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COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the persons who held these posts in the ordinary Cabinet varied between the years 1933 and 1945. Although it is not incumbent upon us to prove who they were, since the group and not the individuals are under consideration, nevertheless their names are already before this Tribunal in the original governmental chart, Exhibit Number USA-3. Since it will be of interest to the Tribunal to see what persons—and 17 of them are defendants here—held what positions in the Cabinet, a table has been prepared which lists all the departments and posts I have mentioned and the incumbents thereof during the years 1933 to 1945. The German equivalents of the titles are also shown; and with the permission of the Tribunal, I will now distribute this table to the members of the Tribunal. Copies have likewise been filed in the defendants’ Information Center. The table also is annotated with citations to sources verifying the facts shown—all of which, however, were of common knowledge during the period in question.

Diverting from the text: This is simply prepared for the convenience of the Tribunal in connection with the studying of the briefs and the documents. As I said at the outset, the proof will show that there was only an artificial distinction between the ordinary Cabinet, the Secret Cabinet Council, and the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich. This is evidenced in the first instance by the unity of personnel between the three subdivisions.

Thus, on 4 February 1938 Hitler created the Secret Cabinet Council. If Your Honors will refer to this big chart, you will notice under 1938 there is a red line pointing down to the Secret Cabinet Council created during that year. This decree appears in the 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, at Page 112. It is in our document book, Document 2031-PS, and I should like to quote from this document. It begins with the opening paragraph, Document 2031-PS, under the Laws and Decrees Section. I quote:

“To advise me in directing the foreign policy I am setting up a Secret Cabinet Council. As President of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate Reich Minister Baron von Neurath. As members of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate:

“Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop; Prussian Minister President, Reich Minister of the Air, Supreme Commander of the Air Forces, General Field Marshal Hermann Göring; the Führer’s Deputy, Reich Minister Rudolf Hess; Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels; Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers;”—that is shown at the top immediately under Hitler—“Supreme Commander of the Army, Colonel General Walther von Brauchitsch; Supreme Commander of the Navy, Grand Admiral Dr. Raeder; Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, General of the Artillery Wilhelm Keitel.”

It will be noted that every member was either a Reich Minister or, as in the case of the Army, Navy, and OKW heads, had the rank and authority of a Reich Minister.

On 30 August 1939 Hitler established the Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich, better known as the Ministerial Council—coming down from the year 1939, the Ministerial Defense Council. This was the so-called war cabinet. The decree appears in the 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, at Page 1539. I now refer to Document 2018-PS of the Laws and Decrees, and I quote Section Number 1:

“(1) A Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall be formed out of the Reich Defense Council as a standing committee;

“(2) The standing members of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall include:

“General Field Marshal Göring, as chairman; the Führer’s Deputy”—the Defendant Hess—“the Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration”—who was the Defendant Frick—“the Plenipotentiary General for Economy”—the Defendant Funk—“the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery”—Dr. Lammers—“the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces”—who was the Defendant Keitel.

“(3) The chairman may draw on any other members of the Reich Defense Council as well as other personalities for advice.”

Again it will be seen that all were also members of the ordinary Cabinet. But this use of the Cabinet as a manpower reservoir from whom the trusted collaborators were selected becomes particularly poignant when we consider the actions of the Nazi conspirators which were not published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, which were concealed from the world, and which were part and parcel of their conspiracy to wage aggressive war. It will have been noted that the decree setting up the Ministerial Council contained this language, the one to which I have just referred:

“A Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall be formed out of the Reich Defense Council as a standing committee . . . .”—also Subparagraph 3 of the same one—“The chairman may draw on any other members. . . .”

There is evidence already before this Tribunal establishing the creation—by the Cabinet—on 4 April 1933 of this really secret war-planning body. I refer the Tribunal to Exhibit USA-24, which appears in our document book as Document 2261-PS. That document contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law of 21 May 1935. As to the membership of that Council when first created, I have here a copy of the minutes of the second session of the working committee of the delegates for the Reich defense, dated 22 May 1933, and signed by the Defendant Keitel. It appears in our document book as EC-177, Exhibit USA-390. The composition of the Reich Defense Council appears on Page 3 of the original, and also on Page 3 of the translation:

THE PRESIDENT: I thought you were going to refer to 2261-PS.

COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, I just referred to it as being an exhibit already in evidence and said that it was one of the unpublished Reich defense laws. That was the only purpose in referring to it.

The quotation is from Page 3 of the translation, beginning at the top of the page:

“Composition of the Reich Defense Council:

“President, Reich Chancellor; Deputy, Minister of the Reichswehr; Permanent Members, Minister of the Reichswehr, Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, Reich Minister of the Interior, Reich Minister of Finance, Reich Minister of Economic Affairs, Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Reich Air Ministry, Chief of the Army Command Staff, Chief of the Navy Command Staff, and—as the case may be—the remaining Reich Ministers, other personalities, for example, leading industrialists, et cetera.”

All but the Chiefs of the Army and Navy Command Staff were, then, component parts of the ordinary Cabinet. The composition of this Defense Council was changed in 1938. I refer the Tribunal to Exhibit USA-36, which appears in our document book as Number 2194-PS. This contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law of 4 September 1938.

I now quote from Paragraph 10, entitled “The Reich Defense Council,” which is found at Page 4 of the copy of the law in the original; and I now quote from Page 6 of the English translation, the top of the page:

“(2) The Führer and Reich Chancellor is chairman in the Reich Defense Council. His permanent deputy is General Field Marshal Göring; he has the authority to call conferences of the Council. Permanent members of the Council are:

“Reich Minister of Air and Supreme Commander of the Air Force, the Supreme Commander of the Army, the Supreme Commander of the Navy, the Chief of the OKW, the Führer’s Deputy, the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, the President of the Secret Cabinet Council, the Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration, the Plenipotentiary General for Economics, the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Reich Minister of the Interior, the Reich Minister of Finance, the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the President of the Reich Bank Directorate.

“The other Reich Ministers and the Reich offices directly subordinate to the Führer and the Reich Chancellor will be consulted if necessary. Further personalities may be called as the case demands.”

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, it would help me if you explained to me what conclusions you are asking us to draw from these documents.

COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, we were trying to show the progressive domination of the Reich Cabinet by the defendants and the members of this group, so that, as Your Honors will see as we later go ahead, they could pass laws and decrees secretly, by circulatory process or at the will, in effect, of the defendants. I realize it is a little detailed, but we are trying to show the composition and how it was set up, and the conclusions will be drawn later.

By that time the Supreme Commanders of the Army and Navy had been given ministerial rank and authorized to participate in Cabinet meetings. I cite 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 215.

May we at this time call the attention of the Tribunal to two members of the Defense Council who will also appear in the Ministerial Council under the same title: the Plenipotentiary for Administration and the Plenipotentiary for Economy. The former post was held by the Defendant Frick, while the latter was first held by the Defendant Schacht and then by the Defendant Funk, who signed the decree in that capacity. These facts are verified by the Defendant Frick in Exhibit Number USA-3, which is the Nazi governmental organization chart previously referred to.

As we will later show, these two posts had many of the other ministries subordinated to them for war-planning aims and purposes. They, together with the Chief of the OKW, formed a powerful triumvirate, known as the “Three-Man College”—that is shown in the three boxes down from 1935 to 1938—which figured prominently, as the proof will disclose, in the plans and preparations to wage aggressive war. And the incumbents of these positions were Cabinet members: the Defendants Frick, Funk, and Keitel.

This utilization of the ordinary Cabinet as a supply center for other governmental agencies and the cohesion between all of the groups is perhaps quickly seen on the chart which is shown.

The points I have been making are illustrated on the chart. We are not offering this chart in evidence, although all facts thereon already have been or will be proved. The chart is also designed to depict—to the left of the line running down the right center—the chronological development of the offshoots of the ordinary Cabinet. Thus in the main box entitled “Reich Cabinet”—which appears directly under Hitler—certain dates appear.

I believe I will skip the part that describes those lines because it is self-evident.

