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THE PRESIDENT: Before the Chief Prosecutor for the United States proceeds to present the evidence on Count One, the Tribunal wishes me to announce the decision on the application made on behalf of the Defendant Julius Streicher by his counsel that his condition should be examined. It has been examined by three medical experts on behalf of the Tribunal and their report has been submitted to and considered by the Tribunal; and it is as follows:

“1. The Defendant Julius Streicher is sane.

“2. The Defendant Julius Streicher is fit to appear before the Tribunal, and to present his defense.

“3. It being the unanimous conclusion of the examiners that Julius Streicher is sane, he is for that reason capable of understanding the nature and policy of his acts during the period of time covered by the Indictment.”

The Tribunal accepts the report of the medical experts and the trial against Julius Streicher will, therefore, proceed.

The other matter to which I have to refer is a motion on behalf of counsel for Bormann, whom the Tribunal have decided to try in his absence in pursuance of Article 12 of the Charter. Counsel for Bormann has made a motion that the trial against him should be postponed, but, in view of the fact that the provisions of the Charter and the Tribunal’s rules of procedure have been strictly carried out in the notices which have been given, and the fact that counsel for Bormann will have ample time before he is called upon to present defense on his behalf, the motion is denied.

I will now call upon counsel for the United States to present the evidence on Count One.

COL. STOREY: May it please the Tribunal, as the first order of business concerning the evidence, it shall be my purpose to outline the method of capturing, assembling, processing, and authenticating documents to be presented in evidence by the United States. I shall also describe and illustrate the plan of presenting documents and briefs relating to the United States’ case-in-chief.

As the United States Army advanced into German territory, there were attached to each Army and subordinate organization specialized military personnel whose duties were to capture and preserve enemy information in the form of documents, records, reports, and other files. The Germans kept accurate and voluminous records. They were found in Army headquarters, Government buildings, and elsewhere. During the later stages of the war, particularly, such documents were found in salt mines, buried in the ground, behind false walls, and many other places believed secure by the Germans. For example, the personal correspondence and diaries of the Defendant Rosenberg, including his Nazi correspondence, were found behind a false wall in an old castle in eastern Bavaria. The records of the OKL, or Luftwaffe, of which the Defendant Göring was Commander-in-Chief—equivalent to the records of the Headquarters of the Air Staff of the United States Army Air Forces—were found in various places in the Bavarian Alps. Most of such Luftwaffe records were assembled and processed by the Army at Berchtesgaden.

When the Army first captured documents and records, they immediately placed the materials under guard and later assembled them in temporary document centers. Many times the records were so voluminous that they were hauled by fleets of Army trucks to document centers. Finally, as the territory seized was made secure, Army zones were established and each Army established a fixed document center to which were transported the assembled documents and records. Later this material was indexed and cataloged, which was a slow process.

Beginning last June, Mr. Justice Jackson requested me to direct the assembling of documentary evidence on the continent for the United States case. Field teams from our office were organized under the direction of Major William H. Coogan, who established United States liaison officers at the main Army document centers. Such officers were directed to screen and analyze the mass of captured documents, and select those having evidentiary value for our case. Literally hundreds of tons of enemy documents and records were screened and examined and those selected were forwarded to Nuremberg for processing. I now offer in evidence an affidavit by Major Coogan, dated November 19, 1945, attached hereto, describing the method of procedure, capture, screening and delivery of such documents to Nuremberg. (Document Number 001 A-PS, Exhibit USA-1)

At this time, if Your Honors please, and in order to present this matter to the Tribunal, I believe it wise to read at least substantial portions of this affidavit. It is dated November 19, 1945.

“I, Major William H. Coogan, 0-455814, Q.M.C., a commissioned officer of the United States of America, do hereby certify as follows:

“1. The United States Chief of Counsel in July 1945 charged the Field Branch of the Documentation Division with the responsibility of collecting, evaluating, and assembling documentary evidence in the European Theater for use in the prosecution of the major Axis War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal. I was appointed Chief of the Field Branch on 20 July 1945. I am now the Chief of the Documentation Division, Office of United States Chief of Counsel.

“2. I have served in the United States Army for more than 4 years and am a practicing attorney by profession. Based upon my experience as an attorney and as a United States Army officer, I am familiar with the operation of the United States Army in connection with seizing and processing captured enemy documents. In my capacity as Chief of the Documentation Division, Office of the United States Chief of Counsel, I am familiar with and have supervised the processing, filing, translating, and photostating of all documentary evidence for the United States Chief of Counsel.”

I skip to paragraph 4.

“4. The Field Branch of the Documentation Division was staffed by personnel thoroughly conversant with the German language. Their task was to search for and select captured enemy documents in the European Theater which disclosed information relating to the prosecution of the major Axis war criminals. Officers under my command were placed on duty at various document centers and also dispatched on individual missions to obtain original documents. When the documents were located, my representatives made a record of the circumstances under which they were found and all information available concerning their authenticity was recorded. Such documents were further identified by Field Branch pre-trial serial numbers, assigned by my representatives who would then periodically dispatch the original documents by courier to the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel.

