police, if Your Honor pleases, were connected with the Leadership Corps; and Himmler stood at the top of both. It does not show on that chart; but it is shown on the other big chart, if Your Honors please, with reference to Goebbels, who was a top-flight official in the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, by virtue of his position as Propaganda Leader of the Party. In the issue of the _Völkischer Beobachter_ of 29 May 1944 there appeared an article written by Goebbels, the Reichsleiter for Party Propaganda, in which he openly invited the German civilian population to punish Allied fliers shot down over Germany. I refer to Document 1676-PS, Exhibit USA-334, which is the issue of the _Völkischer Beobachter_ containing this article inciting the people to the commission of War Crimes. I now quote:

“It is only possible with the aid of arms to secure the lives of enemy pilots who were shot down during such attacks, for they would otherwise be killed by the sorely tried population. Who is right here? The murderers who, after their cowardly misdeeds, await a humane treatment on the part of their victims, or the victims who wish to defend themselves according to the principle: ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’? This question is not hard to answer.”

Reichsleiter Goebbels then proceeds to answer this question in the following language, and still quoting:

“It seems to us hardly possible and tolerable to use German police and soldiers against the German people when it treats murderers of children as they deserve.”

On the 30th of May 1944 the Defendant Bormann, Reichsleiter and Chief of the Party Chancellery, issued a circular letter on the subject which furnishes indisputable proof that British and American fliers, who were shot down, were lynched by the German population. I offer this circular letter of the Defendant Bormann into evidence—Document 057-PS; it is up towards the top.

THE PRESIDENT: Have you got the original book?

COL. STOREY: Just a moment, Your Honor.

After alleging that in recent weeks English and American fliers had repeatedly shot children, women, peasants, and vehicles on the highways, Bormann then states as follows in the second paragraph of the English translation; I quote:

“Several instances have occurred where members of the crews of such aircraft, who have bailed out or who have made forced landings, were lynched on the spot immediately after capture by the populace, which was incensed to the highest degree. No police measures or criminal proceedings were invoked against the German civilians who participated in these incidents.”

The attention of the Tribunal is particularly invited to the fact that this letter of the Defendant Bormann is distributed through the chain of command of the Nazi Party, expressly mentioning on the distribution list Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, and leaders of the incorporated and affiliated organizations of the Party. The Defendant Bormann requested, in the first paragraph of the second page which is found in the English translation, that the local group leaders (Ortsgruppenleiter) be informed of the contents of his circular letter orally—only by oral means.

The effect of Reichsleiter Bormann’s circular letter may be seen in an order dated 25 February 1945 which I now offer in evidence; it is Document L-154, Exhibit Number USA-335. It is an order from Albert Hoffmann, an important member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Gauleiter and National Defense Commissioner of the Gau Westfalen-Sud. It is addressed to all county councillors, mayors, police officials, and to county leaders and county chiefs of the Volkssturm.

“Fighter-bomber pilots who are shot down are in principle not to be protected against the fury of the people. I expect from all police officers that they will refuse to lend their protection to these gangster types. Authorities acting in contradiction to the popular sentiment will have to account to me. All police and gendarmerie officials are to be informed immediately of this, my attitude.”

The obligations . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Who is Hoffmann?

COL. STOREY: Albert Hoffmann was a member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Gauleiter and National Defense Commissar of the Gau Westfalen-Sud. In this connection, if Your Honor pleases, I quote the provisions of the Geneva Convention, 27 July 1929, Article 2, which provides—and I simply ask the Court to take judicial knowledge:

“Prisoners of war are in the power of the hostile power, but not of the individuals or corps who have captured them. They must at all times be humanely treated and protected, particularly against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity. Measures of reprisal against them are prohibited.”

THE PRESIDENT: Is that the 1907 . . .

COL. STOREY: 1929, the Geneva Convention dated 27 July 1929—Article 2—and it was also ratified by Germany and the United States. It is clear from the foregoing quoted provisions that the Geneva prisoners-of-war convention imposes upon its signatories the strictest obligations to protect its prisoners of war from violence. The evidence just presented shows that the German State violated this provision. The evidence also proves that members of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the conspiracy to incite the German civilian population to take part in these atrocities.

Now I next turn to some illustrative crimes against foreign labor.

On 13 September 1936 Reichsleiter of the Party Organization, Dr. Robert Ley, addressed 20,000 people attending a session of the Party Congress. The official account of the Party rally states that the Führer was received with “enthusiastic shouts of exaltation” when he strode through the hall with his deputy, his constant retinue, and several Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. I am referring to Document 2283-PS, and it is the _Völkischer Beobachter_ of 14 September 1936, Page 11, which we offer as Exhibit Number USA-337. In his speech Reichsleiter Robert Ley states that he had been mystified when the Führer ordered him in “mid-April 1933 to take over the trade unions . . . since I could not see any connection between my task as organizational leader of the Party and my new task.” Ley continues by stating that very soon it became clear to him why his responsibilities as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization and Leader of the German Labor Front made logical his selection by the Führer as the man to direct the smashing and dissolution of the free trade unions; and I quote from that document:

“Very soon your decision, my Führer, became clear to me and I recognized that the organizational measures of the Party could only come to full fruition when supplemented by the organization of the people, that is to say by the mobilization of the energies of the people and by their concentration and alignment. . . . My tasks as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization and as Leader of the German Labor Front were a completely homogeneous task; in other words, in everything I did, I acted as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization. The German Labor Front was an institution of the Party and was led by it. The German Labor Front had to be organized regionally and technically—according to the same principles as the Party. That is why trade union and employee associations had to be smashed unrelentingly, and the basis of construction was formed, as in the Party, by the cell and the local section.”

On 17 October 1944 Reichsleiter Rosenberg sent a letter to Reichsleiter Bormann which I introduce as Document 327-PS, Exhibit Number USA-338, in which he informed the latter that he had sent a telegram to the Gauleiter urging them not to interfere in the liquidation of certain listed companies and banks under his supervision. Rosenberg emphasizes to Bormann that any “delay of liquidation or independent confiscation of the property by the Gauleiter would impair or destroy an organized plan” for the liquidation of a vast amount of property.

On 7 November 1943 the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces delivered a lecture at Munich to the Reichsleiter and the Gauleiter. I now refer to Document L-172, previously introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-34. The Chief of Staff stated that his object was to give a review of the strategic position at the outset of the fifth year of war; and he stated that he realized that the political leaders in the Reich and Gau areas, in view of their burdensome tasks in supporting the German war effort, were in need of information he could give. He stated, in part, as follows:

“Reichsleiter Bormann has requested me to give you a review today of the strategic position in the beginning of the fifth year of war. . . . No one—the Führer has ordered—may know more or be told more than he needs for his immediate task; but I have no doubt at all in my mind, gentlemen, that you need a great deal in order to be able to cope with your tasks. It is in your Gaue, after all . . . that all the enemy propaganda, and the demoralization through malicious rumors that try to find themselves a place among our people concentrate . . . . Against this wave of enemy propaganda and cowardice . . . you need to know the true situation; and for this reason, I believe that I am justified in giving you a perfectly open and uncovered account of the state of affairs.”

Reichsleiter Bormann distributed to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and leaders of Party-affiliated organizations an undated letter, which is Document 656-PS, Exhibit Number USA-339, on the National Socialist Party stationery, signed by Bormann, an order of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht relating to self-defense by German guard personnel and German contractors and workers against prisoners of war. The order of the Wehrmacht referred to states that the question of treatment of prisoners of war is continually being discussed by the Wehrmacht and Party bureaus. The order states that should prisoners of war refuse to obey orders to work, the guard has “in the case of the most pressing need and danger the right to force obedience with the weapon if he has no other means. He can use the weapon as much as is necessary to attain his goal.”

On 18 April 1944 Reich Commissar Lohse, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, in a letter to Reich Youth Leader Axmann—I now offer in evidence Document 347-PS, Exhibit Number USA-340—proposed that the Hitler Youth participate in and supervise the military education of the Estonian and Latvian youth. Lohse states in the above letter that:

“In the military education camps the young Latvians are trained under Latvian leaders in the Latvian language, not because this is our ideal but because absolute military necessity demands this.”

Lohse further stated in the above letter, and I quote:

“. . . in contrast to the Germanic peoples of the West, military education is no longer to be carried out through voluntary, enlistments but through legal conscription. The camps in Estonia and Latvia will have to be under German leadership; and as military education camps of the Hitler Youth, they must be a symbol of our educational mission beyond Germany’s borders. I consider the execution of the military education of the Estonian and Latvian youth not only a military necessity but also a war mission of the Hitler Youth, especially. I would be thankful to you, Party Member Axmann, if the Hitler Youth would put itself at our disposal with the same readiness with which they have so far supported our work in the Baltic area.”

An order of the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, dated 22 October 1938, is Document 1438-PS, of which I ask the Court to take judicial notice, and I quote:

“The Reichsführer SS and the Chief of the German Police . . . can take the administrative measures necessary for the maintenance of security and order even beyond the legal limits otherwise set on such measures.”

The above order related to the administration of the Sudeten-German territory.

In a letter dated 15 April 1943, our Document Number 407-PS, already in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-209, Gauleiter and Plenipotentiary for the direction of labor Fritz Sauckel wrote to Hitler advising him of the success of the forced-labor program as of that date and stating that—and I quote:

“You can be assured that the District of Thuringia and I will serve you and our dear people with the employment of all our strength.”

I now offer in evidence Document 630-PS, Exhibit Number USA-342. If Your Honor pleases, I would like to call to your attention that this is on the personal stationery of Adolf Hitler, dated 1 September 1939. It is addressed to Reichsleiter Bouhler and Doctor of Medicine Brandt, and it is signed personally by Adolf Hitler. I want to quote all of that document; it is short:

“Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death. Signed, A. Hitler.”

A handwritten note on the face of the document states: “Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940. Signed, Dr. Gürtner.”

In a memorandum recording an agreement between himself and Himmler, the Minister of Justice Thierack stated that on the suggestion of Reichsleiter Bormann an agreement had been reached between Himmler and himself with respect to “special treatment at the hands of the police in cases where judicial sentences were not severe enough.”

I will offer Document 654-PS, Exhibit Number USA-218, which was previously introduced, and I want to quote one portion:

“The Reich Minister of Justice will decide whether and when special treatment at the hands of the police is to be applied. The Reich Führer SS will send the reports, which he sent hitherto to Reichsleiter Bormann, to the Reich Minister of Justice.”

If the views of the Reich Führer SS and the Reich Minister of Justice disagreed, “the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to bear upon the case, and he will possibly inform the Führer.”

In the above note it is further stated:

“The delivery of asocial elements from execution of their sentence to the Reich Führer of SS to be worked to death: Persons under preventative arrest, Jews, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than 3-year sentences, Czechs and Germans with more than 8-year sentences, according to the decision of the Reich Minister of Justice. First of all the worst asocial elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed over. I shall inform the Führer of this through Reichsleiter Bormann.”

With respect to the “administration of justice by the people,” he continues:

“This is to be carried out step by step . . . as soon as possible. . . . I shall rouse the Party particularly to co-operate in this scheme by an article in the ‘Hoheitsträger.’”

And Your Honors have already seen copies of that publication. I now skip Paragraphs 16 and 17.