The Ministerial Defense Council was created in 1944; the Delegate for Total War Effort was Goebbels. These agencies were, next to Hitler, the important Nazi functionaries. In every case, as the chart shows, they were occupied by persons taken from the ordinary Cabinet. The arrow running from the Reich Defense Council to the Ministerial Defense Council is intended to reflect the fact, shown previously, that the latter was formed out of the former. We will, for other points of this presentation, refer again to the chart, especially to that portion to the right, which relates to ministries.

The unity, cohesion, and inter-relationship of the subdivisions of the Reichsregierung were not the result of a co-mixture of personnel alone. It was also realized by the method in which it operated. The ordinary Cabinet consulted together both by meetings and through the so-called circulation procedure. Under this procedure, which was predominantly used when meetings were not held, drafts of laws prepared in the individual ministries were distributed to the other Cabinet members for approval or disapproval.

The man primarily responsible for the circulation of drafts of laws under this procedure was Dr. Lammers, the Leader and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. I have here an affidavit executed by him concerning that technical device, which we offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-391, Document 2999-PS. It is short and I should like to quote all of it:

“I, Hans Heinrich Lammers, being first duly sworn, depose and say:

“I was Leader of the Reich Chancellery from 30 January 1933 until the end of the war. In this capacity I circulated drafts of proposed laws and decrees, submitted to me by the minister who had drafted the law or decree, to all members of the Reich Cabinet. A period of time was allowed for objections, after which the law was considered as being accepted by the various members of the Cabinet. This procedure continued throughout the entire war. It was likewise followed also in the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich.”—Signed—“Dr. Lammers”—and sworn to before Lieutenant Colonel Hinkel.

As an illustration of how the circulation procedure worked, I have here a memorandum dated 9 August 1943, which bears the facsimile signature of the Defendant Frick and is addressed to the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. Attached to the memorandum is a draft of the law in question and a carbon copy of a letter dated 22 December 1943, from the Defendant Rosenberg to the Reich Minister of the Interior, containing his comments on the draft. I now offer Document 1701-PS as Exhibit USA-392, and I call Your Honors’ attention to the big red border around the enclosure. The quoted portion is from Page 1 of the translation and Page 1 of the original. Quoting:

“To the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin (W8). For the information of the other Reich Ministers. Subject: Law on the Treatment of Asocial Elements of Society. Referring to my letter of 19 March 1942, 55 enclosures.

“The draft of the Law on the Treatment of Asocial Elements of Society having been completely rewritten, I am sending the enclosed new draft with the consent of the Reich Minister of Justice, Dr. Thierack, and ask that the law be approved in the circulatory manner. The necessary number of copies is attached.”

The same procedure was followed in the Council of Ministers when that body was created; and the decrees of the Council of Ministers were also circulated to the members of the ordinary Cabinet.

I have here a carbon copy of a memorandum found in the files of the Reich Chancellery by the Allied armies and addressed to the members of the Council of Ministers, dated 17 September 1939 and bearing the typed signature of Dr. Lammers. It is Document 1141-PS, Exhibit USA-393. From the English translation, the last paragraph just above Dr. Lammers’ signature, I quote:

“Matters submitted to the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich have heretofore been distributed only to the members of the Council. I have been requested by some of the Reich Ministers who are not permanent members of the Council to inform them of the drafts of the decrees which are being submitted to the Council, so as to enable them to check those drafts from the point of view of their respective offices. I shall follow this request so that all of the Reich Ministers will in the future be informed of the drafts of decrees which are to be acted upon by the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich. I therefore request that 45 additional copies of the drafts, as well as of the letters which usually contain the arguments for the drafts, be added to the folders submitted to the Council.”

Von Stutterheim, who was an official of the Reich Chancellery, comments on this procedure at Page 34 of a pamphlet entitled The Reich Chancellery, which I now offer in evidence, Document 2231-PS . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I don’t understand what the importance of the last document is.

COL. STOREY: The last document, if Your Honor pleases, is in further evidence of the approval of laws and of the passing of laws by a circulatory process.

THE PRESIDENT: We already have that in Dr. Lammers’ affidavit.

COL. STOREY: It might be considered strictly cumulative, if that is what Your Honor has in mind.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, if it is cumulative, we don’t really want to hear it.