“5. Upon receipt of these documents they were duly recorded and indexed. After this operation, they were delivered to the Screening and Analysis Branch of the Documentation Division of the Office of United States Chief of Counsel, which Branch re-examined the documents in order to finally determine whether or not they should be retained as evidence for the prosecutors. This final screening was done by German-speaking analysts on the staff of the United States Chief of Counsel. When the document passed the screeners, it was then transmitted to the Document Room of the Office of United States Chief of Counsel, with a covering sheet prepared by the screeners showing the title or nature of the document, the personalities involved, and its importance. In the Document Room, a trial identification number was given to each document and to each group of documents, in cases where it was desirable for the sake of clarity to file several documents together.

“6. United States documents were given trial identification numbers in one of five series designated by the letters: “PS”, “L”, “R”, “C”, and “EC”, indicating the means of acquisition of the documents. Within each series documents were listed numerically.

“7. After a document was so numbered, it was then sent to a German-speaking analyst who prepared a summary of the document with appropriate references to personalities involved, index headings, information as to the source of the document as indicated by the Field Branch, and the importance of the document to a particular phase of the case. Next, the original document was returned to the Document Room and then checked out to the Photostating Department, where photostatic copies were made. Upon return from photostating, it was placed in an envelope in one of the several fireproof safes in the rear of the Document Room. One of the photostatic copies of the document was sent to the translators, thereafter leaving the original itself in the safe. A commissioned officer has been, and is, responsible for the documents in the safe. At all times when he is not present the safe is locked and a military guard is on duty outside the only door. If the officers preparing the certified translation, or one of the officers working on the briefs, found it necessary to examine the original document, this was done within the Document Room in the section set aside for that purpose. The only exception to this strict rule has been where it has been occasionally necessary to present the original document to Defense Counsel for examination. In this case, the document was entrusted to a responsible officer of the Prosecution staff.

“8. All original documents are now located in safes in the Document Room, where they will be secured until they are presented by the Prosecution to the court during the progress of this Trial.

“9. Some of the documents which will be offered in evidence by the United States were seized and processed by the British Army. Also, personnel from the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel and the British War Crimes Executive have acted jointly in locating, seizing and processing such documents.

“10. Substantially the same system of acquiring documentary evidence was utilized by the British Army and the British War Crimes Executive as above set forth with respect to the United States Army and the Office of the United States Chief of Counsel.

“11. Therefore, I certify in my official capacity as hereinabove stated, to the best of my knowledge and belief, that the documents captured in the British Zone of Operations and Occupation, which will be offered in evidence by the United States Chief of Counsel, have been authenticated, translated, and processed in substantially the same manner as hereinabove set forth with respect to the operations of the United States Chief of Counsel.

“12. Finally, I certify that all documentary evidence offered by the United States Chief of Counsel, including those documents from British Army sources, are in the same condition as captured by the United States and British Armies; that they have been translated by competent and qualified translators; that all photostatic copies are true and correct copies of the originals and that they have been correctly filed, numbered, and processed as above outlined.”

Signed by: “William H. Coogan, Major, QMC, 0-455814.”

After the documents selected by the screening process outlined reached our office, they were again examined, re-screened, and translated by expert U.S. Army personnel, as outlined by Major Coogan.

Finally, more than 2,500 documents were selected and filed here in this Court House. At least several hundred will be offered in evidence. They have been photographed, translated into English, filed, indexed, and processed. The same general procedure was followed by the British War Crimes Executive with regard to documents captured by the British Army, and there has been complete integration and cooperation of activities with the British in that regard.

In order to present our case and to assist the Tribunal, we have prepared written briefs on each phase of our case which cite the documents by appropriate numbers. Legal propositions of the United States will also be presented in such briefs. The briefs and documents will cover each allegation of the Indictment which is the United States’ responsibility. I hold in my hand one of the trial briefs entitled “Reshaping of Education, Training of Youth,” which will be offered later on this day. Accompanying each brief is a document book containing true copies in English of all documents referred to in the brief. I hold in my hand the document book that will be submitted to this Tribunal in support of the brief which I have just exhibited to your Honors. Likewise, copies in German have been, or will be, furnished to Defense counsel at the time such documents are offered in evidence. Upon conclusion of the presentation of each phase or section of our case by counsel, the entire book of documents will be offered in evidence, such as this book. At the same time, Lieutenant Barrett who will sit right here all during the Trial and who is on our staff, will hand to the clerk of this Tribunal the original documents that may be offered in evidence in this form. It will have the seal of the Tribunal, will be Exhibit USA, 2836-PS, and in turn Lieutenant Barrett will hand that original document to the Tribunal. In the same manner, the document book will be passed by Lieutenant Barrett to the clerk of the Court, and these trial briefs for the assistance of the Tribunal will be made available to the Court and to Defense Counsel. Likewise, copies of documents actually introduced in evidence will be made available to the press. Thus, may Your Honors please, it is hoped that by this procedure the usual laborious and tedious method of introducing documentary evidence may be expedited.

May I, therefore, respectfully inquire of the Tribunal and of Defense counsel if there is any objection to the procedure outlined? If not, the United States will proceed with the presentation of the documentary and trial briefs as outlined herein.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has no objection to the course that you propose.

COL. STOREY: If Your Honors please, may I now announce what will be presented immediately following by the United States?

THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps that I ought to say to counsel for the defendants that their silence will be taken as their assent to the course proposed. In the absence of any objection by them to the course proposed by Colonel Storey on behalf of the Chief Prosecutor for the United States, the Tribunal will take it that they agree that the course is convenient.

Thank you, gentlemen.