A letter from RSHA (which is the Reich Security Main Office) to police chiefs, dated 5 November 1942, which is Document L-316, Exhibit Number USA-346—this was addressed to all police chiefs—recites an agreement between the Reich Führer SS and the Reich Minister of Justice, approved by Hitler—I call the attention of Your Honors to the red border around this original, and then having the Party seal on it—provides that the ordinary criminal procedure was no longer to be applied to Poles and members of the Eastern populations. The agreement provided that such people, including Jews and Gypsies, should henceforth be turned over to the police. The principles applicable to a determination of the punishment of German offenders, including appraisal of the motives of the offender, were not to be applied to foreign offenders. I quote from Page 2 of the document:

“The offense committed by a person of foreign extraction is not to be regarded from the view of legal retribution by way of justice but from the point of view of preventing dangers through police action.

“From this it follows that the criminal procedure against persons of foreign extraction must be transferred from justice to the police.

“The preceding statements serve for personal information. There are no objections if the Gauleiter are informed in the proper form, should the need arise.”

I now skip Paragraphs 19 and 20 of the text. I next refer to Document 1058-PS, previously introduced in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-147.

In a speech to a gathering of persons intimately concerned with the Eastern problem, on 20 June 1941, Reichsleiter Rosenberg stated that the southern Russian territories and the northern Caucasus would have to provide food for the German people. I quote Rosenberg’s words:

“We see absolutely no obligation on our part to feed the Russian people, also, with the products of that surplus territory. We know that this is a harsh necessity, bare of any feelings.”

THE PRESIDENT: We have already had that read to us twice.

COL. STOREY: I am sorry, Sir. I did not hear it. Strike it from the record.

I now refer to Document R-114. I believe it is the last one in the book, Exhibit Number USA-314.

Gauleiter Wagner, of the German-occupied areas of Alsace, prepared plans and took measures leading to the expulsion and deportation of certain groups within the Alsatian civilian population. His plans called for the forcible expulsion of certain categories of so-called undesirable persons as a means of punishment and compulsory Germanization. The Gauleiter supervised deportation measures in Alsace from July to December 1940 in the course of which 105,000 persons were either expelled or prevented from returning. A memorandum, dated 4 August 1942, of a meeting of high SS and police officials convened to receive the reports and plans of the Gauleiter relating to the Alsatian evacuations, states that the persons deported were mainly “Jews, Gypsies, and other foreign racial elements, criminals, asocial and incurably insane persons, as well as Frenchmen and Francophiles.” The memorandum further states the Gauleiter stated that the Führer had given him permission “to cleanse Alsace of all foreign, sick, or unreliable elements”; and that the Gauleiter emphasized the political necessity of further deportations. The memorandum further records that the SS and police officials present at the conference approve the Gauleiter’s proposals for further evacuation.

I now skip over to the next paragraph, 24.

A memorandum by Reichsleiter Bormann of a conference called by Hitler at his headquarters, 16 July 1941, which is Document L-221, Exhibit Number USA-317. I’m sorry, I believe that one was quoted this morning. The only purpose in referring to it is in connection with the Reichsleiter. I believe Captain Harris quoted from that document this morning, and I’ll not read the quotation.

I call attention to the fact, however, that this conference was attended by Reichsleiter Rosenberg, Reich Minister Lammers, Field Marshal Keitel, the Reich Marshal, and Bormann and lasted about 20 hours. The memorandum states that discussion occurred with respect to the annexation by Germany of various parts of conquered Europe. The memorandum also states that a long discussion took place with respect to the qualifications of Gauleiter Lohse, who was proposed by Rosenberg at this conference, as Governor of the Baltic States.

Discussion also occurred, according to the memo, with respect to the qualifications of other Gauleiter and commissioners for the administration of various areas of Occupied Russia. Göring stated, according to the memorandum, that he intended to appoint Gauleiter Terboven for “exploitation of the Kola Peninsula; the Führer agrees.”

I believe the next portion has been quoted, too. I now pass to the participation of the Leadership Corps in the suppression of the Christian Church and persecution of the clergy and cite some illustrative crimes.

The evidence relating to the systematic effort of the defendants and co-conspirators to eliminate the Christian churches in Germany has been previously introduced in U.S.A. Exhibit Book H by Major Wallis with respect to the Nazi efforts to eliminate the Christian Church. The evidence now to be presented is limited to proving and pointing out the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and the members thereof for illegal activities against the Christian Church and clergy.

The Defendant Bormann issued a secret decree to all Gauleiter entitled, “Relationship of National Socialism and Christianity.” And that is Document D-75—it is up toward the top, I believe, Your Honor—Exhibit Number USA-348. In this decree Reichsleiter Bormann flatly declares that National Socialism and Christianity are incompatible and that the influence of the churches in Germany must be eliminated. I quote from pertinent portions of this decree beginning with the first paragraph thereof, top of Page 3, which reads as follows:

“National Socialist and Christian concepts are irreconcilable. . . .

“Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity which, in their essential points, have been taken over from Jewry. For this reason, also, we do not need Christianity. . . . If, therefore, in the future our youth learn nothing more of this Christianity whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself. . . . It follows from the irreconcilability of National Socialist and Christian concepts that a strengthening of existing confessions and every assistance to originating Christian confessions is to be rejected by us. A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here. For this reason, also, the thought of an erection of an Evangelical National Church by merger of the various Evangelical churches has been definitely given up, because the Evangelical Church is just as inimical to us as the Catholic Church. Any strengthening of the Evangelical Church would merely react against us. . . .

“For the first time in German history, the Führer consciously and completely has the leadership of the people in his own hand. With the Party, its components, and attached units, the Führer has created for himself and thereby the German Reich Leadership, an instrument which makes him independent of the Church. All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people, exercised by the Führer with the help of the NSDAP, must be eliminated. More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs, the pastors. Of course, the churches must and will, seen from their viewpoint, defend themselves against this loss of power. But never again must an influence on leadership of the people be yielded to the churches. This influence must be broken completely and finally.

“Only the Reich leadership and, by its direction, the Party, its components and attached units have a right to leadership of the people. Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers, and other fakirs are eliminated and suppressed by the state, so must the possibility of Church influence also be totally removed. Not until this has happened does the state leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are people and Reich secure in their existence for all the future.”

I next offer in evidence Document 070-PS, towards the beginning, Exhibit Number USA-349, which is a copy of a letter issued from Bormann’s office, dated 25 April 1941, to the Defendant Rosenberg in his capacity as the Führer’s representative for the supervision of the entire mental and ideological training and education of the NSDAP. In this letter Bormann’s office states that the measures have been taken leading to the progressive cancellation of morning prayers and other religious services and their substitution by Nazi mottoes and slogans. I quote from the first paragraph of Document 070-PS:

“We are inducing schools more and more to reduce and abolish morning religious services. Similarly the confessional and general prayers in several parts of the Reich have already been replaced by National Socialist mottoes. I would be grateful to know your opinion on a future National Socialist morning service instead of the present confessional morning services which are usually conducted once per week.”

In a letter from Reichsleiter Bormann to Reichsleiter Rosenberg dated 22 February 1940, Document 098-PS, Exhibit Number USA-350, which I offer in evidence, Bormann declares to Rosenberg that the Christian religion and National Socialism are incompatible. Bormann cites, as examples of hostile . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Would you take care to give us the number of the document.

COL. STOREY: I beg pardon, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: This is 098-PS.

COL. STOREY: Document 098-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: The one before you referred to was 070-PS.

COL. STOREY: Yes—070-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Before that, D-75?

COL. STOREY: That’s correct. With Your Honor’s permission, rather than to quote the whole document I have summarized it here. Bormann’s letter cites as examples the hostile divergence between Nazism and the churches, the attitude of the latter on the racial question, celibacy of the priests, monasteries and nunneries. Bormann further declares that the churches could not be subjugated through compromise but only through a new philosophy of life as prophesied in Rosenberg’s writings. Bormann proposes the creation of a National Socialist catechism in order to give that part of the German youth which declines to practice confessional religion a moral foundation and to lay a moral basis for National Socialist doctrines, which are gradually to supplant the Christian religions. Bormann suggests that some of the Ten Commandments could be merged with the National Socialist catechism and states that a few new commandments should be added, such as: “Thou shalt be courageous; Thou shalt not be cowardly; Thou shalt believe in God’s presence in the living nature, animals, and plants; Thou shalt keep thy blood pure;” _et cetera_. He concludes that he considers the problem so important that it should be discussed with the members of the Reich directorate as soon as possible.

And now one quotation from the fifth paragraph on the first page of that translation. I would like to quote Paragraph 5 of the first page:

“Christianity and National Socialism are phenomena which originated from entirely different basic causes. Both differ fundamentally so strongly that it will not be possible to construct a Christian teaching which would be completely compatible with the point of view of the National Socialist ideology; just as the communities of Christian faith would never be able to stand by the ideology of National Socialism in its entirety. . . .”

And then I quote from the last paragraph on Page 5 of that document:

“The Führer’s deputy finds it necessary that all these questions should be thoroughly discussed in the near future in the presence of the Reich leaders”—Reichsleiter—“who are especially affected by them. . . .”

I next offer in evidence Document 107-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you suggest that the Blockleiter would have to be present at that discussion?

COL. STOREY: Your Honor, in connection with the policy directives, the Führerprinzip goes from the top to the bottom; and if that policy is adopted, they may, by directive, send it as far as the Blockleiter. He says to discuss it in connection with the Reichsleiter, who are the Party directors; and I assume that, if the Party directors establish it as a policy, then they were to issue appropriate directives to the other subordinate members. Mr. Lambert has suggested also that it would not be possible to discuss this matter with all the Leadership Corps and therefore they discussed it with the Party directors.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Does that show they did discuss it with the directors?

COL. STOREY: No, Sir, that doesn’t follow; but it shows that it was a subject of discussion for the board of directors of the Nazi Party.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but the question is, who are the directors?

COL. STOREY: Five or six of them sit here; a total of 16.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but I thought that you were asking us to declare the whole of the organization down to the Blockleiter as criminal.

COL. STOREY: That is true, Your Honor, but this is one evidence, one instance of the criminality of the organization and we cannot prove at each stage that all of them knew about it. We are trying to select different offenses and different crimes that were committed within the Party.

Document 107-PS, Exhibit USA-351, which we now offer in evidence, is a circular letter, dated 17 June 1938, addressed by the Defendant Bormann as Reichsleiter and Deputy of the Führer to all Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. Bormann’s letter encloses a copy of rules, prepared by Reichsleiter Hierl, setting forth certain restrictive regulations with respect to participation of the Reich Labor Service in religious celebrations. I quote pertinent portions of the directions issued by Reichsleiter Hierl, beginning with the first paragraph in the list of directions in Document 107-PS, on Page 1 of the English translation:

“The Reich Labor Service is a training school in which the German youth should be educated to national unity in the spirit of National Socialism. . . .

“What religious beliefs a person has is not a decisive factor, but it is decisive that he first of all feels himself a German.

“All confessional discussions are forbidden in the Reich Labor Service because it disturbs the comrade-like harmony of all the Labor Service men and the Labor Service women.

“This is also the reason why all participation of the Reich Labor Service in revivals and other meetings and festivals of religious character are impossible.”