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will ask then that it be stricken from the record. I had really overlooked the fact that it was cumulative. Miss Boyd and Commander Kaplan tell me that the Document Number 2231-PS is probably also corroborative of the same process; and I will, therefore, not offer it.

I have already stated that for a time the Cabinet consulted together through actual meetings. The Council of Ministers did likewise, but those members of the Cabinet who were not already members of the Council also attended the meetings of the Ministerial Council. And when they did not attend in person they were usually represented by State Secretaries of the Ministries. We have here the minutes of six meetings of the Council of Ministers of the 1, 4, 8, and 19 September 1939, also of the 16 October and 15 of November 1939. These original documents were found in the files of the Reich Chancellery. I offer them in evidence as Document 2852-PS, Exhibit USA-395. It will only be necessary to point, for our purposes, to a few of the minutes. I call the attention of the Tribunal to the meeting held on the 1st of September 1939, which is probably the first meeting since the Council was created on the 30th August 1939; and I read from that document—showing who was present—beginning at the top of the English translation:

“Present were the permanent members of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich:

“The Chairman, General Field Marshal Göring; the Führer’s Deputy, Hess;”—for some unknown reason a line appears through the name Hess—“the Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration, Dr. Frick; the Plenipotentiary General for Economy, Funk; the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; and the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, Keitel, represented by Major General Thomas.”

These were the regular members of the Council. Also present were the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, Darré, and seven State Secretaries—naming the secretaries. These State Secretaries were from the several ministries or other supreme Reich authorities, as, for example, to name a few: Körner was the Deputy of the Defendant Göring in the Four Year Plan; Stuckart was in the Ministry of the Interior; Landfried was in the Ministry of Economics; Syrup was in the Ministry of Labor. These later positions appear on the government chart which is already in evidence. Another meeting of the Council—I will skip that one.

And then there came the names of nine State Secretaries . . .

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Colonel Storey, the last document showed only that certain members of the Cabinet came to a Cabinet meeting. Did it show any more than that?

COL. STOREY: It shows no more than that. I was just going on a little farther to show that an SS Gruppenführer was present also, and other people were present.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What would that show?

COL. STOREY: In other words, that they called in these subordinate people, as in the meeting of the ministers.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What would that show?

COL. STOREY: Well, it just shows the permeation of the Party and the subordinate agencies, showing they could use the Reich Cabinet for whatever purpose they wanted and to devise laws any way they wanted. They called in these subordinate people, in these subordinate positions, to sit with them when they were passing Cabinet measures. I can also call Your Honors’ attention to the Ministerial Council for Defense. It was supposed to be a ministerial-rank Cabinet meeting; and as I just started to show, they called in SS Gruppenführer Heydrich to this meeting.

THE PRESIDENT: There can be no doubt, can there, that there was a Reich Cabinet?

COL. STOREY: No, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: And that the Reich Cabinet made decrees by this circulatory method? There is no doubt about that.

COL. STOREY: That is right, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: What does this document add to that?

COL. STOREY: It shows who participated, and how they went out into the Party ranks to bring others, but I will omit the rest of the references to these other individuals.

THE PRESIDENT: But we have had ample evidence before, haven’t we, as to who formed the Reich Cabinet?

COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. Well, I will skip the rest of the references to other people who participated, and pass over to Page 23 of the record. Before leaving these minutes and as indicative of the activities of the Reichsregierung, I would like to direct the attention of the Tribunal to some of the decrees passed and the minutes discussed at these meetings. At the first meeting of 1 September 1939, 14 decrees were ratified by the Council. Of this group I call the attention of the Tribunal to Decree Number 6, appearing on Page 2 of the translation, and I quote:

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you gave us the number, did you?

COL. STOREY: I beg your pardon, Sir. It is the Reichsgesetzblatt, I, Page 1681, of which we ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice. That decree was about the organization of the administration and about the German Security Police in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. That appears in the translation of 2852-PS. Another one that was passed is dated 19 September 1938, on Page 6 of the translation; and I quote from the bottom of the page:

“The Chairman of the Council, General Field Marshal Göring, made comments regarding the structure of civil administration in the occupied Polish territory. He expressed his intentions regarding the economic evacuation measures in this territory. Then the questions of decreasing wages and the questions of working hours and the support of members of families of drafted workers were discussed.”