COL. STOREY: If Your Honors please, the next presentation will be the briefs and documents on the Common Plan or Conspiracy up to 1939. We will open by presentation of charts of the Nazi Party and Reich Government with exhibits and explanation by Mr. Albrecht. That will be followed by a presentation of the trial briefs and documents on the other phases of the Common Plan or Conspiracy up to 1939.

RALPH G. ALBRECHT (Associate Trial Counsel for the United States): May it please the Tribunal, the Prosecution will now allude briefly to certain facts, which may well be considered to be within judicial purview, the consideration of which the Prosecution has found useful in understanding and evaluating the evidence that will be presented in the course of the Trial, in support of the allegations of the Indictment.

In the opinion of the Prosecution, some preliminary references must be made to the National Socialist German Labor Party, the NSDAP, which in itself is not one of the defendant organizations in this proceeding, but which is represented among the defendant organizations by its most important formations, namely the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP, which you will hear referred to as Das Korps der Politischen Leiter der NSDAP, the SS (Die Schutzstaffeln der NSDAP), and the SA (Die Sturmabteilungen) of the Party.

With the permission of the Tribunal the Prosecution will offer at this point, as its first exhibit, a chart showing the structure and organization of the NSDAP, substantially as it existed at the peak of its development in March 1945. This chart has been prepared by the Prosecution on the basis of information contained in important and well-known official publications of the National Socialist Party with which the defendants must be presumed to have been well acquainted. We refer particularly to the Organization Book of the Party, (Das Organisationsbuch der NSDAP), and to the National Socialist Year Book, (Nationalsozialistisches Jahrbuch), of both of which, be it noted, the late Defendant Robert Ley was the chief editor or publisher. Both books appeared, in the course of time, in many editions and in hundreds of thousands of copies, throughout the period when the National Socialist Party was in control of the German Reich and of the German people. The chart, furthermore, which we are offering has been certified on its face as correct by a high official of the Nazi Party, namely Franz Xaver Schwarz, its treasurer (Reichsschatzmeister der NSDAP) and its official in charge of Party administration; and his affidavit is being submitted with the chart, and I now wish to offer this chart in evidence. (Document Number 2903-PS, Exhibit USA-2.)

We have been able to have this chart duplicated, and, with the permission of the Tribunal, we are making it available to all concerned.

Before I offer some remarks of explanation concerning the organization of the National Socialist German Labor Party, which, we believe, will be found useful in connection with the Prosecution’s case, I would just like to call the attention of the Tribunal to the fact that the larger chart which now appears is a simplification of the duplicated chart which Your Honors have been furnished. For if it had been reproduced in the same detail, I am afraid many of the boxes would not have appeared intelligible from this point.

I would like to call your attention first of all to an organization with which we will have to become very familiar: the Leadership Corps of the NSDAP, (the Reichsleiter), which has been named as a defendant organization and which comprises the sum of the officials and leaders of the Nazi Party. If Your Honors will be good enough to follow me down the center line of the chart, we come to the main horizontal line of division where the word “Reichsleiter” appears. That is the first category of the Leadership Corps, I should say, the main category, perhaps, of the Leadership Corps.

The Führer, of course, stands above it. As we follow the vertical line of division to the lower part of the chart, we reach five additional boxes, which may be referred to collectively as the Hoheitsträger, the bearers of the sovereignty of the Party, and those, are the Gauleiter, the Kreisleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter, the Zellenleiter, and the Blockleiter.

The Führer at the top of our chart is the supreme and the only leader in the Nazi hierarchy. His successor-designate was first the Defendant Hess and subsequently the Defendant Göring.

The Reichsleiter, of whom 16 are shown on this chart, comprise collectively the Party Directorate (Reichsleitung). Through them, coordination of the Party and State machinery was achieved. A number of these Reichsleiter, each of whom, at some time, was in charge of at least one office within the Party Directorate, were also the heads of other Party formations and affiliated and supervised organizations of the Party and also of agencies of the State, and they even held ministerial positions. The Reichsleitung may be said to represent the horizontal organization of the Party according to functions, within which all threads controlling the varied life of the German people met. Each office within the Reichsleitung of the NSDAP executed definite tasks assigned to it by the Führer, or by the leader of the Party Chancellery (Chef der Parteikanzlei), who on the chart before you appears directly under the Führer.

In 1945 the chief of the Party Chancellery was Martin Bormann, the defendant in this proceeding, and before him, and until his flight to England in 1941, the Defendant Rudolf Hess. It was the duty of the Reichsleitung to make certain that these tasks assigned to it by the Führer were carried out with expedition and without interruption, in order that the will of the Führer quickly and rapidly was communicated to the lowest Party echelon, the lowliest Zelle or Block. The individual offices of the Reichsleitung had the mission to remain in constant and closest contact with the life of the people through the agency of the subdivisions of the component Party organizations in the Gaue, within the Kreis, or the Ort or the lower group. These leaders had been taught that the right to organize human beings accrued through the appreciation of the fact that a people must be educated ideologically; “weltanschaulich”, the Germans call it, that is to say, according to the philosophy of National Socialism.

Among the Reichsleiter, on trial in this cause, may be included the following defendants:

If Your Honors will follow me to this broad, horizontal line, we start at the extreme left at the box marked with the Defendant Frank’s name. At one time, although not in March 1945, he was the head of the Legal Office of the Party. He was the Reichsleiter des Reichsrechtsamtes.