The Tribunal will appreciate that the position of the Defendant Bormann, as Deputy of the Führer of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery, and the position of the Defendant Rosenberg, as the Führer’s representative for the whole spiritual and philosophical education of the Nazi Party, give to the views of these defendants on religion and religious policy the highest official backing. The anti-Christian utterances and policies of these two defendants reveal a community of mind and intention amongst the most powerful leaders of the Party which was amply confirmed, as the evidence will show, by the actual treatment of the churches since 1933 and throughout the course of the conspiracy. I now offer in evidence Document 2349-PS, Exhibit Number USA-352, which is an excerpt from the book _The Myth of the 20th Century_, written by the Defendant Rosenberg. I quote from that document:

“The idea of honor—national honor—is for us the beginning and the end of our entire thinking and doing. It does not admit of any equal-valued center of force alongside of it, no matter of what kind, neither Christian love, nor the Free-Masonic humanity, nor the Roman philosophy.”

I now offer in evidence Document 848-PS, Exhibit Number USA-353, which is a Gestapo telegram, dated 24 July 1938, dispatched from Berlin to Nuremberg, dealing with demonstrations and acts of violence against Bishop Sproll in Rottenburg. The Gestapo office in Berlin wired its Nuremberg office a teletype account received from its Stuttgart office of disorderly conduct and vandalism carried out by Nazi Party members against Bishop Sproll. I quote from the fourth paragraph of Page 1 of the English translation of Document 848-PS, which reads as follows:

“The Party, on 23 July 1938, from 2100 on, carried out the third demonstration against Bishop Sproll. Participants, about 2,500-3,000, were brought from outside by bus, _et cetera_. The Rottenburg populace again did not participate in the demonstration. This town took a rather hostile attitude toward the demonstrations. The action got completely out of hand of the Party member responsible for it. The demonstrators stormed the palace, beat in the gates and doors. About 150 to 200 people forced their way into the palace, searched through the rooms, threw files out of the windows, and rummaged through the beds in the rooms of the palace. One bed was ignited. . . . The Bishop was with Archbishop Gröber of Freiburg and the ladies and gentlemen of his menage in the chapel at prayer. About 25 to 30 people pressed into this chapel and molested those present. Bishop Gröber was taken for Bishop Sproll. He was grabbed by the robe and dragged back and forth.”

The Gestapo official in Stuttgart added that Bishop Gröber desired “to appeal to the Führer and to Reich Minister of the Interior Dr. Frick,” and the Gestapo official added that he had rendered a detailed report of the demonstration after suppressing counter mass meetings.

On 23 July 1938 the Reich Minister for Church Affairs, Kerrl, sent a letter to the Minister of State and Chief of the Präsidium Chancellery, Berlin, stating that Bishop Sproll had angered the population by abstaining from the plebiscite of 10 April. I now offer in evidence Document 849-PS, Exhibit Number USA-354. In this letter Kerrl stated that the Gauleiter and Governor of Württemberg had decided that in the interest of preserving the State’s authority and in the interest of quiet and order, Bishop Sproll could no longer remain in office. I quote from the third paragraph of the first page of the Document 849-PS:

“The Reich Governor had explained to the Ecclesiastical Authority that he would no longer regard Bishop Sproll as head of the Diocese of Rottenburg on account of his refraining from the election in the office and that he desired Bishop Sproll to leave the Gau Württemberg-Hohenzollern because he could assume no guarantee for his personal safety; that in the case of the return of the Bishop of Rottenburg he would see to it that all personal and official intercourse with him on the part of State offices as well as the Party offices and the Armed Forces would be denied.”

Kerrl further states in the above letter that his deputy had moved the Foreign Office, through the German Embassy at the Vatican, to urge the Holy See to persuade Bishop Sproll to resign his Bishopric. Kerrl concludes by stating that should the effort to procure the Bishop’s resignation prove unsuccessful, “the Bishop would have to be exiled from the land or there would have to be a complete boycott of the Bishop by the authorities.”

On 14 July 1939 the Defendant Bormann in his capacity as Deputy of the Führer issued a Party regulation which provided that Party members entering the clergy or undertaking the study of theology would have to leave the Party. I now offer in evidence Document 840-PS, Exhibit Number USA-355; and this is a copy of a regulation by Bormann, relating to the admission of the clergy and students of theology into the Party. I quote from the last paragraph of the English translation, which reads—I quote. “I decree that in the future Party members who enter the clergy or who turn to the study of theology have to leave the Party.”

In this directive Bormann also refers to an earlier decree, dated 9 February 1939, in which he had ruled that the admission of members of the clergy into the Party was to be avoided. In this decree, also, Bormann refers with approval to a regulation of the Reich Treasurer of the Party, dated 10 May 1939, providing that “clergymen as well as other fellow Germans who are also closely connected with the Church cannot be admitted into the Party.”

I now offer in evidence Document 3268-PS, Exhibit Number USA-356, which contains excerpts from the Allocution of His Holiness Pope Pius XII to the Sacred College, June 2d, 1945. In this address His Holiness, after declaring that he had acquired an appreciation of the great qualities of the German people in the course of 12 years of residence in their midst, expressed the hope that Germany could “rise to new dignity and a new life once it has laid the satanic specter raised by National Socialism and the guilty have expiated the crimes they have committed.” After referring to repeated violations by the German Government of the Concordat concluded in 1933, His Holiness declared; and I quote from the last paragraph of Page 1 of the English translation of Document 3268-PS:

“The struggle against the Church did, in fact, become ever more bitter; there was the dissolution of Catholic organizations; the gradual suppression of the flourishing Catholic schools, both public and private; the enforced weaning of youth from family and Church; the pressure brought to bear on the conscience of citizens, and especially of civil servants; the systematic defamation, by means of a clever, closely-organized propaganda, of the Church, the clergy, the faithful, the Church’s institutions, teachings, and history; the closing, dissolution, confiscation of religious houses and other ecclesiastical institutions; the complete suppression of the Catholic press and publishing houses . . . .

“In the meantime the Holy See itself multiplied its representations and protests to governing authorities in Germany, reminding them, in clear and energetic language, of their duty to respect and fulfill the obligations of the natural law itself that were confirmed by the Concordat. In these critical years, joining the alert vigilance of a pastor to the long-suffering patience of a father, our great predecessor, Pius XI, fulfilled his mission as Supreme Pontiff with intrepid courage.

“But when, after he had tried all means of persuasion in vain, he saw himself clearly faced with deliberate violations of a solemn pact, with a religious persecution masked or open but always rigorously organized, he proclaimed to the world on Passion Sunday 1937 in his Encyclical, _Mit brennender Sorge_, that National Socialism really was: the arrogant apostasy from Jesus Christ, the denial of His doctrine and of His work of redemption, the cult of violence, the idolatry of race and blood, the overthrow of human liberty and dignity . . . .

“From the prisons, concentration camps, and fortresses are now pouring out, together with the political prisoners, also the crowds of those, whether clergy or laymen, whose only crime was their fidelity to Christ and to the faith of their fathers or the dauntless fulfillment of their duties as priests.

“In the forefront, for the number and harshness of the treatment meted out to them, are the Polish priests. From 1940 to 1945, 2,800 Polish ecclesiastics and religious were imprisoned in that camp; among them was the Auxiliary Bishop of Wloclawek, who died there of typhus. In April last there were left only 816, all the others being dead except for two or three transferred to another camp. In the summer of 1942, 480 German-speaking ministers of religion were known to be gathered there; of these, 45 were Protestants, all the others Catholic priests. In spite of the continuous inflow of new internees, especially from dioceses of Bavaria, Rhenania and Westphalia, their number, as a result of the high rate of mortality, at the beginning of this year did not surpass 350. Nor should we pass over in silence those belonging to occupied territories, Holland, Belgium, France (among whom the Bishop of Clermont), Luxembourg, Slovenia, Italy. Many of those priests and laymen endured indescribable sufferings for their faith and for their vocation. In one case the hatred of the impious against Christ reached the point of parodying on the person of an interned priest, with barbed wire, the scourging and the crowning with thorns of our Redeemer.”

THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps it would be time now to adjourn.

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 18 December 1945 at 1000 hours._]

TWENTY-SECOND DAY Tuesday, 18 December 1945

_Morning Session_

COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, before adjourning yesterday afternoon, Your Honors properly asked a question or two about Documents 3051-PS and 3063-PS, to which I think I have an answer that will help the Tribunal. Your Honors will recall, with reference to Document 3051-PS—I believe it might be of assistance to turn to that document.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COL. STOREY: Your Honors asked yesterday afternoon, since this had to do with the SD and the SS, how the Party was involved. And I should like to quote Paragraph Number 1 on Page 2 of the English translation, which answers this question, and I am quoting:

“The Chiefs of the State Police or their deputies, upon receipt of this teletype, must get in contact by telephone with the political administration (Gauleitung or Kreisleitung) having jurisdiction over their districts and must arrange a joint meeting with the appropriate inspector or commander of the Order Police to discuss the organization of the demonstration. At these discussions the political leaders are to be informed that the German Police have received from the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police the following instructions, in accordance with which the political leaders should adapt their measures.”

That had to do with the preparation for the general anti-Jewish uprisings.

Now, with reference to Document 3063-PS, which follows just below that one, if Your Honor pleases.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

COL. STOREY: That, if you recall, Your Honor, was a report from the Supreme Party Court Justice Buch to the Defendant Göring concerning punishment for the uprisings that followed the 9th and 10th of November demonstration. I should like to quote the portion signed by the Defendant Göring. It is, I believe, the second page of the English translation. It is dated “Berlin, 22 February 1939”:

“Dear Party Member Buch:

“I thank you for forwarding the report of your special court on the proceedings concluded up to now concerning the excesses on the occasion of the anti-Jewish incidents of 9 and 10 November 1938, of which I have taken cognizance. Heil Hitler! Yours, signed, Göring.”

And then, passing, Your Honor, to Page Number 1, immediately following, of the English translation, I think the next two paragraphs will answer Your Honor’s question. I quote:

“On the evening of 9 November 1938 the Reich Propaganda Director, Party Member Dr. Goebbels told the Party leaders assembled at a reunion in the old town hall in Munich that in the districts”—Gaue—“of Kurhessen and Magdeburg-Anhalt anti-Jewish demonstrations had taken place, during which Jewish shops were demolished and synagogues were set on fire. The Führer, at Goebbels’ suggestion, had decided that such demonstrations were not to be prepared or organized by the Party; but so far as they originated spontaneously, they were not to be interfered with either. Besides that, Party Member Dr. Goebbels interpreted the sense of the contents of the teletype of the Reich Propaganda Administration of 10 November 1938. . . .”

THE PRESIDENT: What does “12:30 to 1 o’clock” mean there?

COL. STOREY: That is the time of the teletype message, I assume, Your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COL. STOREY: “It was probably understood by all the Party leaders present, from the oral instructions of the Reich Propaganda Director, that the Party should not appear outwardly as the originator of the demonstrations but in reality should organize and execute them. Instructions in this sense were telephoned immediately—thus a considerable time before transmission of the first teletype—to the headquarters of their districts”—Gaue—“by a large part of the Party members present.”

Now Your Honors properly asked yesterday afternoon how the Blockleiter would be affected. Your Honors will recall that, in the instructions to the Blockleiter defining his offices, it was stated that his instructions would be received orally and they would be transmitted orally and never to use writing except in extreme cases. Therefore I say that these quoted portions clearly indicate that the Party was in fact used in connection with these famous 9 and 10 November 1938, anti-Jewish demonstrations.

Now, reverting back to the text where I left off yesterday afternoon: The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the confiscation of church and religious property.

I offer in evidence Document 072-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-357, a letter dated 19 April 1941 from Reichsleiter Bormann to Reichsleiter Rosenberg. This letter exposes the participation of the Gauleiter in measures relating to the confiscation of religious property.