There are a number of miscellaneous points of discussion appearing, and in Paragraph 2 of the minutes I quote the following as it appears on Page Number 7:

“The chairman directed that all members of the Council regularly receive the situation reports of the Reichsführer SS. Then the question of the population of the future Polish Protectorate was discussed and the housing of Jews living in Germany.”

Finally, I call the attention of the Tribunal to the minutes of the meeting of 15 November 1939, Page 10 of the translation, where, among other things, the treatment of Polish prisoners of war was also discussed.

We submit that this document not only establishes the close working union between agencies of the State and Party, especially with the notorious SS, but also tends to establish, as charged in the Indictment, that the Reichsregierung was responsible for the policies adopted and put into effect by the Government, including those which comprehended and involved the commission of crimes referred to in the Indictment. But a mere working alliance would be meaningless unless there was power. And the Reichsregierung had the power. Short of Hitler himself, it had practically all the power a government can exercise. The Prosecution has already offered evidence on how Hitler’s Cabinet and the other Nazi conspirators secured the passage by the Reichstag of the “Law for the Protection of the People and the Reich” of 24 March 1933, which has been previously referred to in Document 2001-PS, which law vested the Cabinet with legislative powers even to the extent of deviating from previously existing constitutional law; how such powers were retained even after the members of the Cabinet were changed; and how the several states, provinces, and municipalities, which had formerly exercised semi-autonomous powers, were transformed into the administrative organs of the central government. The ordinary Cabinet emerged all-powerful from this rapid succession of events. The words of the Defendant Frick are eloquent upon that achievement. Here is an article in Document 2380-PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-396; and it is from the 1935 National Socialist Yearbook. I quote from Page 213 of the original, and it is on Page 1 of the English translation, the second paragraph:

“The relationship between the Reich and the States has been put on an entirely new basis never known in the history of the German people. It gives to the Reich Cabinet”—Reichsregierung—“unlimited power; it even makes it its duty to build a completely unified leadership and administration of the Reich. From now on there is only one national authority: that of the Reich. Thus, the German Reich has become a unified state; and the entire administration in the states is carried out only by order of, or in the name of, the Reich. The state borders are now only administrative-technical boundaries, but no longer boundaries of sovereignty. In calm determination, the Reich Cabinet realizes step by step, supported by the confidence of the entire German people, the great longing of the nation: the creation of the unified National Socialist German State.”

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, that document seems to me to be merely cumulative. You have established, and other counsel on behalf of the United States have established, that the Reich Ministers had power to make laws, and the question is whether you have given any evidence as to the criminal nature of the Reich Cabinet.

COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, again it was included for the purpose of connecting one of the defendants here . . .

THE PRESIDENT: What I was pointing out was that it was merely cumulative.

COL. STOREY: Yes, all right, Sir. It may be strictly cumulative. I will omit the next reference, which will probably also be cumulative and turn over to . . .

THE PRESIDENT: The same document, you mean?

COL. STOREY: No, Sir. There is another document that I was going to offer, Number 2849-PS. There is a quotation from another book; it probably bears on the same point. I will omit it also. The next is a reference to the Ministerial Council’s being given legislative power. I don’t believe that that has been introduced before—that the Council itself was given legislative powers. That is in Article 2 of the decree of 30 August 1939, Document 2018-PS. The ordinary Cabinet continued to legislate throughout the war.

Obviously, because of the fusion of personnel between the Ministerial Council and the ordinary Cabinet, questions were bound to arise as to what form should lend its name to a particular law. Thus Dr. Lammers, the Chief of the Reich Chancellery and a member of both agencies, wrote a letter on 14 June 1942 to the Plenipotentiary for Reich Administration about this question.