In the third square appears the Defendant Rosenberg, the delegate of the Führer for Ideological Training and Education of the Party. He was called “Der Beauftragte des Führers für die Überwachung der gesamten geistigen und weltanschaulichen Schulung der NSDAP.” Next to him, to the right, is the Defendant Von Schirach, leader of youth education, (Leiter für die Jugenderziehung). Next to him, appears the late Defendant Robert Ley, at one time head of the Party Organization (Reichsorganisationsleiter der NSDAP) and also the leader of the German Labor Front, the DAF (Leiter der Deutschen Arbeitsfront).

Then, if we cross the vertical line, and proceed to the right—in passing I might allude to the box marked with the name of Schwarz. He was the Party official and Reichsleiter, who certified to the chart before the Tribunal.

As we proceed further to the right, next to the last box, we find the name of the Defendant Frick, who was the leader of the Reichstag fraction (Leiter der NS Reichstagsfraktion).

The next categories to be considered are the Hoheitsträger, at the bottom of the vertical line, in the center of the chart. The National Socialists called them the bearers of sovereignty. To them was assigned the political sovereignty over specially designated subdivisions of the State, of which they were the appointed leaders. The Hoheitsträger may be said to represent the vertical organization of the Party.

These leaders, these Hoheitsträger included all Gauleiter, of whom there were 42 within the Reich in 1945. A Gauleiter was a political leader of the largest subdivision of the State. He was charged by the Führer with the political, cultural, and economic control over all forms and manifestations of the life of the people and the coordination of the same with National Socialist philosophy and ideology.

A number of the defendants before the bar of this Tribunal were former Gauleiter of the NSDAP. I mention, in this connection, the Defendant Streicher, Gauleiter of Franconia, “Franken-Führer” they called him, whose seat was in the city of Nuremberg. Von Schirach was Gauleiter of Vienna and the Defendant Sauckel was Gauleiter of Thuringia.

The next lower category on the chart were the Kreisleiter, the political leaders of the largest subdivision within a Gau. Then follow the Ortsgruppenleiter, the political leaders of the largest subdivision within the Kreis. And a Kreis consisted perhaps of several towns or villages or, in the case of a larger city, anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 households.

The next Hoheitsträger were the Zellenleiter, the political leaders of a group from four to eight city blocks, or of a corresponding group within country districts, and then follow the Blockleiter, the political leaders of from 40 to 60 households.

Now, each of these political leaders, of these Hoheitsträger, or bearers of sovereignty, was directly responsible to the next highest leader in the Nazi hierarchy. The Gauleiter was directly responsible to the Führer himself; the Kreisleiter was directly responsible to the Gauleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter to the Kreisleiter, and so on.

The Führer himself reserved to himself, in accordance with the philosophy that runs through the Party, the right to name all Führer. It was he, personally, that named the Reichsleiter, all members of the Party Directorate. It was he that appointed all Gauleiter and Kreisleiter and all political leaders, down to the grade of Gauamtsleiter, which was a lower classification of political leader within the Party organization of the Gau.

These Hoheitsträger, together with the Reichsleitung, constituted the all-powerful group of leaders by means of which the Nazi Party reached right down into the lives of the people, consolidated its control of them and compelled them to conform to the National Socialist pattern. For this purpose broad powers were given to them, including the right to call upon all Party formations to effectuate their plans. They could requisition the services of the SA and of the SS, as well as of the HJ and of the NSKK. If I may direct your attention, for the moment, to the Party organizations that appear at the extreme left of the chart, I would just like to say that structurally these organizations were organized regionally to accord with the offices and regions controlled by the Hoheitsträger. If I might be more explicit, let us take the SA. The subsidiary formations of the SA came down and corresponded, in its lower organizations, to the Gau, so that we have a Gauleitung in the SA, and further down, to the Kreis, so that we have a Kreisleitung in the SA, so that the Gauleiter and the Kreisleiter, to cite two examples, charged with a particular duty by the Führer, could call on these organizations for assistance in carrying out their tasks.

These sinister implications of the use of this power will become more apparent as the Prosecution’s case develops, and as the wealth of evidentiary material is introduced into evidence to prove the criminality of the defendant organizations.

The component Party-organizations, called “Gliederungen” within the Party, are shown at the extreme left of the chart, and are the organizations to which I directed the attention of Your Honors a moment ago. These organizations actually constitute the Party itself, and substantially the entire Party-membership is contained within these organizations. The four principal organizations are sometimes referred to as “para-military” organizations. They were uniformed organizations and they were armed. These organizations were the notorious SA and SS, which are named as party-defendants in this case, the HJ (Hitler Youth), and the NSKK—the Motor Corps of the Party (Kraftfahrkorps). Then there were also the National Socialist Women’s Organization, the National Socialist German Students’ Bund (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund), and the National Socialist University Teachers’ Organization (Nationalsozialistischer Dozentenbund).

There are additional organizations that were officially designated within the Party, as affiliated organizations, not Gliederungen or controlled organizations, but affiliated organizations (Angeschlossene Verbände der NSDAP). Among those organizations we have the German Labor Front (Deutsche Arbeitsfront)—the DAF; we have an organization that controlled the civil service (Reichsbund der Deutschen Beamten). There were the physicians within the National Socialist Deutscher Ärztebund; there were the teachers in the National Socialist Lehrerbund; there were the lawyers within the National Socialist Rechtswahrerbund, of which, at one time, the Defendant Frank was the head.

There is another group of organizations which was officially known as supervised organizations (Betreute Organisationen der NSDAP), organizations that included certain specialized women’s organizations (Deutsches Frauenwerk), certain student societies (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Studentenschaft), former university students (Altherrenbund der Deutschen Studenten). There was a group that had reference to the German communes (Nationalsozialistischer Deutscher Gemeindetag), and there was a Reichsbund für Leibesübungen that interested itself in controlling all those interested in physical exercise.

According to the official Party designations applicable to the various organizations and associations that controlled German life there was a fourth category, which is the last organization that appears to the right on the chart before Your Honors, which is sometimes simply called “Weitere Nationalsozialistische Organisationen”, and here, in some respects, we are in “No man’s land”, because the Party was not static, it was dynamic and our latest information is now to the effect that the organizations that ordinarily came within this category, well-known organizations like the RAD (Reich Labor Service) and the NSFK (the National Socialist Fliegerkorps) or Flying Corps may no longer be included there. At least that was the opinion of the Party treasurer, who certified to this chart.

I think with these few remarks, I have given some general impression of the structure of the Party, with which we are dealing in this proceeding before Your Honors.

Before leaving the chart, perhaps I would just like to point out several other instances where some of the defendants appear in this set-up.

At the very top, to the left of the Führer, as marked on the chart before Your Honors, are the successors-designate of the Führer. First is the Defendant Hess, until 1941, and followed by the Defendant Göring. Under the Führer appears the chief of the Party Chancellery, the Defendant Martin Bormann, and then, if we come to the level of the Reichsleiter, and go to the left, opposite Rosenberg’s name, we find that somewhat below that his name is repeated as the head of an office on a lower level, namely, the Foreign Relations Office of the Party, which played such a sinister influence in the early work of the Party, as will later appear in the documentary evidence to be presented to Your Honors.

We then come to the late Defendant Ley’s name, on the main horizontal division, and follow the dotted line to a lower level, and we will find he was the chief of the German Labor Front, and if we come closer to the vertical line, to a lower level, below the Reichsleitung, we find the Defendant Speer in the Hauptamt für Technik (the Office of Technical Affairs), and below that as the chief of the Bund Deutscher Technik (German Technological League).

With the permission of the Tribunal, the Prosecution will now pass to the consideration of the governmental machinery of the German State, which, like the organization of the Nazi Party, requires some brief observations before the Prosecution proceeds with the submission of proof on the Common Plan of Conspiracy, with which the defendants have been charged.

If the Tribunal will allow, the Prosecution will offer as its second exhibit, another chart, delineating substantially the governmental structure of the Reich Government as it existed in March 1945, and also the chief Leadership Corps of the Reich Government and the Reich Administration during those years. (Document Number 2905-PS, Exhibit USA-3)

This chart has been prepared by the Prosecution on the basis of information contained in two official publications, Das Taschenbuch für Verwaltungsbeamte, (the Manual for Administrative Officers) and the National Sozialistisches Jahrbuch, to which I have already alluded, edited by the Defendant Ley.

This chart has been examined, corrected, and certified by the Defendant Wilhelm Frick, whose affidavit is submitted with the chart. In fact, it is reproduced directly on the copies of the charts before Your Honors.

It seems plain that the Defendant Frick, a former Minister of Interior of the Reich from January 1933 to August 1943, was well qualified, by reason of his position and long service in public office during the National Socialist regime, to certify to the substantial accuracy of the facts disclosed in this chart.

Now, with the permission of the Tribunal, I would like to make some brief comments on this chart.

First of all, we refer to the Reichsregierung, which is the big box in the center of the chart on the vertical line, directly below Hitler. The Reichsregierung is a word that may not be translated literally as “government of the Reich.” The word “Reichsregierung” is a word of art and is applied collectively to the ministers who composed the German Cabinet.

The Reichsregierung has been named as a defendant in this proceeding, and as used in the Indictment the expression “Reichsregierung” identifies a group which, we will urge, should be declared to have been a criminal organization.

This group includes all the men named in that center box, who were members of the Cabinet after 30 January 1933, that is, Reich ministers with and without portfolio, and all other officials entitled to participate in the deliberations of the Cabinet.

Secondly, it includes members of the Counsel of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich. It is called “Ministerrat für die Reichsverteidigung”, which is the large box to the right of the vertical line.

Then, it includes the members of the Secret Cabinet Council, which is the small box to the left of the vertical line, the Geheimer Kabinettsrat, of which the Defendant Von Neurath was the President.

Unlike the Cabinets and Ministerial Councils in countries that were not within the orbit of the Axis, the Reichsregierung, after 30 January, 1933 when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the German Reich, did not remain merely the executive branch of the Government. In short order it also came to be possessed, and it exercised legislative, and other functions as well, in the governmental system into which the German Government developed while under the domination of the National Socialist Party.

It is proper to observe here that unlike such Party organizations as the SA and SS, the Reichsregierung, before 1933, certainly, was not a body created exclusively or even predominantly for the purpose of committing illegal acts. The Reichsregierung was an instrument of government provided for by the Weimar constitution. Under the Nazi regime, however, the Reichsregierung gradually became a primary agent of the Party, with functions formulated in accordance with the objectives and methods of the Party itself. The Party to all intents and purposes, was intended to be a Führerorden, an order of Führer, a pool of political leaders. And while the Party was, in the words of a German law, “the bearer of the concept of the German State,” it was not identical with the State.

Thus, in order to realize its ideological and political objectives and to reach the German people, the Party had to avail itself of official state channels.

The Reichsregierung, and such agencies and offices established by it, were the chosen instruments, by means of which the Party policies were converted into legislative and administrative acts, binding upon the German people as a whole.

In order to accomplish this result, the Reichsregierung was thoroughly remodelled by the Party. Some of the steps may be here recorded, by which the coordination of Party and State machinery was assured in order to impose the will of the Führer on the German people.

On January 30, 1933, the date that the Führer became Reich Chancellor, there were few National Socialists that were Cabinet members. But, as the power of the Party in the Reich grew, the Cabinet came to include an ever increasing number of Nazis, until by January 1937 no non-Party member remained in the Reichsregierung. New cabinet-posts were created and Nazis appointed to them. Many of these cabinet members were also in the Reichsleitung of the Party.

To give but a few examples:

The Defendant Rosenberg, whose name Your Honors will find in that central box on the vertical line, the delegate of the Führer for Ideological Training and Education of the Party, was a member of the Reichsregierung in his capacity as Minister for the Occupied Eastern Areas, the Reichsminister für die besetzten Ostgebiete.

And if Your Honors will follow me on the vertical line to the main horizontal line and proceed to the very end, you will find a box marked “Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories”, of which the head was the Defendant Rosenberg.

The Defendant Frick, the leader of the National Socialist fraction in the Reichstag, was also Minister of the Interior.

If Your Honors will follow me down to the main horizontal line and two boxes over you will find the Ministry presided over by the Defendant Frick. Goebbels, the Reichsleiter für Propaganda, also sat in the Cabinet as Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (Reichsminister für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda). He is in the next box to the right from the Ministry of the Interior.

After the 25th of July 1934 Party participation in the work of the Cabinet was at all times achieved through the person of the Defendant Rudolf Hess, the deputy of the Führer. By a decree of Hitler the Defendant Hess was invested with the power to take part in the editing of legislative bills with all the departments of the Reich. Later this power of the Führer’s deputy was expanded to include all executive decisions and orders that were published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, the official volume in which are contained the decrees of the State. After Hess’s flight to England in 1941, the Defendant Martin Bormann, as his successor, took over the same functions, and in addition he was given the authority of a Reichsminister so that he could sit in the Cabinet.

Now, another item of importance:

On the 30th of January 1937, four years after Hitler became Chancellor, the Führer executed the acceptances into the Party of those last few Cabinet members who still remained out of the Party. Only one Cabinet member had the strength of character to reject membership in the Party. That was the Minister of Transportation and Minister of Posts, Mr. Eltz-Rübenach. His example was not followed by the Defendant Von Neurath. His example was not followed by the Defendant Raeder. And if the Defendant Schacht was not yet at that time a member of the Party, I might say that his example was not followed by the Defendant Schacht.

The chart shows many other instances where Party members on the highest, as well as subordinate levels, occupied corresponding or other positions in the organization of the State. Take Hitler himself. The Führer of the NSDAP was also the Chancellor of the Reich, with which office, furthermore, the office of President of the Reich was joined and merged after the death of President Von Hindenburg in 1934.

Take the Defendant Göring, the successor-designate of Hitler. As Führer of the SA, he sat in the Cabinet as Air Minister (Luftfahrtminister) and he also held many other important positions, including that of Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe (the German Air Force) and that of Delegate for the Four Year Plan.

Himmler, the notorious head of the SS, the Reichsführer SS, was also the chief of the German Police, reporting to the Defendant Frick. He himself later became Minister of the Interior after the attempted assassination of Hitler on June 20, 1944, which event also catapulted him into the position of Commander-in-Chief of the German Reserve Army.

Now, at the extreme upper left of the chart is a small box that is labeled “Reichstag” (the former German parliament).

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn for 10 minutes, and 10 minutes only.

[A recess was taken.]

MR. ALBRECHT: The Reichstag presents an anomaly in this picture. Under the republic it had been the supreme law-making body of the Reich, subject only to a limited check by the Reichsrat (the Council of the Reich), by the President, and by the people themselves by way of initiative and referendum.

Putting their opposition to all forms of Parliamentarianism into effect at once, the Nazis proceeded to curtail the powers of the Reichstag, to eliminate the Reichsrat, and to merge the Presidency with the Office of Chancellor occupied by the Führer. By the Act of 24th of March 1933 the Cabinet was given unlimited legislative powers, including the right to deviate from the constitution. Subsequently, as I stated, the Reichsrat was abolished, and with that act the residuum of the power to legislate in the Reichstag was reduced to a minimum. I say the power was reduced to a minimum because the actual power to legislate was never taken away from the Reichstag, but certainly after the advent of the Party to power it was never permitted to exercise as a legislature.

The Reichsregierung retained its legislative powers throughout, even though from time to time other agencies of the Reichsregierung, such as the Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the upper right of the chart, (the Generalbevollmächtigter für die Reichsverwaltung), the Plenipotentiary for Economy, also in the right-hand corner of the chart, (the Generalbevollmächtigter für die Wirtschaft), and the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich, were created. That is the big box to the right of the vertical line. And these agencies of the Reichsregierung received certain concurrent legislative powers.

The development of the Reichstag into an emasculated legislative body was, however, only an intermediate step on the road to rule by Führer decrees. That was the ultimate goal of the Party, and a goal which they achieved.

The Nazis then proceeded to delegate some of the powers of the Reich Cabinet to all sorts of newly created agencies, some of which I have already mentioned. Cabinet functions were delegated first of all to the Reich Defense Council, the Reichsverteidigungsrat, possibly as early as the 4th of April 1933, but we believe certainly not later than 1935. I might say in this connection that with respect to a number of these agencies of the Reichsregierung which received delegated powers, we are moving in a somewhat shadowy land, because in developing this organization we are dealing—to some extent, at least—with decrees and actions that were secret, or secretive, in character.

A number of these decrees were never definitely fixed in time. A number of them were never published and the German people themselves never became acquainted with them. And that is why I say that the Reich Defense Council may possibly have been created as early as two and one-half months after the advent of Hitler to power but we believe that we will be able to show to the satisfaction of the Tribunal that that important body in the Government of the Reich was created certainly not later than May 1935.

I say it is an important body. This was the war-planning group, of which Hitler himself was chairman and the Defendant Göring the alternate. It was a large war-planning body, as Your Honors will note, that included many Cabinet members, and there was also a working committee—the true numerical size of which does not appear from the chart—which was presided over by the Defendant Keitel. That also was composed of Cabinet members and of Reich defense officials, the majority of whom were appointed by Cabinet officers and subject to their control. Other powers were delegated to the Plenipotentiary, whom I have named before, for Administration, appearing at the extreme right of the chart. That was the Defendant Frick, and later the notorious Himmler.

Subordinate to Frick in his capacity as Plenipotentiary for Administration were complete ministries, the Ministry of the Interior (Frick’s old ministry), Ministry of Justice, Education, Church Affairs, and Raumordnung (the Ministry for Special Planning).

Other powers went to the delegate for the Four Year Plan, again the Defendant Göring, whose box appears to the left of the median line, half way to the edge.

There were certain other powers that went to an organization within the shadow-land I mentioned, and which, unfortunately, does not have its name appear on this chart, the Dreierkollegium (the College of Three), which title should really be imposed over the last three boxes in the upper right hand corner; because the Dreierkollegium consisted not alone of the Plenipotentiary for Administration, but also the Plenipotentiary for War Economy, and the chairman of that group who, I believe, was the Defendant Keitel, as the head of the OKW, the Wehrmacht, all the armed forces. The duties of the Dreierkollegium would seem to have included the drafting of decrees in preparation of and for use during war. To the Secret Cabinet Council, the Geheimer Kabinettsrat, of which the Defendant Von Neurath was chairman,—or President, I believe was his title, went other powers. That Secret Cabinet Council was created by a decree of the Führer in 1938.

Certain other delegation of power took place to the Ministerrat für die Reichsverteidigung (the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Realm), which is the smallest box appearing under the large box of the Reich Defense Council, to the right of the vertical line.

The Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich was responsible to the Führer alone. Its membership, as would seem to be indicated on the chart, was taken from the Reich Defense Council. It had broad powers to issue decrees with the force of law in so far as the Reichsregierung itself had not legislated on the subject.

It should be stressed that this delegation of Cabinet functions to various groups, composed largely of its own members, helped to conceal some of the important policies of the Reichsregierung, namely, those relating to the preparation of war, which delegated the necessary authority to secret and semi-secret agencies. Thus in a general way, as I have outlined, did the National Socialist Party succeed in putting Nazi policies into effect through its dummy, through the machinery of the State, the Reichsregierung, in its revised form.

I think it might be helpful if Your Honors will permit me to point out on this chart the large number of instances in which the defendants’ names reappear in connection with the functions of the Government of the Reich.

Now, first of all, the Reichsregierung itself—I am sorry to say in that connection that there is one omission, a very important omission. It is the name of the Vice Chancellor under Hitler, Von Papen, who was Vice Chancellor from the seizure of power until some time around the purge in June 1934.

Your Honors will see a grouping of Reich Ministers with portfolio, and under it of Ministers without portfolio, in which mostly the names of the defendants in court are listed. There are State Ministers listed acting as Reich Ministers, and you will note the name of the Defendant Frank. There are other participants in Cabinet meetings, among which you will notice the name of the Defendant Von Schirach.

Now, this whole line on which the Cabinet hangs is the level of the Reich Cabinet, and as I have stated, organizations that grew out of this maternal organism, the Reichsregierung.

To the left the Secret Cabinet Council includes the names of the defendants. Still further to the left is the delegate for the Four Year Plan. And over to the very end is the Reichstag, of which the President was the Defendant Göring, and the leader of the Reichstagsfraktion, the Defendant Frick.

If we proceed to the right of the median line, we have the Reich Defense Council, with Hitler himself as chairman, the Reich Defense Committee under it, and the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Realm, which grew out of the Reich Defense Council. And we see mostly the names of Cabinet ministers, including, if I may advert to that fact, particularly the names of purely military leaders, such as the Defendant Raeder and the Defendant Keitel.

And farther to the right, all names mentioned as defendants in these proceedings, Schacht, the first Plenipotentiary for War Economy, later succeeded by Funk; Field Marshal Keitel as the Chief of the OKW, and the Defendant Frick again as Plenipotentiary for Administration, in the triangle which became known as the “Dreierkollegium.”

If we descend the vertical line to the horizontal line in the middle, we have the various ministries over which these Cabinet ministers, this Reichsregierung, presided. We have also at the extreme left and the extreme right, very important and special offices that were set up at the instigation of the Party, and those offices reported directly to the Führer himself.

If I may start at the extreme left, I will point out that as the civil government moved after the military machine into the lowlands, the Defendant Seyss-Inquart became the Reichskommissar for the Netherlands.

A few names below that of Seyss-Inquart is the name of the Defendant Von Neurath, the Reichsprotektor for Bohemia and Moravia, who was later succeeded by the Defendant Frick; and under those names, the name of the Defendant Frank, the General-gouverneur of Poland.

Adjoining the box of these administrators who reported directly to the Reich Chancellor and President was the Foreign Office, presided over first by the Defendant Von Neurath, and subsequently by the Defendant Von Ribbentrop.

If we proceed down below the elongation under the smaller box dealing with German legations, there should, of course, in any itemized, detailed treatment of that box appear the name of the Defendant Von Papen, the representative of the Reich in Austria for a time, and later in Turkey.

The next box on the horizontal line is the Ministry of Economics, (the Reichswirtschaftsministerium). First is the name of the Defendant Schacht, followed by the name of the Defendant Göring, and by the name of the Defendant Funk.

The next box, the Ministry for Armament and War Production (the Reichsministerium für Rüstung und Kriegsproduktion), was presided over by the Defendant Speer. And out of this organization, and subordinate to it, in the box devoted to the Organization Todt, again the name of the Defendant Speer, who succeeded Todt to the leadership of that organization upon the death of Todt.

Two boxes over, the Ministry of Justice, if Your Honors will follow me, down close to the bottom of the page to the last left-hand box, appearing under the Ministry of Justice, is the Reichsrechtsanwaltskammer—I am sorry, the box next to the bottom at the left which is devoted to the Academy for German Law (Die Akademie für deutsches Recht), over which the Defendant Frank presided for a time.

Almost at the vertical line, the Air Ministry, of which the Defendant Göring was Oberkommandant; and next to it again the Ministry of the Interior, presided over by the Defendant Frick.

If Your Honors will follow me again to the bottom of all the squares to the small horizontal line at the bottom of the Ministry of the Interior, we come to certain state officials, called “Reich Governors” (Reichsstatthalter). And if those boxes were sufficiently detailed there would appear thereon the names, among others, of the Defendant Sauckel, who besides being the Gauleiter of Thuringia, was also the Reichsstatthalter or Governor there. There would also appear the name of the Defendant Von Schirach, who was not only the Gauleiter of Vienna, but also the State representative there—the Governor—the Reichsstatthalter of Vienna.

And springing out of the Ministry of the Interior is the box or boxes devoted to the German police, and in the first sub-division appearing to the right, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, the name of the Defendant Kaltenbrunner.

In the Ministry of Propaganda, about midway down in this box, appears the name of the Defendant Fritzsche, who, although as the chart is drawn, would not appear in the position of one of the chief directing heads of the Ministry, actually was very much more important than his position there will indicate; and proof will be submitted to Your Honors in support of that contention.

At the end of the horizontal line is the Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (the Reichsministerium für die Besetzten Ostgebiete) of which the Defendant Rosenberg was the head.

And to the right of that box, among the agencies immediately subordinate to Hitler as Reichskanzler and President, there is the office of General Inspector for Highways, with the name of the Defendant Speer associated with it; the General Inspector for Water and Energy, again with the name of the Defendant Speer associated with it.

There follows the Reich Office for Forestry (the Reichsforstamt) under the Defendant Göring; the Reichsjugendführer (the leader of the Reich Youth), the Defendant Von Schirach; the Reich Housing Commissioner (Reichswohnungskommissar), the late Defendant Robert Ley; and among the subsequent agencies, that of the important Reichsbank, over which the Defendant Schacht presided, to be succeeded subsequently by the Defendant Funk; the General Inspector for the Reich Capital (Generalbauinspekteur für die Reichshauptstadt), the Defendant Speer.

I think I have named all of the defendants as they appear on this chart, and of those now before Your Honors in this cause I think they all appear on this chart in one capacity or another, in one or more capacities,—all, I might add, except the Defendant Jodl. Jodl was the Chief of Staff of all the Armed Forces. He was the head of the Wehrmacht Führungsstab, and in the chart as evidential material which will be subsequently brought before Your Honors, the name Jodl will figure prominently in connection with the organization of the Armed Forces.

If I may make one correction at this point, a slip of the tongue that was called to my attention, in discussing the chart of the Party, in the small box to the left containing the designates of the Führer to succeed him to the Party leadership, I made the statement that Göring succeeded Hess as Führer-designate. Actually, when the designations were announced by the Führer, Göring was always the first designate, and the Defendant Hess the second.

In Annex A of the Indictment the various offices, Party functions, and State offices which these defendants held in the course of the period under discussion, these various offices are mentioned. And we would like to submit at this time and offer into evidence as exhibits proof of the offices that were occupied by these defendants. This proof consists of 17 statements, more or less, signed by the defendants themselves and/or their counsel, certifying to the Party and State offices that they have held from time to time. Some of these statements were not as complete as we desired to have them, and we have appended thereto a statement showing such additional offices or proof of Party membership as was available to us. I would like to offer those into evidence.

MR. ALBRECHT: And now, if Your Honors please, I offer into evidence the two charts to which my remarks have been addressed in the course of the morning.

THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel for the United States continue the evidence until half past 12?

COL. STOREY: If Your Honor please, it lacks 2 minutes until half past 12. Mr. Albrecht has finished, and will it be convenient for Your Honors for Major Wallis to start at 2 o’clock?

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

[The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.]