I now quote from the last paragraph of Page 1 of the English translation of Document 072-PS, which reads:

“The libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in the Reich were to remain for the time being in these monasteries insofar as the Gauleiter had not directed otherwise. . . .”

On 21 February 1940 the Chief of the Security Police and SD, Heydrich, wrote a letter to Reichsführer SS Himmler, proposing that certain listed churches and monasteries be confiscated for the accommodation of so-called “racial Germans.”

The Tribunal, of course, will recall Himmler’s position.

After pointing out that on political grounds outright expropriation of religious property would not be feasible at the time, Heydrich suggested certain specious interim actions with respect to the church properties in question, to be followed progressively by outright confiscation.

I now offer in evidence R-101(a)—it is right towards the end of Your Honor’s Exhibit—as Exhibit USA-358.

If Your Honors please, there are several of those documents under R-101, and at the bottom you will notice they are labeled “a,” “b,” and “c.” The first one is R-101(a), and I quote the first five paragraphs on Page 2 of the English translation:

“Enclosed is a list of church possessions which might be available for the accommodation of racial Germans. The list, which I beg you to return, is supplemented by correspondence and illustrated material pertinent to the subject.

“For political reasons, expropriation without indemnity of the entire property of the churches and religious orders will hardly be possible at this time.

“Expropriation with indemnity or in return for assignment of other lands and grounds will be even less possible.

“It is therefore suggested that the respective authorities of the orders be instructed that they make available the monasteries concerned for the accommodation of racial Germans and remove their own members to other less populous monasteries.”

There is a marginal note opposite this paragraph that, translated, means “very good.”

“The final expropriation of these properties thus placed at our disposal can then be carried out step by step in the course of time.”

On 5 April 1940 the Security Police and Security Service SS sent a letter to the Reich Commissar for the consolidation of Germandom, enclosing a copy of the foregoing letter from Heydrich to Himmler of 21 February 1940, proposing the confiscation of Church properties. The letter of 5 April 1940 is included in the Document R-101(a), just introduced in evidence; and I quote from the second sentence of the first paragraph thereof, on Page 1 of the English translation of Document R-101(a):

“The Reich Leader SS has agreed to the proposals made in the enclosed letter and has ordered the matter to be dealt with by collaboration between the Chief of the Security Police and Security Service and your office.”

I now offer in evidence Document R-101(c), Exhibit USA-358. This is a letter dated July 30, 1941, written by an SS Standartenführer whose signature is illegible, to the Reich Leader of the SS. The letter supplies further evidence of the participation of the Gauleiter in the seizure of church property. I quote from the first three paragraphs of the English translation of Document R-101(c), at the bottom of the page:

“With reference to the report of 30 May 1941, this office considers it its duty to call the Reich Leader’s attention to the development which is taking place in the incorporated Eastern countries with regard to seizure and confiscation of church property.

“As soon as the Reich laws on expropriation became effective, the Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter in the Reichsgau Wartheland adopted the practice of expropriating church real estate for use as dwellings and paying the appraised value into blocked accounts.

“Moreover, the East German Agricultural Administration, Limited, reports that in the Warthegau all church-owned real estate is being claimed by the local Gau administration.”

I next offer in evidence Document R-101(d), which immediately follows Exhibit Number USA-358 already in evidence. This is a letter from the Chief of Staff of the Main Office to Himmler, dated 30 March 1942, dealing with the confiscation of church property. The letter evidences the active participation of the Party Chancellery in the confiscation of religious property.

In this letter the Chief of Staff, Main Office, reports to Himmler concerning the policy of the SS in suspending all payment of rent to monasteries and other church institutions whose property had been expropriated. The letter discusses a proposal made by the Reich Minister of the Interior, in which the Party Chancellery prominently participated, to the effect that the church institutions should be paid amounts corresponding to current mortgage charges on the premises without realizing any profit. The writer further suggests that such payments should never be made directly to the ecclesiastical institutions but rather should be made to the creditors of the institutions.

I now quote from the fourth sentence on Page 3 of that document, the English translation, whereby such an arrangement would be in line with “the basic idea of the settlement originally worked out between the Party Chancellery and the Reich Minister of the Interior.”

I understand the Reich Minister of Interior for 1933-1944 was the Defendant Frick.

The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the suppression of religious publications and interfered with free religious education.

In a letter dated 27 September 1940 Reichsleiter and Deputy of the Führer Bormann transmitted to the Defendant Rosenberg a photostatic copy of a letter from Gauleiter Florian dated 23 September 1940, which expresses the Gauleiter’s intense disapproval, on Nazi ideological grounds, of a religious pamphlet entitled, _The Spirit and Soul of the Soldier_, written by a Major General Von Rabenau.

I now offer in evidence Document 064-PS, Exhibit Number USA-359. It is an original letter signed by Rosenberg attaching the copy of that matter. It contains Defendant Bormann’s letter to Rosenberg, dated 27 September 1940, transmitting the Gauleiter’s letter of 23 September 1940 to the Defendant Hess, in which the Gauleiter urges that the religious writings of General Von Rabenau be suppressed. In his letter to the Defendant Hess, Gauleiter Florian discusses a conversation he had with General Von Rabenau at the close of a lecture delivered by the General to a group of younger Army officers at Aachen. This conversation illumines the hostile attitude of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party towards the Christian Churches. I quote from the second sentence of the second paragraph of the second page of the Gauleiter’s letter to the Defendant Hess, which appears on Page 2 of the English translation—the second paragraph—and I quote:

“After he had affirmed the necessity of the churches, Rabenau said, with emphasized self-assurance, something like the following:

“‘Dear Gauleiter, the Party is making mistake after mistake in the treatment of the churches. Obtain for me the necessary powers from the Führer and I guarantee that I shall succeed in a few months in establishing peace with the churches for all time.’

“After this catastrophic ignorance, I gave up the conversation. . . .

“Dear Party Member Hess, the reading of Von Rabenau’s pamphlet, _The Spirit and Soul of the Soldier_, has reminded me again of this. In this brochure Rabenau affirms as before the necessity of the Church straightforwardly and clearly, even though he is shrewdly careful. He writes on Page 28: ‘There could be more examples; they would suffice to show that a soldier in this world can scarcely get along without thoughts about the next one.’ Because Von Rabenau has a false spiritual basis, I consider his activities as an educator in spiritual affairs dangerous; and I am of the opinion that his educational writings are to be dispensed with, by all means, and that the publication section of the NSDAP can and must forgo these writings . . .

“The churches with their Christianity constitute a danger against which a struggle absolutely must be carried on.”

That the Party Chancellery shared with the Gauleiter hostility to the Christian Churches is further revealed by the Defendant Bormann’s instruction to the Defendant Rosenberg, set forth in Bormann’s letter of transmittal, that Rosenberg take action on the Gauleiter’s recommendation that the General’s writings be suppressed.

I now offer in evidence Document 089-PS, Exhibit Number USA-360, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, as Deputy of the Führer, to the Defendant Rosenberg, dated 8 March 1940, enclosing a copy of Bormann’s letter of the same date to Reichsleiter Amann. Amann was a top-member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Reichsleiter for the Press and Leader of the Party publishing company. In this letter to Amann Bormann expresses his dismay and dissatisfaction that only 10 percent of the 3,000 Protestant periodicals in Germany have ceased publication for what are described as “paper saving” reasons. Bormann then advises Reichsleiter Amann that “the allocation of any paper whatsoever for such periodicals is blocked.”

I now refer to this Document 089-PS; and I quote the second paragraph of Bormann’s letter to Amann, which appears on the first page—the second paragraph—of the English translation:

“I urge you to see to it, in any re-allocation of paper to be considered later, that religious writings, which according to experiences so far gathered, possess very doubtful value for strengthening the power of resistance on the part of the people toward the external foe, receive still sharper restrictions in favor of literature politically and ideologically more valuable.”

I next offer in evidence Document 101-PS, Exhibit Number USA-361, which is a letter from the Defendant Bormann, again to Reichsleiter Rosenberg, dated the 17th January 1940, expressing the Party’s opposition to the circulation of religious literature to the members of the German Armed Forces. Among the soldiers of the United Nations the proposition that there are no atheists in the foxholes received a wide and reverent acceptation. However, in this document there is a contrary meaning, and I quote from Page 1 of the English translation, which reads:

“Nearly all the districts”—that is Gaue—“report to me regularly that the churches of both confessions are as active as ever in ministering spiritually to members of the Armed Forces. This finds expression especially in the fact that soldiers are being sent religious publications by the pastors of their home parishes. These publications are, in part, very well written. I have repeated reports that these publications are being read by the troops and thereby exercise a certain influence on their morale.

“I have at that time sought, by contacting at once the General Field Marshal, the High Command of the Armed Forces, and Party Member Reichsleiter Amann, to restrict considerably the production and shipment of publications of this type. The result of these efforts remained unsatisfactory. As Reichsleiter Amann has repeatedly informed me, the restriction of these pamphlets by means of the paper rationing cannot be achieved because the paper used for the pamphlets is being purchased on the open market. . . .

“If the influencing of the soldiers by the Church is to be effectively combatted, this will be accomplished only by producing many good publications in the shortest possible time under the supervision of the Party. . . .

“Also, at the last meeting of the Deputy Gauleiter comments were made on this matter to the effect that such publications are not available in sufficient quantities. . . .

“I maintain that it is necessary that in the very near future we transmit to the Party Service Offices, down to the Ortsgruppenleiter, a list of additional publications of this sort which should be sent to our soldiers by the Ortsgruppen. . . .”

The Leadership Corps also participated in measures leading to the closing and dissolution of theological schools and other religious institutions. I now offer in evidence Document Number 122-PS, Exhibit Number USA-362, which, again, is a letter from the Defendant Bormann to the Defendant Rosenberg in his capacity as the Führer’s Representative for the Supervision of Spiritual and Ideological Schooling and Education of the NSDAP. This letter is dated 17 April 1939 and transmits to Rosenberg an enclosed photostatic copy of a plan suggested by the Reich Minister for Science, Education, and Popular Culture for the combining and closing of certain specially listed theological faculties. In his letter of transmittal the Defendant Bormann requested Reichsleiter Rosenberg to take cognizance and prompt action with respect to proposed suppression of religious institutions. I now quote from the next to the last paragraph on Page 2 of the English translation, in which the plan to suppress the religious institutions is summarized, and which reads:

“To recapitulate, this plan would mean, in addition to the closing of the theological faculties at Innsbruck, Salzburg, and Munich, which has already taken place, and the contemplated transfer of the faculty of Graz to Vienna, the elimination of four Catholic theological faculties:

“a) The abolition of three more Catholic theological faculties or higher schools and of four evangelical theological faculties in the winter semester 1939-1940;

“b) the abolition of one more Catholic and of three more evangelical theological faculties in the near future.”

From the foregoing evidence the inference is irresistible that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party shares a responsibility for the measures taken to subvert the Christian Churches and persecute the Christian clergy, both in Germany and in German-occupied territories of Europe. The evidence just offered, together with that previously presented by the Prosecution, demonstrates that there was a general participation by the Leadership Corps, ranging from the Reichsleiter to the Gauleiter, adhered to by the rank and file, in the deliberate program undertaken to undermine Christian religion. We stress the significance of the appointment of the Defendant Rosenberg, whose anti-Christian views are open and notorious, as the Führer’s “delegate” or “representative” for the whole spiritual and philosophical education of the Nazi Party. It was precisely this position which gave Rosenberg his seat in the Reichsleitung (the general staff of the Party), comprising all the Reichsleiter. But emphasis is placed, not merely upon the fact that anti-Christs such as the Defendants Bormann and Rosenberg held directive positions within the Leadership Corps, but upon the further fact that their directives and orders were passed down the chain of command of the Leadership Corps and caused the participation of its membership in acts subversive to the Christian Church.

In Document Number D-75, which I believe has been introduced previously—and I am just going to quote one line from it—the Defendant Bormann stated, “Nazism and Christianity are irreconcilable concepts.” The defendant was never more right, but he erred grievously by his prophecy as to which of the two would first pass away.

I next turn to the responsibility of the Leadership Corps for the destruction of free trade unions and the imposition of the conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation.

The evidence relating to the responsibility of the Nazi conspirators for the destruction of the independent trade unions has been previously introduced in evidence in the U.S. Exhibit G, which was the document book containing the evidentiary materials relating to the destruction of the trade unions. The brief evidence which I shall now present is offered to prove the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party for the smashing of the independent unions and the imposition of conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation.

Soon after the seizure of power, prominent members of the Leadership Corps participated in the smashing and dissolution of the independent trade unions of Germany. The Defendant Robert Ley, precisely by virtue of his office as Reich Organization Leader and Reichsleiter in the Leadership Corps, was directed by Hitler, in mid-April 1939, to smash the independent unions.

I will pass on now to Document 392-PS, Exhibit Number USA-326; and I quote, beginning at the top of Page 1 of the English translation:

“On Tuesday, 2 May 1933 . . . the co-ordination action against the free trade unions begins. . . .

“The essential part of the action is to be directed against the General German Trade Union League (ADGB) and the General Independent Employees’ Federation (AFA-Bund). Anything beyond that which is dependent upon the free trade unions is left to the Gauleiter’s judgment.

“The Gauleiter are responsible for the execution of the co-ordination action in their individual areas. The action will be carried out by the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization. . . .

“The Gauleiter is to proceed with his measures on the basis of the closest agreement with competent Gau or regional factory cell directors. . . .

“In the Reich, the following will be occupied:

“The headquarters of the unions. . . .”

Then it lists a number of offices, and I previously quoted who was to be taken into protective custody.

The next provision:

“Exceptions are granted only with the permission of the Gauleiter. . . .

“It is understood that this action is to proceed in a strongly disciplined fashion. The Gauleiter are responsible for holding the direction of the action firmly in hand. Heil Hitler!”—signed—“Dr. Robert Ley.”

The Defendant Ley’s order for the dissolution of the independent trade unions was carried out as planned and directed. Trade union premises all over Germany were occupied by the SA and the unions dissolved. On the 2d of May 1933 the official NSDAP press service reported that the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization (NSBO) had “eliminated the old leadership of free trade unions” and taken over their leadership.

I now offer in evidence Document 2224-PS, Exhibit Number USA-364, which is Pages 1 and 2 of the 2d of May 1933 issues of the National Socialist Party Press Agency. I quote from Paragraph 5 of Page 1 of the English translation:

“National Socialism, which today has assumed leadership of German labor, can no longer bear the responsibility for leaving the men and women of the German working class, the members of the largest trade organization in the world, the German trade union movement, in the hands of people who do not know a fatherland called Germany. Because of that, the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization has taken over the leadership of the trade unions. The NSBO has eliminated the former leadership of the free trade unions of the General German Trade Unions League, and of the General Independent Employees’ Federation. . . .

“On 2 May 1933 the NSBO took over the leadership of all trade unions; all trade-union buildings were occupied and most stringent control of financial and personnel matters of the organizations has been set up.”

As shown by this evidence, the assault on the independent unions was directed by the Defendant Ley, in his capacity as Reichsleiter in charge of Party organization, assisted by the Gauleiter and Party formations, and included the seizure of trade-union funds and property. In this connection I offer in evidence Document 1678-PS, Exhibit Number USA-365. This document is a report of a speech by Reichsleiter Ley on the 11th of September 1937 to the fifth annual session of the German Labor Front. In this speech Ley shamelessly corroborates the confiscation of the trade-union funds. I quote from Paragraph 4 of Page 1 of the English translation:

“Once I said to the Führer: ‘My Führer, actually I am standing with one foot in jail, for today I am still the trustee of the comrades Leipart and Imbusch; and should they some day ask me to return their money, then it will be found that I have put it into buildings or otherwise spent it. But they shall never again find their property in the condition in which they handed it over to me. Therefore I should have to be convicted.’

“The Führer laughed then and remarked that apparently I felt extremely well in this condition.

“It was very difficult for us all. Today we laugh about it . . .”

The plan of the Nazi conspirators to eliminate the free trade unions was advanced by the enactment, on 19th May 1933, of a law which abolished collective bargaining between workers and employers and replaced it with a regulation of working conditions by labor trustees appointed by Hitler. I refer to Document 405-PS, which is the text of the law, 1933 _Reichsgesetzblatt_ I, Page 285. After providing in Section 1 for the appointment by Hitler of trustees of labor, this law provides, and I quote from Section 2 of the English translation of Document 405-PS:

“Until a new revision of the social constitution, the labor trustees are to regulate the conditions for the conclusion of labor contracts. This practice is to be legally binding for all persons and replaces the system founded on combinations of workers, of individual employers, or of combinations of employers. . . .”

Having destroyed the independent unions and collective bargaining, the next step of the Nazi conspirators was to secure the Nazification in the field of industrial relations. I refer to Document Number 1861-PS, which is the text of the law of 20 January 1934, 1934 _Reichsgesetzblatt_ I, Page 45. This law was entitled the “Law Regulating National Labor”; and it imposed the leadership principle upon industrial enterprisers and provided, in Section I, Paragraph 1, that the enterpriser should be the leader of the plant and the workers would constitute his followers. I now quote from Section I, Paragraph 2, of the first page of Document Number 1861-PS:

“The leader of the plant has full authority over the employees in all matters concerning the enterprise, as far as they are covered by this law.

“He is responsible for the well-being of the employees. The employees owe him loyalty in keeping with the principles of factory solidarity.”

The trade unions having been dissolved and the leadership principle superimposed upon the relationship of management and labor, the members of the Leadership Corps joined in and directed measures designed to replace the independent unions by the German Labor Front, the DAF, an affiliated Party organization. On the very day the Nazi conspirators seized and dissolved the free trade unions, the 2d of May 1933, they publicly proclaimed that a “United Front of German Workers” would be formed with Hitler as honorary patron at a workers’ congress on the 10th of May 1933. I quote from the next to the last paragraph of Page 2 of Document 2224-PS, which was a release of the Nazi Party Press Agency:

“The National Socialist Party Press Agency is informed that a great Workers’ Congress will take place on Wednesday, 10 May, in the Prussian House of Lords in Berlin. The United Front of German Workers will be formed there. Adolf Hitler will be asked to assume the position of honorary patron.”

The Nazi conspirators employed the German Labor Front, the DAF, as an instrument for propagandizing its millions of compulsory members with Nazi ideology. The control of the Leadership Corps over the German Labor Front was assured not only by the designation of Reichsleiter of the Party Organization Ley as head of the DAF, but by the employment of a large number of Politische Leiter, or political leaders, charged with disseminating and imposing Nazi ideology upon the large membership of the DAF. I now cite Document 2271-PS, Exhibit Number USA-328, which is the Party _Organization Book_ referred to yesterday, Pages 185-187; and I quote from the first page of the English translation, the first paragraph:

“The NSBO is a union of the political leaders of the NSDAP in the German Labor Front.

“The NSBO is to undertake the organization of the German Labor Front.

“The duties and responsibilities of the NSBO have passed over to the German Labor Front.

“The political leaders who have been transferred from the NSBO to the German Labor Front guarantee the ideological education of the DAF in the spirit of the National Socialistic idea.”

Now, if Your Honors please, in addition to the evidence heretofore presented, the Prosecution submits that it is another evidence of crime that the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP was responsible for the plundering of art treasures by the Defendant Reichsleiter Rosenberg’s “Einsatzstab Rosenberg.” The definition of “Einsatzstab” is a “special staff,” and I am told that the word “Einsatz” means “to give action to.” In other words, it was a task force, a special staff.

This subject, diverting from the text, had been prepared in connection with the general subject of “Plundering of Art Treasures”; and I shall now turn to the document books of the “Plundering of Art Treasures,” because the citations now will be in this small book.

I now pass to Your Honors Document Book W; and, may I say, diverting from the text, that the trial address, which is very brief, has, as I have been told by the Translating Division, been translated into all four languages; and, as I understand, Colonel Dostert will distribute it to all parties in their native languages.

Also by way of explanation, in the beginning there is one reference here to the plundering of art treasures in the occupied portion of Poland which does not bear directly upon this subject but does on the general conspiracy; and I thought, in the interest of time, that we might follow the presentation, because it is very brief.

May it please the Tribunal, the sections of the Indictment which are to be proved at this point are those dealing with the plunder of public and private property under Count One, the Common Plan or Conspiracy. It is not my purpose to explore all phases of the ordinary plunder in which the Germans engaged. However, I would bring to the attention of the Tribunal and of the world the defendants’ vast, organized, systematic program for the cultural impoverishment of virtually every community of Europe and for the enrichment of Germany thereby.

Special emphasis will be placed on the activities of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg; and the responsibility of the Leadership Corps in this regard is a responsibility that is shared by the Defendants Rosenberg, Göring, and Keitel, and by the defendant organizations; the General Staff, High Command, Gestapo, the Security Service, and the SS.

Before I deal with the plunder of the cultural treasures by the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, I wish to reveal briefly the independent plundering operations conducted in the Government General of Occupied Poland by authority of the Defendant Göring and under the supervision of the Defendant Frank, the Governor General.

In October 1939 Göring issued a verbal order to a Dr. Mühlmann asking him to undertake the immediate securing of all Polish art treasures. Dr. Mühlmann himself gives evidence of this order in Document Number 3042-PS found in the document book last introduced as Exhibit USA-375.

THE PRESIDENT: Are the documents in Book W?

COL. STOREY: Book W; yes, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: I was asking whether the documents in Book W are placed in order of number in PS?

COL. STOREY: They are; yes, Sir; and the first one is found on the first page. I beg your pardon; 3042 would be in numerical order toward the end, Your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: I have it. I was merely asking for general information.

COL. STOREY: These are consecutive. I would like to offer this affidavit and to read it in full. In short, it was obtained in Austria. Kajetan Mühlmann states under oath:

“I have been a member of the NSDAP since 1 April 1938. I was Brigadier General”—Oberführer—“in the SS.

“I was never an illegal Nazi.

“I was the special deputy of the Governor General of Poland, Hans Frank, for the safeguarding of art treasures in the Government General, October 1939 to September 1943.

“Göring, in his function as chairman of the Reich Defense Committee, had commissioned me with this duty.

“I confirm that it was the official policy of the Governor General, Hans Frank, to take into custody all important art treasures which belonged to Polish public institutions, private collections, and the Church. I confirm that the art treasures mentioned were actually confiscated; and it is clear to me that they would not have remained in Poland in case of a German victory, but they would have been used to complement German artistic property.”—Signed and sworn to by Dr. Mühlmann.

On the 15th of November 1939 Frank issued a decree, which is published officially in _The Law of the Government General_, (1773-PS, Exhibit USA-376). It is E 800, Article 1, Section 1. It is not in the document book. It is just a short quotation of which we ask the Tribunal to take judicial knowledge. Quoting:

“All movable and stationary property of the former Polish State . . . will be sequestered for the purpose of securing all manner of public valuables.”

In a further decree of 16 December 1939, appearing as E 845 of the same publication, Frank provided that all art objects in public possession in the Government General were to be seized for the fulfillment of public tasks of common interest, insofar as they had not already been seized under the decree of 15 November. The decree provided that, in addition to art collections and art objects belonging to the Polish State, there would be considered as owned by the public, those private collections which have not already been taken under protection by the Special Commissioner, as well as all ecclesiastical art property.

On the 24th of September 1940 Frank decreed that all property seized on the basis of the decree of 15 November 1939 would be transferred to the ownership of the Government General; and this decree is found as E 810 of the same publication.

It is impossible for me to furnish this Tribunal a complete picture of the vastness of the program for the cultural impoverishment of Poland carried out pursuant to the directives, as I cannot read into the record the 500-odd masterpieces catalogued in Document 1233-PS (Exhibit USA-377) or the many hundreds of additional items catalogued in Document 1709-PS (Exhibit USA-378). Now Document 1233-PS, which I hold in my hand, is a finely bound, beautifully printed catalogue, in which Defendant Frank proudly lists and describes the major works of art which he had plundered for the benefit of the Reich. This volume was captured by the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Division of the 3rd United States Army and was found in Frank’s home near Munich. The introductory page describes the thoroughness with which the Government General stripped Poland of its cultural possessions. That is quoted in Document 1233-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you hand that up?

COL. STOREY: I am quoting now from the introductory page, the English translation, the first paragraph. I might say by way of explanation, that this book lists the valuable art treasures by titles. I now quote from the introductory page:

“By reason of a decree of 16 December 1939 by the Governor General of the occupied Polish territories, the Special Commissioner for collecting objects of art and culture was able to collect within 6 months almost all of the art objects of the country, with one exception: a series of Flemish tapestries of the Castle of Kraków. According to the latest information these are now in France, so that it may be possible to secure these later.”

Leafing through this catalogue, we find that it included references to paintings by German, Italian, Dutch, French, and Spanish masters; rare illustrated books; Indian and Persian miniatures; woodcuts; the famous Veit Stoss hand-carved altar (created here in Nuremberg and purchased for use in Poland); handicraft articles of gold and silver; antique articles of crystal, glass, and porcelain; tapestries; antique weapons; rare coins and medals. These articles were seized, as indicated in the catalogue, from public and private sources, including the national museums in Kraków and Warsaw, the cathedrals of Warsaw and Lublin, a number of churches and monasteries, university libraries, and a great many private collections of Polish nobility.

I wish now to offer in evidence the catalogue bearing our Number 1233-PS—it is the one just introduced in evidence—and the document bearing our Number 1709-PS. This latter report, in addition to listing the 521 major items described in the catalogue, lists many other items which, though generally no less important from an artistic standpoint, were considered by the Germans to be of secondary importance from the point of view of the Reich.

It is interesting to note with what pains the Defendant Frank attempted to conceal his real purpose in seizing these works of art. The cover of the catalogue itself states that the objects listed were secured and safeguarded. Strangely enough, it was found necessary to safeguard some of the objects by transporting them to Berlin and depositing them in the depot of the Special Deputy or in the safe of the Deutsche Bank, as is indicated on Page 80 of Document 1709-PS, Exhibit USA-378. The items referred to as having been transported to Berlin are listed in the catalogue of objects safeguarded and their numbers are 4, 17, 27, 35, and so on. Thirty-one extremely valuable and world-renowned sketches of Albrecht Dürer, taken from the collection of Lubomirski in Lemberg (Lvov), were likewise safeguarded. At Page 69 of this report, Dr. Mühlmann states that he personally handed these sketches to Göring, who took them to the Führer at his headquarters.

Numerous objects of art: paintings, tapestries, plates, dishes, as well as other dinnerware, were also safeguarded by Frank, who had the Special Deputy deliver these objects to an architect for the purpose of furnishing the castle at Kraków and the Schloss Kressendorf, which were the residences of the Governor General Frank. It was apparently Frank’s belief that these items would be safer in his possession, used to grace his table and dazzle his guests, than they would be in the possession of the rightful owners.

There is no doubt whatever that virtually the entire art possession of Poland was seized for the use of Germany and would never have been returned in the event of German victory. Dr. Mühlmann, a noted German art authority, who directed the seizure program for the period of 4 years and was endowed by Frank with sufficient authority to promulgate decrees generally applicable throughout the territory, has stated the objectives of the program in no uncertain terms in the affidavit to which I have just referred.

So much for Poland.

I now direct the attention of the Tribunal to the activities of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, an organization which planned and directed the looting of the cultural treasures of nearly all Europe. To obtain a full conception of the vastness of this looting program, it will be necessary to envision Europe as a treasure-house in which is stored the major portion of the artistic and literary product of two thousand years of Western civilization. It will further be necessary to envision the forcing of this treasure-house by a horde of vandals bent on systematically removing to the Reich these treasures, which are, in a sense, the heritage of all of us, to keep them there for the enjoyment and enlightenment of Germans alone. Unique in history, this art-seizure program staggers one’s imagination and challenges one’s credulity. The documents which I am about to offer in evidence will present undeniable proof of the execution of the policy to strip the occupied countries of the accumulated product of centuries of devotion to art and the pursuit of learning.

May I digress here a moment and state that we are not going to offer all the documents and all the details because our Soviet and French colleagues will offer a great many of the detailed documents in support of their case on War Crimes.

I now offer in evidence Document 136-PS as Exhibit USA-367. And that is an order of Hitler dated the 29th of January 1940 which set into motion the art-seizure program that was to envelop the continent. I now offer the original. I call Your Honors’ attention to this original, being signed by Adolf Hitler, and I believe it is in the famous Jumbo type. I quote the order in its entirety. It is very short:

“The ‘Hohe Schule’ is to become the center for National Socialistic research, indoctrination, and education. It will be established after the conclusion of the war. I order that the already initiated preparations be continued by Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg—especially in the way of research and setting up of the library.

“All sections of the Party and State are required to co-operate with him in this task.”

Although the above order makes no specific mention of the seizure of art properties, by the 5th of November 1940 the program had extended beyond its original scope to include the seizure of Jewish art collections.

I now offer in evidence Document Number 141-PS (Exhibit USA-368), which is a certified copy of an order signed by Göring, dated 5 November 1940, in which the Defendant Göring states; and I quote:

“In conveying the measures taken until now for the securing of Jewish art property by the Chief of the Military Administration, Paris, and the Einsatzstab Rosenberg . . . the art objects brought to the Louvre will be disposed of in the following way:

“1. Those art objects the decision as to the use of which the Führer will reserve for himself;

“2. Those art objects which serve the completion of the Reich Marshal’s collection;

“3. Those art objects and library materials which seem useful for the establishment of the Hohe Schule and for the program of Reichsleiter Rosenberg;

“4. Those art objects which are suitable for sending to the German museums. . . .”

Thus, early in 1940, 11 months after the initiation of the program for establishment of the library for ideological research, the original purpose had been expanded so as to include the seizure of art works not only for the benefit of research but for the delectation of the Führer and Göring and the enhancement of the collections of German museums.

Impelled as they were by the perfidious dream of subjugating a continent, the Nazi conspirators could not content themselves merely with the exploitation of the cultural riches of France and rapidly extended their activities to the other occupied countries. I now offer in evidence Document Number 137-PS as Exhibit USA-379. That is a copy of an order signed by the Defendant Keitel, dated 5th of July 1940, and I should like to read that brief order in full:

“To: The Chief of Army High Command, Chief of the Armed Forces in the Netherlands.

“Reichsleiter Rosenberg has suggested to the Führer that:

“1. The state libraries and archives be searched for documents valuable to Germany.

“2. The Chancelleries of the high Church authorities and the lodges be searched for political maneuvers directed against us and that the material in question be seized.

“The Führer has ordered that this suggestion be followed and that the Gestapo, supported by the archivists of Reichsleiter Rosenberg, be put in charge of the searches. The Chief of Security Police, SS-Gruppenführer Heydrich, has been informed. He will communicate with the competent military commanders in order to execute this order.

“These measures will be executed in all regions of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France occupied by us.

“It is requested that subordinate services be informed.

“Chief of High Command of the Armed Forces,”—signed—“Keitel.”

From the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France the Einsatzstab’s activities ultimately were expanded still further to Norway and Denmark. I now offer in evidence Document 159-PS, Exhibit USA-380, which is the copy of an order signed by Utikal, Chief of the Einsatzstab, dated the 6th of June 1944, from which it is seen that a special mission of the Einsatzstab was sent to Norway and Denmark.

As the German Army penetrated to the East, the fingers of the Einsatzstab reached out to seize the cultural riches thus made available to them; and their activities were extended to the Occupied Eastern Territories, including the Baltic States and the Ukraine, as well as to Hungary and Greece. I now offer in evidence Document 153-PS, Exhibit USA-381, being a certified copy of a letter from Rosenberg to the Reich Commissioner for the East and Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine, dated 27 April 1942. The subject of the letter is stated to be as follows: “Formation of a Central Unit for the Seizure and Securing of Objects of Cultural Value in the Occupied Eastern Territories.” In the last paragraph of that document, I quote:

“With the Commissioners of the Reich a special department within Department II (political) will be set up for a limited time for the seizure and securing of objects of cultural value. This department is under the direction of the appropriate head of the main group of the ‘Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the Occupied Territories.’”

THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps this would be a good time to break off for 10 minutes.

[_A recess was taken._]

COL. STOREY: Activities were initiated in Hungary as indicated by Document Number 158-PS, Exhibit USA-382, which I now offer in evidence. This was a copy of a message initialed by Utikal, Rosenberg’s Chief of Staff. The first paragraph of this document states:

“The Einsatzstab of Reichsleiter Rosenberg for the Occupied Territories has dispatched a Sonderkommando under the direction of Einsatzstabsführer Dr. Zeiss, who is identified by means of his Service Book Number 187, for the accomplishment of the missions of the Einsatzstab in Hungary outlined in the Führer’s Decree of 1 March 1942.”

I now offer into evidence Document Number 171-PS, Exhibit USA-383, which is an undated report on the “Library for Exploration of the Jewish Question.” The fifth paragraph states:

“The most significant book collections today belonging to the Library for Research on the Jewish Question are the following. . . .”

The ninth item of the list which follows refers to “Book collections from Jewish Communities in Greece (about 10,000 volumes).”

It was only natural that an operation conducted on so vast a scale, extending as it did to France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, the Occupied Eastern Territories, the Baltic States, the Ukraine, Hungary, and Greece, should call upon a multitude of other agencies for assistance. Among the other agencies co-operating in the plunder program were several of those which stand indicted here as criminal organizations. The co-operation of the Wehrmacht High Command was demanded by the Hitler order of 1 March 1942, which I now offer in evidence as our Document 149-PS, Exhibit USA-369, which is signed personally by Adolf Hitler and is also in the Jumbo type. The order decrees the ideological fight against the enemies of National Socialism to be a military necessity and reaffirms the authority of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg to conduct searches and seizures of suitable material for the Hohe Schule. The fifth paragraph states:

“The directives concerning co-operation with the Wehrmacht were given to the Chief of the OKW with the approval of Reichsleiter Rosenberg.”

While I am on that document, which is referred to later, I should like to read the other portions. I call attention of Your Honors to the distribution. It is distributed to all duty stations of the Armed Forces, the Party, and the State. It says:

“Jews, Freemasons, and related ideological enemies of National Socialism are responsible for the war which is now being waged against the Reich. The co-ordinated ideological fight against those powers is a military necessity. I have therefore charged Reichsleiter Rosenberg to carry out this task in co-operation with the chief of the OKW. His Einsatzstab in the Occupied Territories is authorized to search libraries, record offices, lodges, and other ideological and cultural institutions of all kinds for suitable material, and to confiscate the said material for the ideological task of the NSDAP and the later scientific research work of the Hohe Schule. The same regulation applies to cultural assets which are in possession of or the property of Jews, or ownerless, or not clearly of unobjectionable origin.”

The final passage is:

“The necessary measures within the Eastern territories under the German Administration are determined by Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories.”—Signed—“Adolf Hitler.”

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I think the Tribunal would find it convenient, and it would save time, if the documents, when they are referred to, were read in full insofar as you want to read them, rather than returning to read one passage and then returning to a document later on.

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. May I explain why that was, Sir? I was trying to fit in this presentation with the Leadership Corps. It was quoted in two places and I didn’t notice it until I started.

THE PRESIDENT: What I am saying is that I think it is much easier to follow the documents if all the parts of the document which you wish to read are read at one time, rather than to read one sentence, then come back to another sentence, and then possibly come back to a document for a third sentence. I don’t know whether that will be possible for you to do.

COL. STOREY: We will try to work it out that way, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

COL. STOREY: Co-operation of the SS and the SD is indicated in a letter from Rosenberg to Bormann dated 23rd of April 1941, Document Number 071-PS, Exhibit USA-371, which I now offer in evidence. This letter states in the fifth sentence of the first numbered paragraph:

“It is self-evident that the confiscations are not executed by the Gauleitung, but that they are conducted by the Security Service as well as by the police.”

Farther down in the same paragraph it is stated:

“It has been communicated to me in writing by a Gauleiter that the Reich Security Main Office of the SS has requested the following from the library of a confiscated monastery: _The Catholic Handbook_, _Albertus Magnus_, _Edition of the Church Fathers_, _History of the Popes_ by L. von Pastor, and other works.”

The second and last paragraph stated that:

“I should like to remark in this connection that this affair has already been settled on our side with the Security Service (SD) in the most co-operative fashion.”

The Defendant Göring was especially diligent in furthering the purposes of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, a diligence which will be readily understood in view of the fact that he himself directed that second in priority only to the demands of the Führer were to be “those art objects which served the completion of the Reich Marshal’s collection.” That is Göring.

On May 1, 1941 Göring issued an order to all Party, State, and Wehrmacht services, which I am now offering into evidence as 1117-PS, Exhibit USA-384. That is an original bearing Göring’s signature. This order requested all Party, State, and Wehrmacht services—and I now quote:

“. . . to give all possible support and assistance to the Chief of Staff of Reichsleiter Rosenberg’s Einsatzstab. . . . The above-mentioned persons are requested to report to me on their work, particularly on any difficulties which might arise.”

On 30th of May 1942 Göring claimed credit for a large degree of the success of the Einsatzstab. I offer in evidence a captured photostatic copy of a letter from Göring to Rosenberg, showing Göring’s signature, which bears our Number 1015(i)-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-385. The last paragraph of this letter states as follows:

“. . . On the other hand I also support personally the work of your Einsatzstab wherever I can do so, and a great part of the seized cultural objects can be accounted for by the fact that I was able to assist the Einsatzstab with my organizations.”

If I have tried the patience of the Tribunal with numerous details as to the origin, the growth, and the operation of the art-looting organization, it is because I feel that it will be impossible for me to convey to you a full conception as to the magnitude of the plunder without conveying to you first, information as to the vast organizational work that was necessary in order to enable the defendants to collect in Germany cultural treasures of staggering proportions.

Nothing of value was safe from the grasp of the Einsatzstab. In view of the great experience of the Einsatzstab in the complex business of the organized plunder of a continent, its facilities were well suited to the looting of material other than cultural objects. Thus, when Rosenberg required equipment for the furnishing of the offices of the administration in the East, his Einsatzstab was pressed into action to confiscate Jewish homes in the West. Document Number L-188, which is Exhibit USA-386 and which I now offer in evidence, is a copy of a report submitted by the director of Rosenberg’s Office West, operating under the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories. I wish to quote at some length from this document and I call the Tribunal’s attention to the third paragraph on Page 3 of the translation:

“The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg was charged with the carrying out of this task”—that is, the seizure of art properties—“in the course of this seizure of property. At the suggestion of the Director West of the Special Section of the Einsatzstab, it was proposed to the Reichsleiter that the furniture and other contents of the unguarded Jewish homes should also be secured and dispatched to the Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories for use in the Eastern Territories.”

The last paragraph on the same page states:

“At first all the confiscated furniture and goods were dispatched to the administrations of the Occupied Eastern Territories. Owing to the terror attacks on German cities which then began and in the knowledge that the bombed-out persons in Germany ought to have preference over the Eastern people, Reich Minister and Reichsleiter Rosenberg obtained a new order from the Führer according to which the furniture, _et cetera_, obtained through the ‘M Action’ was to be put at the disposal of bombed-out persons within Germany.”

The report continues with a description of the efficient methods employed in looting the Jewish homes in the West (top of Page 4 of translation):

“The confiscation of Jewish homes was carried out as follows: When no records were available of the addresses of Jews who had fled or departed, as was the case, for instance, in Paris, so-called requisitioning officials went from house to house in order to collect information as to abandoned Jewish homes.—They drew up inventories of those homes and sealed them. . . . In Paris alone, about twenty requisitioning officials requisitioned more than 38,000 homes. The transportation of these homes was completed with all the available vehicles of the Union of Parisian Moving Contractors who had to provide up to 150 trucks, 1,200 to 1,500 French laborers daily.”

If Your Honor pleases, I am omitting the rest of the details of that report because our French colleagues will present the details later.

Looting on such a scale seems fantastic. But I feel I must refer to another statement, for though the seizure of the contents of over 71,000 homes and their shipment to the Reich in upwards of 26,000 railroad cars is by no means a petty operation, the quantities of plundered art treasures and books and their incalculable value, as revealed in the document I am about to offer, will make these figures dwindle by comparison.

I next refer to the stacks of leather-bound volumes in front of me, to which the Justice referred in his opening statement.

These 39 volumes which are before me contain photographs of works of art secured by the Einsatzstab and are volumes which were prepared by members of the Rosenberg staff. All of these volumes bear our Number 2522-PS, and I offer them in evidence as Exhibit USA-388.

I am passing to Your Honors eight of these volumes, so that each one of you—they are all different—might see a sample of the inventory. I call Your Honors’ attention to the inside cover page. Most of them have an inventory, in German, of the contents of the book; and then follow true photographs of each one of these priceless objects of art, separated by fine tissue paper.

There are 39 of these volumes that were captured by our forces when they overran a part of southern occupied German areas.

THE PRESIDENT: Is there anything known about the articles photographed here?

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will describe them later. I believe each one of them is identified in addition to the inventory.

THE PRESIDENT: I meant whether the articles—the furniture or pictures themselves, have been found.

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, most of them were found in an underground cavern, I believe in the southern part of Bavaria; and these books were found by our staff in connection with the group of U.S. Army people who have assembled these objects of art and are now in the process of returning them to the rightful owners. That is where we got these books.

I should like to refer, while Your Honors are looking at these, just to the aggregate totals of the different paintings. Here are the totals as shown by Document 1015(b)-PS, which is in the document book. As they are totalled, I don’t think Your Honors need to follow the document; you can continue looking at the books if you like.

“Up to 15 July 1944 the following had been scientifically inventoried:

“21,903 Works of Art:

“5,281 paintings, pastels, water colors, drawings; 684 miniatures, glass and enamel paintings, illuminated books and manuscripts; 583 sculptures, terra cottas, medallions, and plaques; 2,477 articles of furniture of art historical value; 583 textiles (tapestries, rugs, embroideries, Coptic textiles); 5,825 objects of decorative art (porcelains, bronzes, faience, majolica, ceramics, jewelry, coins, art objects with precious stones); 1,286 East Asiatic art works (bronzes, sculpture, porcelains, paintings, folding screens, weapons); 259 art works of antiquity (sculptures, bronzes, vases, jewelry, bowls, engraved gems, terra cottas).”

The mere statement that 21,903 art works have been seized does not furnish an adequate conception of their value. I refer again to the statement in the document “The extraordinary artistic and intrinsic value of the seized art works cannot be expressed in figures,” and to the fact that they are objects of such a unique character that their evaluation is entirely impossible. These 39 volumes are by no means a complete catalogue. They present, at the most, pictures of about 2,500 of the art objects seized; and I ask you to imagine that this catalogue had been completed and that, in the place of 39 volumes, we had 350 to 400 volumes. In other words, if they were prepared in inventory form as these 39 volumes, to cover all of them it would take 350 to 400 volumes.

We had arranged, Your Honor, to project just a few of these on the screen; but before we do that, which is the end of this part of the presentation, I should like to call Your Honor’s attention to Document 015-PS. It is dated April 16, 1943. It is a copy of a letter from Rosenberg to Hitler. The occasion for the writing of this letter was the birthday of the Führer, to commemorate which, Rosenberg presented some folders of photographs of pictures seized by the Einsatzstab. And I imagine, although we have no authentic evidence, that probably some of these were prepared for that occasion. In the closing paragraph of the letter, Document 015-PS, Exhibit USA-387, he says:

“I beg of you, my Führer, to give me a chance during my next audience to report to you orally on the whole extent and state of this art-seizure action. I beg you to accept a short, written, preliminary report of the progress and extent of the art-seizure action, which will be used as a basis for this later oral report, and also to accept three volumes of the provisional picture catalogues which, too, show only a part of the collection at your disposal. I shall deliver further catalogues, which are now being compiled, as they are finished.”

Rosenberg then closes with this touching tribute to the aesthetic tastes of the Führer, tastes which were satisfied at the expense of a continent, and I quote:

“I shall take the liberty during the requested audience to give you, my Führer, another 20 folders of pictures with the hope that this short occupation with the beautiful things of art, which are so near to your heart, will send a ray of beauty and joy into your care-laden and revered life.”

THE PRESIDENT: Will you read all the passage that you began, five lines above that, beginning with the words, “These photos represent . . .”?

COL. STOREY: “These photos represent an addition to the collection of 53 of the most valuable objects of art delivered some time ago to your collection. This folder also gives only a weak impression of the exceptional value and extent of these objects of art, seized by my service command”—Dienststelle—“in France and put into a safe place in the Reich.”

If Your Honors please, at this time we would like to project on the screen a few of these photographs. The photographs of paintings which we are now about to project on the screen are taken from a single volume of the catalogue and are merely representative of the many volumes of pictures of similar works. The other items, photos of which are to be projected, were picked from various volumes on special subjects. For example, the Gobelin tapestry which you are about to see is merely one picture from an entire volume of tapestry illustrations. Each picture that you will see is representative of a number of volumes of similar pictures, and each volume from which these single pictures were taken represents approximately a tenth of the total number of volumes which would be necessary to illustrate all the items actually plundered by the Einsatzstab. We will now have the slides, just a few of them.

[_Photographs were projected on the screen in the courtroom._]

This first picture is a “Portrait of a Woman,” painted by the Italian painter Palma Vecchio.

The next picture is a “Portrait of a Woman” by the Spanish painter Velasquez.

This picture is a “Portrait of Lady Spencer” by the English painter Sir Joshua Reynolds.

This picture is a painting by the French painter Watteau.

This is a painting of “The Three Graces” by Rubens.

This is a “Portrait of an Old Woman” by the famous painter Rembrandt.

This painting of a young woman is by the Dutch painter Van Dyck.

Now this picture is a sample of 16th century jewelry in gold and enamel, decorated with pearls.

This is a 17th century Gobelin tapestry.

This picture is of a Japanese painting from the catalogue volume on East Asiatic art.

This is an example of famous china.

This is a picture of a silver-inlaid Louis XIV cabinet.

The last picture is of a silver altarpiece of the 15th or 16th century, of Spanish origin.

I call to your attention again that each of the pictures you have just seen is merely representative of a large number of similar items illustrated in the 39-volume catalogue which is in itself only partially complete. There is little wonder that the Führer’s occupation with these beautiful things of art, which were nearest to his heart, should have sent a ray of beauty and joy into his revered life. I doubt that any museum in the world, whether the Metropolitan in New York, the British Museum in London, the Louvre in Paris, or the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, could present such a catalogue as this; in fact, should they pool their treasures, the result would certainly fall short of the art collection that Germany amassed for itself, at the expense of the other nations of Europe. Never in history has a collection so great been amassed with so little scruple.

It is refreshing, however, to know that the victorious Allied armies have recovered most of such treasures, principally hidden away in salt mines, tunnels, and secluded castles; and the proper governmental agencies are now in the process of restoring these priceless works of art to their rightful owners.

I shall next refer to Document 154-PS, which is a letter dated the 5th of July 1942 from Dr. Lammers, Reich Minister and Chief of the Chancellery, to the highest Reich authorities and services directly subordinate to the Führer. This letter states and implements the Hitler order that was introduced in evidence and explains that the Führer delegated authority to Rosenberg’s staff to search for and seize cultural property by virtue of Reichsleiter Rosenberg’s position as representative of the Führer for the supervision of the whole ideological and political education of the NSDAP.

The Tribunal will recall, however, that it is by virtue of holding this office that Defendant Rosenberg occupied a place within the Reichsleitung, or Party Directorate of the Leadership Corps. That is Exhibit USA-370, and it is simply offered for the purpose of showing the address to the highest Reich authorities and services directly subordinate to the Führer.

In a letter to the Defendant Bormann, dated the 23rd of April 1941, the Defendant Rosenberg protested against the arbitrary removal by the SD and other public services of property from libraries, monasteries, and other institutions; and he proposed that, in the claims by the SD and his representative, the final regulation as to the confiscation should be made by the Gauleiter. This letter has been offered previously as 071-PS; and I quote, beginning with the next to the last sentence at the bottom of Page 1 of the English translation—I am sorry, Your Honor, that is in the other book.

THE PRESIDENT: You cited 071-PS this morning.

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, and I will forego that at the moment, Your Honor, because it refers back to the other book. Finally, in connection with the presentation of this subject, I submit that the summary of evidence establishes that the defendants and the conspirators, Rosenberg and Bormann, acting in their capacity as political leaders of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and as members thereof, participated in the Conspiracy or Common Plan alleged in Count One of the Indictment and committed acts constituting the crimes alleged. Accordingly we submit: (1) The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party is a group or organization in the sense in which those terms are used in Article 9 of the Charter; (2) The defendants and conspirators, Rosenberg and Bormann, committed the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter, and in that capacity as members of the political leaders of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.

It was at all times the primary and central design and purpose of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party to direct, engage, and participate in the execution of the conspiracy which contemplated and involved the commission of the crimes as defined in Article 6 of the Charter.

And I should like now to call attention again to a chart which was identified in the beginning—I believe by Major Wallis; it was taken from the publication which is entitled _The Face of the Party_. This chart emphasizes, more clearly than I can state, the total and thorough control over the life of the German, beginning at the age of 10 at the bottom of the chart and continuing through the various categories on up through.

Notice the age of 10 to 14, the Jungvolk. Then it goes to the Adolf Hitler School on the right, 12 to 18. The Hitler Jugend, 15 to 18; the SA, the NSKK, NSFK, 19 to 20. And then the labor service over at the left. And then again to the SA, SS, NSKK, NSFK; and then into the Wehrmacht, and on up through to the top box on the left of the top row of men, the political leaders of the NSDAP. And then finally all of those buildings up there, as I understand, are the academies of the NSDAP. And then finally at the top to the political leaders of the German Volk, showing the evolution. This is the final exhibit, and with that I close the presentation of the Leadership Corps. The next presentation is the Reich Cabinet (the Reichsregierung). We will take just a few moments.

If Your Honors please, there is one thing Colonel Seay called my attention to. I simply refer to it for the record. In one of the previous documents, 090-PS, Exhibit USA-372, which is in the other document book, there was a statement that clearly established that the expenses of the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, that is, the staff’s operational expenses, were financed by the Nazi Party.

If the Tribunal please, I now offer Document Book X, which I believe has been passed to Your Honors; and also Colonel Dostert’s staff has prepared a chart of the Reichsregierung in different languages, and I believe Your Honors have copies. There is one copy here in German that I shall be glad to pass to counsel who are especially concerned with this case. They have one copy in German. I don’t know who it is . . .

THE PRESIDENT: You mean counsel for the Reich Cabinet?

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. May I say also, by preliminary reference, that we examined the records in the collection office this morning and only one letter of intervention has been filed on behalf of the Reich Cabinet and that was by the Defendant Keitel.

We will now consider the Reichsregierung. Some preliminary remarks about this group have already been placed before the Tribunal by Mr. Albrecht in his comments upon the government chart. It will be necessary, however, for sake of coherence, to repeat briefly some of the statements made by him, and therefore we beg the indulgence of the Tribunal.

The Reichsregierung, meaning Reich Cabinet, unlike most of the other groups named in the Indictment, was not especially created by the Nazi Party to carry out or implement its nefarious schemes and purposes. The Reichsregierung—commonly referred to as the Cabinet—had, before the Nazis came to power, a place in the constitutional and political history of the country. As with other cabinets of duly constituted governments, the executive power of the realm was concentrated in that body. The Nazi conspirators realized this only too well. Their aim for totalitarian control over the State could not be secured, they realized, except by acquiring, holding, and utilizing the top-level machinery of the State. And this they did. Under the Nazi regime the Reichsregierung gradually became a primary agent of the Nazi Party with functions and policies formulated in accordance with the objectives and methods of the Party itself. The institution of the “Reichsregierung” became—at first gradually and then with more rapidity—polluted by the infusion of the Nazi conspirators into the Cabinet. Many of them—16 to be exact—sit before you today in the dock. There was no plan, scheme, or purpose, however vile or inhuman or illegal in any sense of the word, that was not clothed with the semblance of legality by the Nazi Reichsregierung. It is for that reason that we will ask this Tribunal—after the proof has been offered—to declare that body, as defined in the Indictment, to be a criminal organization. The proof will be divided into two main categories, the first of which will tend to establish the composition and nature of the Reichsregierung under the Nazis, as well as delineating briefly its functions and powers, while the second will tend to establish—and conclusively we believe—the reasons why the brand of criminality should be affixed to that group.

The term “Reichsregierung” literally translated reads “Reich Government.” Actually, as we said, it was commonly taken to refer to the ordinary Reich Cabinet. In the Indictment the term “Reichsregierung” is defined to include not only those persons who were members of the ordinary Reich Cabinet, but also persons who were members of the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich and the Secret Cabinet Council. However, the really important subdivision of the three is—as the proof will show—the ordinary Cabinet. Between it and the other two there was in reality only an artificial distinction. There existed, in fact, a unity of personnel, actions, functions, and purposes that obliterated any academic separation. As used in the Indictment, the term “ordinary Cabinet” means Reich Ministers, that is, heads of departments of the central government, Reich Ministers without portfolio, State Ministers acting as Reich Ministers, and other officials entitled to take part in meetings.

I might state here that altogether there were 48 persons who held positions in the ordinary Cabinet. Seventeen of them are defendants before the Tribunal. Bormann is absent. Of the remaining 31, eight are believed to be dead.

Into the ordinary Cabinet were placed the leading Nazi collaborators, the trusted henchmen; and then, when new governmental agencies or bodies were created either by Hitler or the Cabinet itself, the constituents of these new bodies were taken from the roles of the ordinary Cabinet.

In 1933 when the first Hitler Cabinet was formed on the 30th of January, there were 10 ministries that could be classified as departments of the Central Government. I have here a typed copy of the minutes of the first meeting of that Cabinet. These were found in the files of the Reich Chancellery and bear the typed signature of one Weinstein, who was described in the minutes as responsible for the protocol, the counsellor of the ministry. That document already appears in Document Book B; but I again refer the Tribunal to Page 4 of the translation, which is Document 351 as shown in your document book and contains a list of those present.

THE PRESIDENT: 351-PS?

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir, 351-PS, Exhibit USA-389.

The 10 ministers referred to therein are set forth. They are:

Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Defendant Von Neurath; Reich Minister of the Interior, the Defendant Frick; Reich Minister of Finance, Von Krosigk; Reich Minister of Economy and Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Hugenberg; Reich Minister of Labor, Seldte; Reich Minister of Justice—no name is given—the post was filled 2 days later by Gürtner; Reich Defense Minister Von Blomberg; and the Reich Postmaster General and Reich Minister for Transportation, Von Eltz-Rübenach.

In addition you will note that the Defendant Göring was there as a Reich Minister—he had no portfolio then—and as Reich Commissar for Aviation. Dr. Gereke was there as Reich Commissar for Procurement of Labor. Two State Secretaries were present: Dr. Lammers of the Reich Chancellery and Dr. Meissner of the Reich Presidential Chancellery.

THE PRESIDENT: In the copy I have the Defendant Göring appears as the Reich Minister for Aviation.

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. I mentioned that he appears as Reich Minister and as Reich Commissar for Aviation.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I see. I was reading from the first two pages of the document. You were reading from Page 4?

COL. STOREY: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

COL. STOREY: I am informed that the Ministry was created later, but it is given as Reich Commissar for Aviation.

In addition the Defendant Funk was present as Reich Press Chief, and the Defendant Von Papen was present as Deputy of the Reich Chancellor and Reich Commissar for the State of Prussia.

Not long after that date new ministries or departments were created into which leading Nazi figures were placed. On 13 March 1933 the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda was created. The decree setting it up appears in the 1933 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 104, our Document 2029-PS.

I assume that the Court will take judicial notice of the laws and decrees, as we have mentioned in the previous proceeding.

The late Goebbels was named as Reich Minister of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.

On 5 May 1933 the Ministry of Air (_Reichsgesetzblatt_ 1933, Part I, Page 241, our Document 2089-PS). On 1 May 1934 the Ministry of Education. I refer to 1934 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 365, our Document 2078-PS. On 16 July 1935 the Ministry for Church Affairs (1935 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 1029, our Document 2090-PS). The Defendant Göring was made Air Minister; Bernhard Rust, Gauleiter of South Hanover, was named Education Minister; and Hans Kerrl named Minister for Church Affairs.

Two ministries were added after the war started. On 17 March 1940 the Ministry of Armaments and Munitions was established (1940 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 513, our Document 2091-PS). The late Dr. Todt, a high Party official, was appointed to this post. The Defendant Speer succeeded him. The name of this department was changed to “Armaments and War Production” in 1943 (1943 _Reichsgesetzblatt_,