This next document, if the Court please, it may not be necessary to read. It just shows that both agencies continued to legislate side by side, and it would really be cumulative evidence. There were others that possessed legislative powers, besides the ones I have mentioned. Hitler, of course, had legislative power. Göring, as Deputy of the Four Year Plan, could and did issue decrees that had the effect of law. And the Cabinet delegated power to issue laws which could deviate from the existing law to the Plenipotentiaries of Economy and Administration and the Chief of the OKW, the so-called “Three-Man College”—the Three-Man College having authority to legislate. This was done in the war-planning law, the Secret Defense Law of 1938, Document 2194-PS, Exhibit Number USA-36. These three officials, Frick, Funk, and Keitel, however, were, as we have proved, also members of the Council of Ministers, as well as being part of the ordinary Cabinet. It can therefore be readily said, in the language of the Indictment, that the Reichsregierung possessed legislative powers of a very high order in the system of German government and that they exercised such powers has in part already been demonstrated. I simply refer to that to show that it was a secret Cabinet law—without quoting—that the executive and administrative powers of the Reich were concentrated in the central Government primarily as the result of two basic Nazi laws that reduced the separate states—called Länder—to mere geographical divisions. If Your Honor pleases, these laws are cited, and I believe it would be cumulative evidence if we undertook to chronicle the laws. I pass to the part at the bottom of Page 29. There were other steps taken towards centralization. Let us see what powers the ordinary Cabinet would wield as a result. We have here a publication published in 1944, which was edited by Dr. Wilhelm Stuckart, State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of the Interior, and Dr. Harry von Rosen-von Hoewel, another official with the title of “Oberregierungsrat” in the Reich Ministry of the Interior. It is entitled Administrative Law, and I offer it as Document 2959-PS, Exhibit USA-399. It details the powers and functions of all the ministers of the ordinary Cabinet, from which I will select but a few to illustrate the extent of control vested in the Reichsregierung. The quotation is from Page 2 of the translation and Page 66 of the original: “The Reich Ministers. There are at present 21 Reich Ministers, namely. . . .” May I say that the only purpose in offering this is to show what each minister had jurisdiction over and to what his authority extended; for example, the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs—it details what he handles. The Reich Minister of the Interior follows in detail on the matters entrusted to his jurisdiction, and so on.

THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, may I ask you what has that to do with the criminality of the Reich Cabinet?

COL. STOREY: The point, as I see it, again though it may be cumulative, Your Honor, is to show how these defendants, and the others with them, formed the ministries, formed these councils, so that they could give semblance of legality to any action they determined to take, whether they were in session or not and according to the dictates of the respective Ministers; in other words, showing a complete domination.

THE PRESIDENT: I should have thought that was amply shown already.

COL. STOREY: All right, Sir, I’ll pass further reference. I’ll skip over all the rest of the laws and go to Page 35 of the record, in reference to the criminality and the particular crimes. We now come to the second phase of the proof against the Reichsregierung, tending to establish the criminal characteristics. As the proof of all phases of the Prosecution’s case is received, the Tribunal will note more and more the relationship such evidence bears to the Reichsregierung and their resultant responsibility therefor. Here we will direct the Court’s attention to some prominent elements of the evidence that brands the group. First, it cannot be stressed too frequently that under the Nazi regime the Reichsregierung became a criminal instrument of the Nazi Party. In the original Cabinet of 30 January 1933, there were only three Cabinet members who were members of the Party: Göring, Frick, and Hitler. I have already shown that as new ministries were added prominent Nazis were placed at their head. On 30 January 1937 Hitler executed acceptance into the Party of those Cabinet members who were not already members of the Nazi Party. This action is reported in the Völkischer Beobachter, South German edition, 1 February 1937; it is Document Number 2964-PS, Exhibit USA-401, and I quote from Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the English translation:

“In view of the anticipated re-opening of the rolls for Party membership, the Führer, as the first step in this regard, personally carried out the enlistment into the Party of the members of the Cabinet who so far had not belonged to it; and he handed them simultaneously the Gold Party Badge, the supreme badge of honor of the Party. In addition, the Führer awarded the Gold Party Badge to Colonel General Baron von Fritsch; Generaladmiral, Dr. Raeder; the Prussian Minister of Finance, Professor Popitz; and the Secretary of State and Chief of the Presidential Chancellery, Dr. Meissner. The Führer also honored with the Gold Party Badge the Party members State Secretary Dr. Lammers, State Secretary Funk, State Secretary Körner, and State Secretary General of the Air Force Milch.”

It was possible to refuse the Party membership thus conferred. Only one man did this, however, Von Eltz-Rübenach, who was the Minister of Posts and Minister of Transport at the time. I have here an original letter, dated 30 January 1937, from Von Eltz-Rübenach to Hitler, and it is in his own personal handwriting. I offer it in evidence as Document 1534-PS, Exhibit USA-402; and I quote the entire document:

“Berlin (W8), 30 January 1937, Wilhelm Street, 79

“My Führer:

“I thank you for the confidence you have placed in me during the 4 years of your leadership and for the honor you do me in offering to admit me into the Party.

“My conscience forbids me, however, to accept this offer. I believe in the principles of positive Christianity and must remain faithful to my God and to myself. Party membership, however, would mean that I should have to countenance, without protest, the increasing violent attacks by Party officers on the Christian confessions and on those who wish to remain faithful to their religious convictions.

“This decision has been infinitely difficult for me, for never in my life have I performed my duty with greater joy and satisfaction than under your wise state leadership.

“I ask to be permitted to resign.

“With German greetings, yours very obediently, Baron von Eltz.”

But the Nazis didn’t wait until all members of the Cabinet . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Was Baron von Eltz permitted to resign?

COL. STOREY: Yes. As I understand, Your Honor, every one of them was a member, except this one; and he declined and resigned—which was accepted. The Nazis didn’t wait until all members of the Cabinet were Party members. Shortly after they came to power, they quickly assured themselves of active participation in the work of the Cabinet. On 1 December 1933 the Cabinet passed a law securing the unity of Party and State. That has been introduced previously and I will not refer to it any more. It is referred to here as our Document Number 1395-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Why is Baron von Eltz shown as a member of the Cabinet in 1938?

COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, the “1938” simply refers to the time the Secret Cabinet Council was created. It does not have to do with when any of these people came to the Cabinet.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, I see.

COL. STOREY: In other words, all these arrows show that these different agencies were created during those years.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I follow it.

COL. STOREY: I say, for Your Honors’ information, that in this list of all of the Cabinet members and the members of the Reichsregierung from 1933 his name is shown in the list that we handed to Your Honors.

THE PRESIDENT: Up to 1937?

COL. STOREY: No, Sir; from 1933 down to 1945 his name is listed. If Your Honors will recall, we handed in a separate list and it does contain the Baron’s name, with the authority of his appointment, et cetera.

THE PRESIDENT: You mean that is a mistake?

COL. STOREY: No, Sir; it is not a mistake.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, then, he didn’t resign?

COL. STOREY: He did resign; but Your Honor asked if his name was shown up here and I said that in the separate list showing the list of all members of the Reichsregierung, from 1933 to 1945, the Baron’s name was included and the proper reference is made in this separate list for Your Honors’ guidance.

I have here a copy of an unpublished decree signed by Hitler, dated 27 July 1934. It is Document D-138, Exhibit USA-403; and it is in the section of “Laws and Decrees,” if Your Honor pleases, and I offer it in evidence. This is a decree of Adolf Hitler:

“I decree that the Führer’s Deputy, Reich Minister Hess, will have the capacity of a participating Reich Minister in connection with the preparation of drafts for laws in all Reich administrative spheres. All legislative work is to be sent to him when it is received by the other Reich Ministers concerned. This also applies in cases where no one else participates except the Reich Minister making the draft. Reich Minister Hess will be given the opportunity to comment on drafts suggested by experts. This order will apply in the same sense to legislative ordinances. The Führer’s Deputy in his capacity of Reich Minister can send, as representative, an expert on his staff. These experts are entitled to make statements to the Reich Ministers on his behalf.”—Signed by Hitler.

The Defendant Hess himself has some pertinent comment to make regarding his right of participation on behalf of the Party. And I now offer in evidence Document D-139, Exhibit USA-404. This is an original letter signed by Rudolf Hess and is dated the 9th of October 1934, on the stationery of the National Socialist Party; and it is addressed to the Reich Minister for Enlightenment of the People and Propaganda. I now quote the entire document: