Chapter V: Opening Address for the United States (2)

You will have difficulty, as I have, to look into the faces of these defendants and believe that in this Twentieth Century human beings could inflict such sufferings as will be proved here on their own countrymen as well as upon their so-called “inferior” enemies. Particular crimes, and the responsibility of defendants for them, are to be dealt with by the Soviet Government’s Counsel, when committed in the East, and by Counsel for the Republic of France when committed in the West. I advert to them only to show their magnitude as evidence of a purpose and a knowledge common to all defendants, of an official plan rather than of a capricious policy of some individual commander, and to show such a continuity of Jewish persecution from the rise of the Nazi conspiracy to its collapse as forbids us to believe that any person could be identified with any part of Nazi action without approving this most conspicuous item of its program.

The Indictment itself recites many evidences of the anti-Semitic persecutions. The defendant Streicher led the Nazis in anti-Semitic bitterness and extremism. In an article appearing in _Der Stuermer_ on 19 March, 1942 he complained that Christian teachings have stood in the way of “radical solution of the Jewish question in Europe,” and quoted enthusiastically as the Twentieth Century solution the Fuehrer’s proclamation of February 24, 1942 that “the Jew will be exterminated.” And on November 4, 1943, Streicher declared in _Der Stuermer_ that the Jews “have disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish ‘Reservoir of the East’ from which the Jewish plague has for centuries beset the people of Europe, has ceased to exist.” Streicher now has the effrontery to tell us he is “only a Zionist”—he says he wants only to return the Jews to Palestine. But on May 7, 1942 his newspaper, _Der Stuermer_, had this to say:

“It is also not only an European problem! _The Jewish question
is a world question!_ Not only is Germany not safe in the face
of the Jews as long as one Jew lives in Europe, but also the
Jewish question is hardly solved in Europe so long as Jews live
in the rest of the world.”

And the defendant Hans Frank, a lawyer by profession I say with shame, summarized in his Diary in 1944 the Nazi policy thus: “The Jews are a race which has to be eliminated; whenever we catch one, it is his end.” (Frank Diary, 4 March 1944, p. 26). And earlier, speaking of his function as Governor-General of Poland, he confided to his diary this sentiment: “Of course I cannot eliminate all lice and Jews in only a year’s time.” (_2233-C-PS_) I could multiply endlessly this kind of Nazi ranting but I will leave it to the evidence and turn to the fruit of this perverted thinking.

The most serious of the actions against Jews were outside of any law, but the law itself was employed to some extent. There were the infamous Nurnberg decrees of September 15, 1935 (_Reichsgesetzblatt_ 1935, Part I, p. 1146). The Jews were segregated into ghettos and put into forced labor; they were expelled from their professions; their property was expropriated; all cultural life, the press, the theatre, and schools were prohibited them; and the SD was made responsible for them (_212-PS_; _069-PS_). This was an ominous guardianship, as the following order for “The Handling of the Jewish Question” shows:

“The competency of the Chief of the Security Police and Security
Service, who is charged with the mission of solving the European
Jewish question, extends even to the occupied eastern provinces.
* * *

“An eventual act by the civilian population against the Jews is
not to be prevented as long as this is compatible with the
maintenance of order and security in the rear of the fighting
troops * * *

“The first main goal of the German measures must be strict
segregation of Jewry from the rest of the population. In the
execution of this, first of all is the seizing of the Jewish
populace by the introduction of a registration order and similar
appropriate measures * * *

“Then immediately, the wearing of the recognition sign
consisting of a yellow Jewish star is to be brought about and
all rights of freedom for Jews are to be withdrawn. They are to
be placed in Ghettos and at the same time are to be separated
according to sexes. The presence of many more or less closed
Jewish settlements in White Ruthenia and in the Ukraine makes
this mission easier. Moreover, places are to be chosen which
make possible the full use of the Jewish manpower in case labor
needs are present * * *

“The entire Jewish property is to be seized and confiscated with
exception of that which is necessary for a bare existence. As
far as the economical situation permits, the power of disposal
of their property is to be taken from the Jews as soon as
possible through orders and other measures given by the
commissariate, so that the moving of property will quickly
cease.

“Any cultural activity will be completely forbidden, to the Jew.
This includes the outlawing of the Jewish press, the Jewish
theatres and schools.

“The slaughtering of animals according to Jewish rites is also
to be prohibited * * *” (_212-PS_).

The anti-Jewish campaign became furious in Germany following the assassination in Paris of the German Legation Councillor von Rath. Heydrich, Gestapo head, sent a teletype to all Gestapo and SD offices with directions for handling “spontaneous” uprising anticipated for the nights of November 9 and 10, 1938, so as to aid in destruction of Jewish-owned property and protect only that of Germans (_374-PS_; _765-PS_). No more cynical document ever came into evidence. Then there is a report by an SS Brigade Leader, Dr. Stahlecher, to Himmler, which recites that:

“Similarly, native anti-Semitic forces were induced to start
pogroms against Jews during the first hours after capture,
though this inducement proved to be very difficult. Following
our orders, the Security Police was determined to solve the
Jewish question with all possible means and most decisively. But
it was desirable that the Security Police should not put in an
immediate appearance, at least in the beginning, since the
extraordinarily harsh measures were apt to stir even German
circles. It had to be shown to the world that the native
population itself took the first action by way of natural
reaction against the suppression by Jews during several decades
and against the terror exercised by the Communists during the
preceding period.”

* * * * * *

“In view of the extension of the area of operations and the
great number of duties which had to be performed by the Security
Police, it was intended from the very beginning to obtain the
cooperation of the reliable population for the fight against
vermin—that is mainly the Jews and Communists. Beyond our
directing of the first spontaneous actions of self-cleansing,
which will be reported elsewhere, care had to be taken that
reliable people should be put to the cleansing job and that they
were appointed auxiliary members of the Security Police.”

* * * * * *

“Kowno * * * To our surprise it was not easy at first to set in
motion an extensive pogrom against Jews. KLIMATIS, the leader of
the partisan unit, mentioned above, who was used for this
purpose primarily, succeeded in starting a pogrom on the basis
of advice given to him by a small advanced detachment acting in
Kowno, and in such a way that no German order or German
instigation was noticed from the outside. During the first
pogrom in the night from 25. to 26.6 the Lithuanian partisans
did away with more than 1,500 Jews, set fire to several
synagogues or destroyed them by other means and burned down a
Jewish dwelling district consisting of about 60 houses. During
the following nights about 2,300 Jews were made harmless in a
similar way. In other parts of Lithuania similar actions
followed the example of Kowno, though smaller and extending to
the Communists who had been left behind.

“These self-cleansing actions went smoothly because the Army
authorities who had been informed showed understanding for this
procedure. From the beginning it was obvious that only the first
days after the occupation would offer the opportunity for
carrying out pogroms. After the disarmament of the partisans the
self-cleansing actions ceased necessarily.

“It proved much more difficult to set in motion similar
cleansing actions in Latvia.”

* * * * * *

“From the beginning it was to be expected that the Jewish
problem in the East could not be solved by pogroms alone. In
accordance with the basic orders received, however, the
cleansing activities of the Security Police had to aim at a
complete annihilation of the Jews * * *

“The sum total of the Jews liquidated in Lithuania amounts to
71,105.” (_L-180_).

Of course, it is self-evident that these “uprisings” were managed by the government and the Nazi Party. If we were in doubt, we could resort to Streicher’s memorandum of April 14, 1939, which says, “The anti-Jewish action of November, 1938 did not arise spontaneously from the people. * * * Part of the party formation have been charged with the execution of the anti-Jewish action.” (_406-PS_). Jews as a whole were fined a billion Reichsmarks. They were excluded from all businesses, and claims against insurance companies for their burned properties were confiscated, all by decree of the defendant Goering (_Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1938, Part I, Pp. 1579-1582).

Synagogues were the objects of a special vengeance. On November 10, 1938, the following order was given: “By order of the Group Commander, all Jewish Synagogues in the area of Brigade 50 have to be blown up or set afire. * * * The operation will be carried out in civilian clothing. * * * Execution of the order will be reported * * *.” (_1721-PS_). Some 40 teletype messages from various police headquarters will tell the fury with which all Jews were pursued in Germany on those awful November nights. The SS troops were turned loose and the Gestapo supervised. Jewish-owned property was authorized to be destroyed. The Gestapo ordered twenty to thirty thousand “well-to-do Jews” to be arrested. Concentration camps were to receive them. Healthy Jews, fit for labor, were to be taken (_3051-PS_).

As the German frontiers were expanded by war, so the campaign against the Jews expanded. The Nazi plan never was limited to extermination in Germany; always it contemplated extinguishing the Jew in Europe and often in the world. In the west, the Jews were killed and their property taken over. But the campaign achieved its zenith of savagery in the East. The Eastern Jew has suffered as no people ever suffered. Their sufferings were carefully reported to the Nazi authorities to show faithful adherence to the Nazi design. I shall refer only to enough of the evidence of these to show the extent of the Nazi design for killing Jews.

If I should recite these horrors in words of my own, you would think me intemperate and unreliable. Fortunately, we need not take the word of any witness but the Germans themselves. I invite you now to look at a few of the vast number of captured German orders and reports that will be offered in evidence, to see what a Nazi invasion meant. We will present such evidence as the report of _Einsatzgruppe_ (Action Group) A of October 15, 1941, which boasts that in overrunning the Baltic States, “Native Anti-Semitic forces were induced to start pogroms against the Jews during the first hours after occupation * * *.” The report continues:

“From the beginning it was to be expected that the Jewish
problem in the East could not be solved by pogroms alone. In
accordance with the basic orders received, however, the
cleansing activities of the Security Police had to aim at a
complete annihilation of the Jews. Special detachments
reinforced by selected units—in Lithuania partisan detachments,
in Latvia units of the Latvian auxiliary police—therefore
performed extensive executions both in the towns and in rural
areas. The actions of the execution detachments were performed
smoothly.

“The sum total of the Jews liquidated in Lithuania amounts to
71,105. During the pogroms in Kowno 3,800 Jews were eliminated,
in the smaller towns about 1,200 Jews.

“In Latvia, up to now a total of 30,000 Jews were executed. 500
were eliminated by pogroms in Riga.” (_L-180_).

This is a captured report from the Commissioner of Sluzk on October 30, 1941, which describes the scene in more detail. It says:

“The first lieutenant explained that the police battalion had
received the assignment to effect the liquidation of all Jews
here in the town of Sluzk, within two days. Then I requested him
to postpone the action one day. However, he rejected this with
the remark that he had to carry out this action everywhere and
in all towns and that only two days were allotted for Sluzk.
Within these two days, the town of Sluzk had to be cleared of
Jews by all means. * * * All Jews without exception were taken
out of the factories and shops and deported in spite of our
agreement. It is true that part of the Jews was moved by way of
the ghetto where many of them were processed and still
segregated by me, but a large part was loaded directly on trucks
and liquidated without further delay outside of the town. * * *
For the rest, as regards the execution of the action, I must
point out to my deepest regret that the latter bordered already
on sadism. The town itself offered a picture of horror during
the action. With indescribable brutality on the part of both the
German police officers and particularly the Lithuanian
partisans, the Jewish people, but also among them White
Ruthenians, were taken out of their dwellings and herded
together. Everywhere in the town shots were to be heard and in
different streets the corpses of shot Jews accumulated. The
White Ruthenians were in greatest distress to free themselves
from the encirclement. Regardless of the fact that the Jewish
people, among whom were also tradesmen, were mistreated in a
terribly barbarous way in the face of the White Ruthenian
people, the White Ruthenians themselves were also worked over
with rubber clubs and rifle butts. There was no question of an
action against the Jews any more. It rather looked like a
revolution. * * *” (_1104-PS_).

There are reports which merely tabulate the numbers slaughtered. An example is an account of the work of _Einsatzgruppen_ of Sipo and SD in the East, which relates that—

In Estonia, all Jews were arrested immediately upon the arrival
of the Wehrmacht. Jewish men and women above the age of 16 and
capable of work were drafted for forced labor. Jews were
subjected to all sorts of restrictions and all Jewish property
was confiscated.

All Jewish males above the age of 16 were executed, with the
exception of doctors and elders. Only 500 of an original 4,500
Jews remained.

37,180 persons have been liquidated by the Sipo and SD in White
Ruthenia during October.

In one town, 337 Jewish women were executed for demonstrating a
“provocative attitude.” In another, 380 Jews were shot for
spreading vicious propaganda.

And so the report continues, listing town after town, where hundreds upon hundreds of Jews were murdered.

In Witebsk 3,000 Jews were liquidated because of the danger of
epidemics.

In Kiew, 33,771 Jews were executed on September 29 and 30 in
retaliation for some fires which were set off there.

In Shitomir, 3,145 Jews “had to be shot” because, judging from
experience they had to be considered as the carriers of
Bolshevik propaganda.

In Cherson, 410 Jews were executed in reprisal against acts of
sabotage.

In the territory east of the Djnepr, the Jewish problem was
“solved” by the liquidation of 4,891 Jews and by putting the
remainder into labor battalions of up to 1,000 persons
(_R-102_).

Other accounts tell not of the slaughter so much as of the depths of degradation to which the tormentors stooped. For example, we will show the reports made to defendant Rosenberg about the army and the SS in the area under Rosenberg’s jurisdiction, which recited the following:

“Details: In presence of SS man, a Jewish dentist has to break
all gold teeth and fillings out of mouth of German and Russian
Jews _before_ they are executed.”

Men, women and children are locked into barns and burned alive.

Peasants, women and children are shot on pretext that they are
suspected of belonging to bands (_R-135_).

We of the Western World heard of Gas Wagons in which Jews and political opponents were asphyxiated. We could not believe it. But here we have the report of May 16, 1942 from the German SS officer, Becker, to his supervisor in Berlin which tells this story:

Gas vans in C. group can be driven to execution spot, which is
generally stationed 10 to 15 kms. from main road only in dry
weather. Since those to be executed become frantic if conducted
to this place, such vans become immobilized in wet weather.

Gas vans in D. group camouflaged as cabin trailers, but vehicles
well known to authorities and civilian population which calls
them “Death Vans”.

Writer of letter (Becker) ordered all men to keep as far away as
possible during gassing. Unloading van has “atrocious spiritual
and physical effect” on men and they should be ordered not to
participate in such work (_501-PS_).

I shall not dwell on this subject longer than to quote one more sickening document which evidences the planned and systematic character of the Jewish persecutions. I hold a report written with Teutonic devotion to detail, illustrated with photographs to authenticate its almost incredible text, and beautifully bound in leather with the loving care bestowed on a proud work. It is the original report of the SS Brigadier General Stroop in charge of the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and its title page carries the inscription, “The Jewish Ghetto in Warsaw no longer exists.” It is characteristic that one of the captions explains that the photograph concerned shows the driving out of Jewish “bandits”; those whom the photograph shows being driven out are almost entirely women and little children. It contains a day-by-day account of the killings mainly carried out by the SS organization, too long to relate, but let me quote General Stroop’s summary:

“The resistance put up by the Jews and bandits could only be
suppressed by energetic actions of our troops day and night.
_The Reichsfuehrer SS ordered, therefore on 23 April 1943 the
cleaning out of the ghetto with utter ruthlessness and merciless
tenacity._ I, therefore, decided to destroy and burn down the
entire ghetto without regard to the armament factories. These
factories were systematically dismantled and then burned. Jews
usually left their hideouts, but frequently remained in the
burning buildings and jumped out of the windows only when the
heat became unbearable. They then tried to crawl with broken
bones across the street into buildings which were not afire.
Sometimes they changed their hideouts during the night into the
ruins of burned buildings. Life in the sewers was not pleasant
after the first week. Many times we could hear loud voices in
the sewers. SS men or policemen climbed bravely through the
manholes to capture these Jews. Sometimes they stumbled over
Jewish corpses; sometimes they were shot at. Tear gas bombs were
thrown into the manholes and the Jews driven out of the sewers
and captured. Countless numbers of Jews were liquidated in
sewers and bunkers through blasting. The longer the resistance
continued the tougher became the members of the Waffen SS police
and Wehrmacht who always discharged their duties in an exemplary
manner. Frequently Jews who tried to replenish their food
supplies during the night or to communicate with neighboring
groups were exterminated.” (_1061-PS_).

This action eliminated, says the SS commander, “a proved total of 56,065. To that we have to add the number of those killed through blasting, fire, etc., which cannot be counted.”

We charge that all atrocities against Jews were the manifestation and culmination of the Nazi plan to which every defendant here was a party. I know very well that some of these men did take steps to spare some particular Jew for some personal reason from the horrors that awaited the unrescued Jew. Some protested that particular atrocities were excessive, and discredited the general policy. While a few defendants may show efforts to make specific exceptions to the policy of Jewish extermination, I have found no instance in which any defendant opposed the policy itself or sought to revoke or even modify it.

Determination to destroy the Jews was a binding force which at all times cemented the elements of this conspiracy. On many internal policies there were differences among the defendants. But there is not one of them who has not echoed the rallying cry of Naziism—_DEUTSCHLAND ERWACHE JUDA VERRECKE!_ (GERMANY AWAKE, JEWRY PERISH!)

TERRORISM AND PREPARATION FOR WAR

How a Government treats its own inhabitants generally is thought to be no concern of other Governments or of international society. Certainly few oppressions or cruelties would warrant the intervention of foreign powers. But the German mistreatment of Germans is now known to pass in magnitude and savagery any limits of what is tolerable by modern civilization. Other nations, by silence, would take a consenting part in such crimes. These Nazi persecutions, moreover, take character as international crimes because of the purpose for which they were undertaken.

The purpose, as we have seen, of getting rid of the influence of free labor, the churches, and the Jews was to clear their obstruction to the precipitation of aggressive war. If aggressive warfare in violation of treaty obligation is a matter of international cognizance, the preparations for it must also be of concern to the international community. Terrorism was the chief instrument for securing the cohesion of the German people in war purposes. Moreover, these cruelties in Germany served as atrocity practice to discipline the membership of the criminal organization to follow the pattern later in occupied countries.

Through the police formations that before you are accused as criminal organizations, the Nazi Party leaders, aided at some point in their basic and notorious purpose by each of the individual defendants instituted a reign of terror. These espionage and police organizations were utilized to hunt down every form of opposition and to penalize every nonconformity. These organizations early founded and administered concentration camps—Buchenwald in 1933, Dachau in 1934. But these notorious names were not alone. Concentration camps came to dot the German map and to number scores. At first they met with resistance from some Germans. We have a captured letter from Minister of Justice Guertner to Hitler which is revealing. A Gestapo official had been prosecuted for crimes committed in the camp at Hohnstein, and the Nazi Governor of Saxony had promptly asked that the proceeding be quashed. The Minister of Justice in June of 1935 protested because, as he said:

“In this camp unusually grave mistreatments of prisoners have
occurred at least since Summer 1933. The prisoners not only were
beaten with whips without cause, similarly as in the
Concentration Camp Bredow near Stettin till they lost
consciousness, but they were also tortured in other manners,
e.g. with the help of a dripping apparatus constructed
exclusively for this purpose, under which prisoners had to stand
until they were suffering from serious purulent wounds of the
scalp * * *” (_787-PS_).

I shall not take time to detail the ghastly proceedings in these concentration camps. Beatings, starvings, tortures, and killings were routine—so routine that the tormenters became blase and careless. We have a report of discovery that in Ploetzens one night, 186 persons were executed while there were orders for only 180. Another report describes how the family of one victim received two urns of ashes by mistake. Inmates were compelled to execute each other. In 1942, they were paid five Reichsmarks per execution, but on June 27, 1942, SS General Gluecks ordered commandants of all concentration camps to reduce this honorarium to three cigarettes. In 1943, the Reichsleader of the SS and Chief of German Police ordered the corporal punishments on Russian women to be applied by Polish women and vice versa, but the price was not frozen. “As reward, a few cigarettes” was authorized. Under the Nazis, human life had been progressively devalued until it finally became worth less than a handful of tobacco—ersatz tobacco. There were, however, some traces of the milk of human kindness. On August 11, 1942, an order went from Himmler to the commanders of fourteen concentration camps that “only German prisoners are allowed to beat other German prisoners.” (_2189-PS_).

Mystery and suspense was added to cruelty in order to spread torture from the inmate to his family and friends. Men and women disappeared from their homes or business or from the streets, and no word came of them. The omission of notice was not due to overworked staff; it was due to policy. The Chief of the SD and Sipo reported that in accordance with orders from the Fuehrer anxiety should be created in the minds of the family of the arrested person (_668-PS_). Deportations and secret arrests were labeled, with a Nazi wit which seems a little ghoulish, _Nacht und Nebel_ (Night and Fog) (_L-90, 833-PS_). One of the many orders for these actions gave this explanation:

“The decree carries a basic innovation. The Fuehrer and
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces commands that crimes of
the specified sort committed by civilians of the occupied
territories are to be punished by the pertinent courts-martial
in the occupied territories _only_ when

_a._ the sentence calls for the death penalty, and

_b._ the sentence is pronounced within 8 days after the arrest.

“Only when both conditions are met does the Fuehrer and
Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces hope for the desired
deterrent effect from the conduct of punitive proceedings in the
occupied territories.

“In other cases in the future the accused are to be secretly
brought to Germany and the further conduct of the trial carried
on here. The deterrent effect of those measures lies

_a._ in allowing the disappearance of the accused without a
trace,

_b._ therein, that no information whatsoever may be given about
their whereabouts and their fate.” (_833-PS_).

To clumsy cruelty, scientific skill was added. “Undesirables” were exterminated by injection of drugs into the bloodstream, by asphyxiation in gas chambers. They were shot with poison bullets, to study the effects (_L-103_).

Then, to cruel experiments the Nazi added obscene ones. These were not the work of underling degenerates but of master minds high in the Nazi conspiracy. In May 20, 1942, General Field Marshal Milch authorized SS General Wolff to go ahead at Dachau Camp with so-called “cold experiments”; and four female gypsies were supplied for the purpose. Himmler gave permission to carry on these “experiments” also in other camps (_1617-PS_). At Dachau, the reports of the “doctor” in charge show that victims were immersed in cold water until their body temperature was reduced to 28 degrees centigrade (82.4 degrees Fahrenheit), when they all died immediately (_1618-PS_). This was in August 1942. But the “doctor’s” technique improved. By February, 1943, he was able to report that thirty persons were chilled to 27 to 29 degrees, their hands and feet frozen white, and their bodies “rewarmed” by a hot bath. But the Nazi scientific triumph was “rewarming with animal heat.” The victim, all but frozen to death, was surrounded with bodies of living women until he revived and responded to his environment by having sexual intercourse (_1616-PS_). Here Nazi degeneracy reached its nadir.

I dislike to encumber the record with such morbid tales, but we are in the grim business of trying men as criminals, and these are the things their own agents say happened. We will show you these concentration camps in motion pictures, just as the Allied armies found them when they arrived, and the measures General Eisenhower had to take to clean them up. Our proof will be disgusting and you will say I have robbed you of your sleep. But these are the things which have turned the stomach of the world and set every civilized hand against Nazi Germany.

Germany became one vast torture chamber. Cries of its victims were heard round the world and brought shudders to civilized people everywhere. I am one who received during this war most atrocity tales with suspicion and skepticism. But the proof here will be so overwhelming that I venture to predict not one word I have spoken will be denied. These defendants will only deny personal responsibility or knowledge.

Under the clutch of the most intricate web of espionage and intrigue that any modern state has endured, and persecution and torture of a kind that has not been visited upon the world in many centuries, the elements of the German population which were both decent and courageous were annihilated. Those which were decent but weak were intimidated. Open resistance, which had never been more than feeble and irresolute, disappeared. But resistance, I am happy to say, always remained, although it was manifest in only such events as the abortive effort to assassinate Hitler on July 20, 1944. With resistance driven underground, the Nazi had the German State in his own hands.

But the Nazis not only silenced discordant voices. They created positive controls as effective as their negative ones. Propaganda organs, on a scale never before known, stimulated the party and party formations with a permanent enthusiasm and abandon such as we democratic people can work up only for a few days before a general election. They inculcated and practiced the _fuehrerprinzip_, which centralized control of the Party and of the Party-controlled state over the lives and thought of the German people, who are accustomed to look upon the German State by whomever controlled with a mysticism that is incomprehensible to my people.

All these controls from their inception were exerted with unparalleled energy and singlemindedness to put Germany on a war footing. We will show from the Nazis’ own documents their secret training of military personnel, their secret creation of a military air force. Finally, a conscript army was brought into being. Financiers, economists, industrialists, joined in the plan and promoted elaborate alterations in industry and finance to support an unprecedented concentration of resources and energies upon preparations for war. Germany’s rearmament so outstripped the strength of her neighbors that in about a year she was able to crush the whole military force of Continental Europe, exclusive of that of Soviet Russia, and then to push the Russian armies back to the Volga. These preparations were of a magnitude which surpassed all need of defense and every defendant, and every intelligent German, well understood them to be for aggressive purposes.

EXPERIMENTS IN AGGRESSION

Before resorting to open aggressive warfare, the Nazis undertook some rather cautious experiments to test the spirit and resistance of those who lay across their path. They advanced, but only as others yielded, and kept in a position to draw back if they found a temper that made persistence dangerous.

On 7 March 1936, the Nazis reoccupied the Rhineland and then proceeded to fortify it in violation of the Treaty of Versailles and the Pact of Locarno. They encountered no substantial resistance and were emboldened to take the next step, which was the acquisition of Austria. Despite repeated assurances that Germany had no designs on Austria, invasion was perfected. Threat of attack forced Schuschnigg to resign as Chancellor of Austria and put the Nazi defendant Seyss-Inquart in his place. The latter immediately opened the frontier and invited Hitler to invade Austria “to preserve order.” On March 12th the invasion began. The next day, Hitler proclaimed himself Chief of the Austrian State, took command of its armed forces, and a law was enacted annexing Austria to Germany.

Threats of aggression had succeeded without arousing resistance. Fears nevertheless had been stirred. They were lulled by an assurance to the Czechoslovak Government that there would be no attack on that country. We will show that the Nazi Government already had detailed plans for the attack. We will lay before you the documents in which these conspirators planned to create an incident to justify their attack. They even gave consideration to assassinating their own Ambassador at Prague in order to create a sufficiently dramatic incident. They did precipitate a diplomatic crisis which endured through the summer. Hitler set September 30th as the day when troops should be ready for action. Under the threat of immediate war, the United Kingdom and France concluded a pact with Germany and Italy at Munich on September 29, 1938 which required Czechoslovakia to acquiesce in the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany. It was consummated by German occupation on October 1, 1938.

The Munich Pact pledged no further aggression against Czechoslovakia, but the Nazi pledge was lightly given and quickly broken. On the 15th of March, 1939, in defiance of the treaty of Munich itself, the Nazis seized and occupied Bohemia and Moravia, which constituted the major part of Czechoslovakia not already ceded to Germany. Once again the West stood aghast, but it dreaded war, it saw no remedy except war, and it hoped against hope that the Nazi fever for expansion had run its course. But the Nazi world was intoxicated by these unresisted successes in open alliance with Mussolini and covert alliance with Franco. Then, having made a deceitful, delaying peace with Russia, the conspirators entered upon the final phase of the plan to renew war.

WAR OF AGGRESSION

I will not prolong this address by detailing the steps leading to the war of aggression which began with the invasion of Poland on September, 1, 1939. The further story will be unfolded to you from documents including those of the German High Command itself. The plans had been laid long in advance. As early as 1935 Hitler appointed the defendant Schacht to the position of “General Deputy for the War Economy.” (_2261-PS_). We have the diary of General Jodl (_1780-PS_); the “Plan Otto,” Hitler’s own order for attack on Austria in case trickery failed (_C-102_); the “Plan Green” which was the blueprint for attack on Czechoslovakia (_388-PS_); plans for the War in the West (_376-PS_, _375-PS_); Funk’s letter to Hitler dated August 25, 1939, detailing the long course of economic preparation (_699-PS_); Keitel’s top secret mobilization order for 1939-40 prescribing secret steps to be taken during a “period of tension” during which no “‘state of war’ will be publicly declared even if open war measures against the foreign enemy will be taken.” This latter order (_1639-A-PS_) is in our possession despite a secret order issued on March 16, 1945, when Allied troops were advancing into the heart of Germany, to burn these plans. We have also Hitler’s directive, dated December 18, 1940, for the “Barbarossa Contingency” outlining the strategy of the attack upon Russia (_446-PS_). That plan in the original bears the initials of the defendants Keitel and Jodl. They were planning the attack and planning it long in advance of the declaration of war. We have detailed information concerning “Case White,” the plan for attack on Poland (_C-120_). That attack began the war. The plan was issued by Keitel on April 3rd, 1939. The attack did not come until September. Steps in preparation for the attack were taken by subordinate commanders, one of whom issued an order on June 14, providing that:

“The Commander-in-Chief of the Army has ordered the working out
of a _plan of deployment against Poland_ which takes in account
the demands of the political leadership _for the opening of war
by surprise and for quick success_ * * *

“I declare it the duty of the Commanding Generals, the
divisional commanders and the commandants to limit as much as
possible the number of persons who will be informed, and to
limit the extent of the information, and ask that all suitable
measures be taken to prevent persons not concerned from getting
information.”

* * * * * *

“The operation, in order to forestall an orderly Polish
mobilization and concentration, is to be opened by surprise with
forces which are for the most part armored and motorized, placed
on alert in the neighborhood of the border. The initial
superiority over the Polish frontier-guards and surprise that
can be expected with certainty are to be maintained by quickly
bringing up other parts of the army as well to counteract the
marching up of the Polish Army.

“If the development of the Political situation should show that
a surprise at the beginning of the war is out of question,
because of well advanced defense preparations on the part of the
Polish Army, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army will order the
opening of the hostilities only after the assembling of
sufficient additional forces. The basis of all preparations will
be to surprise the enemy.” (_2327-PS_).

We have also the order for the invasion of England, signed by Hitler and initialed by Keitel and Jodl. It is interesting that it commences with a recognition that although the British military position is “hopeless,” they show not the slightest sign of giving in (_442-PS_).

Not the least incriminating are the minutes of Hitler’s meeting with his high advisers. As early as November 5, 1937, Hitler told defendants Goering, Raeder, and Neurath, among others, that German rearmament was practically accomplished and that he had decided to secure by force, starting with a lightning attack on Czechoslovakia and Austria, greater living space for Germans in Europe no later than 1943-45 and perhaps as early as 1938 (_386-PS_). On the 23rd of May, 1939, the Fuehrer advised his staff that—

“It is a question of expanding our living space in the East and
of securing our food supplies * * * over and above the natural
fertility, thorough-going German exploitation will enormously
increase the surplus.”

“There is therefore no question of sparing Poland, and we are
left with the decision: _To attack Poland at the first suitable
opportunity_. We cannot expect a repetition of the Czech affair.
There will be war.” (_L-79_).

On August 22nd, 1939 Hitler again addressed members of the High Command, telling them when the start of military operations would be ordered. He disclosed that for propaganda purposes, he would provocate a good reason. “It will make no difference,” he announced, “whether this reason will sound convincing or not. After all, the victor will not be asked whether he talked the truth or not. We have to proceed brutally. The stronger is always right.” (_1014-PS_). On 23 November 1939 after the Germans had invaded Poland, Hitler made this explanation:

“For the first time in history we have to fight on only one
front, the other front is at present free. But no one can know
how long that will remain so. I have doubted for a long time
whether I should strike in the east and then in the west.
Basically I did not organize the armed forces in order not to
strike. The decision to strike was always in me. Earlier or
later I wanted to solve the problem. Under pressure it was
decided that the east was to be attacked first * * *”
(_789-PS_).

We know the bloody sequel. Frontier incidents were staged. Demands were made for cession of territory. When Poland refused, the German forces invaded on September 1st, 1939. Warsaw was destroyed; Poland fell. The Nazis, in accordance with plan, moved swiftly to extend their aggression throughout Europe and to gain the advantage of surprise over their unprepared neighbors. Despite repeated and solemn assurances of peaceful intentions, they invaded Denmark and Norway on 9th April, 1940; Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg on 10th May, 1940; Yugoslavia and Greece on 6th April, 1941.

As part of the Nazi preparation for aggression against Poland and her allies, Germany, on 23rd August, 1939 had entered into a nonaggression pact with Soviet-Russia. It was only a delaying treaty intended to be kept no longer than necessary to prepare for its violation. On June 22, 1941, pursuant to long matured plans, the Nazis hurled troops into Soviet territory without any declaration of war. The entire European world was aflame.

CONSPIRACY WITH JAPAN

The Nazi plans of aggression called for use of Asiatic allies and they found among the Japanese men of kindred mind and purpose. They were brothers, under the skin.

Himmler records a conversation he had on January 31, 1939 with General Oshima, Japanese Ambassador at Berlin. He wrote:

“Furthermore, he (Oshima) had succeeded up to now to send 10
Russians with bombs across the Caucasian frontier. These
Russians had the mission to kill Stalin. A number of additional
Russians, whom he had also sent across, had been shot at the
frontier.” (_2195-PS_).

On September 27th, 1940, the Nazis concluded a German-Italian-Japanese ten-year military and economic alliance by which those powers agreed “to stand by and cooperate with one another in regard to their efforts in Greater East Asia and regions of Europe respectively wherein it is their prime purpose to establish and maintain a new order of things * * *.”

On March 5, 1941, a top secret directive was issued by defendant Keitel. It stated that “The Fuehrer has ordered instigation of Japan’s active participation in the war” and directed that “Japan’s military power has to be strengthened by the disclosure of German war experiences and support of a military, economic and technical nature has to be given.” The aim was stated to be to crush England quickly, “thereby keeping the United States out of the war.” (_C-75_).

On March 29, 1941, Ribbentrop told Matsuoka, the Japanese Foreign Minister, that the German Army was ready to strike against Russia. Matsuoka reassured Ribbentrop about the Far East. Japan, he reported, was acting at the moment as though she had no interest whatever in Singapore, but “intends to strike when the right moment comes.” (_1877-PS_). On April 5, 1941, Ribbentrop urged Matsuoka that entry of Japan into the war would “hasten the victory” and would be more in the interest of Japan that of Germany since it would give Japan a unique chance to fulfill her national aims and to play a leading part in Eastern Asia (_1882-PS_).

The proofs in this case will also show that the leaders of Germany were planning war against the United States from its Atlantic as well as instigating it from its Pacific approaches. A captured memorandum from the Fuehrer’s headquarters, dated October 29, 1940, asks certain information as to air bases and supply and reports further that

“The Fuehrer is at present occupied with the question of the
occupation of the Atlantic islands with a view to the
prosecution of war against America at a later date.
Deliberations on this subject are being embarked upon here.”
(_376-PS_).

On December 7, 1941, a day which the late President Roosevelt declared “will live in infamy,” victory for German aggression seemed certain. The Wehrmacht was at the gates of Moscow. Taking advantage of the situation, and while her plenipotentiaries were creating a diplomatic diversion in Washington, Japan without declaration of war treacherously attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor and the Philippines. Attacks followed swiftly on the British Commonwealth and The Netherlands in the Southwest Pacific. These aggressions were met in the only way they could be met, with instant declarations of war and with armed resistance which mounted slowly through many long months of reverse until finally the Axis was crushed to earth and deliverance for its victims was won.

CRIMES IN THE CONDUCT OF WAR

Even the most warlike of peoples have recognized in the name of humanity some limitations on the savagery of warfare. Rules to that end have been embodied in international conventions to which Germany became a party. This code had prescribed certain restraints as to the treatment of belligerents. The enemy was entitled to surrender and to receive quarter and good treatment as a prisoner of war. We will show by German documents that these rights were denied, that prisoners of war were given brutal treatment and often murdered. This was particularly true in the case of captured airmen, often my countrymen.

It was ordered that captured English and American airmen should no longer be granted the status of prisoners of war. They were to be treated as criminals and the Army was ordered to refrain from protecting them against lynching by the populace (_R-118_). The Nazi Government, through its police and propaganda agencies, took pains to incite the civilian population to attack and kill airmen who crash-landed. The order, given by the Reichsfuehrer SS, Himmler, on 10 August 1943, directed that,

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

This order was transmitted on the same day by SS Obersturmbannfuhrer Brand of Himmler’s Personal Staff to all Senior Executive SS and Police officers, with these directions:

“I am sending you the inclosed order with the request that the
Chief of the Regular Police and of the Security Police be
informed. They are to make this instruction known to their
subordinate officers verbally.” (_R-110_).

Similarly, we will show Hitler’s top secret order, dated 18 October 1942, that commandos, regardless of condition, were “to be slaughtered to the last man” after capture (_498-PS_). We will show the circulation of secret orders, one of which was signed by Hess, to be passed orally to civilians, that enemy fliers or parachutists were to be arrested or liquidated (_062-PS_). By such means were murders incited and directed.

This Nazi campaign of ruthless treatment of enemy forces assumed its greatest proportions in the fight against Russia. Eventually all prisoners of war were taken out of control of the Army and put in the hands of Himmler and the SS (_058-PS_). In the East, the German fury spent itself. Russian prisoners were ordered to be branded. They were starved. I shall quote passages from a letter written February 28, 1942 by defendant Rosenberg to defendant Keitel:

“The fate of the Soviet prisoners of war in Germany is on the
contrary a tragedy of the greatest extent. Of 3.6 millions of
prisoners of war, only several hundred thousand are still able
to work fully. A large part of them has starved, or died,
because of the hazards of the weather. Thousands also died from
spotted fever.

“The camp commanders have forbidden the civilian population to
put food at the disposal of the prisoners, and they have rather
let them starve to death.

“In many cases, when prisoners of war could no longer keep up on
the march because of hunger and exhaustion, they were shot
before the eyes of the horrified civilian population, and the
corpses were left.

“In numerous camps, no shelter for the prisoners of war was
provided at all. They lay under the open sky during rain or
snow. Even tools were not made available to dig holes or caves.

“Finally, the shooting of prisoners of war must be mentioned.
For instance, in various camps, all the ‘Asiatics’ were shot.”
(_081-PS_).

Civilized usage and conventions to which Germany was a party had prescribed certain immunities for civilian populations unfortunate enough to dwell in lands overrun by hostile armies. The German occupation forces, controlled or commanded by men on trial before you, committed a long series of outrages against the inhabitants of occupied territory that would be incredible except for captured orders and the captured reports showing the fidelity with which these orders were executed.

We deal here with a phase of common criminality designed by the conspirators as part of the common plan. We can appreciate why these crimes against their European enemies were not of a casual character but were planned and disciplined crimes when we get at the reason for them. Hitler told his officers on August 22, 1939 that “The main objective in Poland is the destruction of the enemy and not the reaching of a certain geographical line.” (_1014-PS_). The project of deporting promising youth from occupied territories was approved by Rosenberg on the theory that “a desired weakening of the biological force of the conquered people is being achieved.” (_031-PS_). To Germanize or to destroy was the program. Himmler announced, “Either we win over any good blood that we can use for ourselves and give it a place in our people or, gentlemen—you may call this cruel, but nature is cruel—we destroy this blood.” As to “racially good types” Himmler further advised, “Therefore, I think that it is our duty to take their children with us to remove them from their environment if necessary by robbing or stealing them.” (_L-70_). He urged deportation of Slavic children to deprive potential enemies of future soldiers.

The Nazi purpose was to leave Germany’s neighbors so weakened that even if she should eventually lose the war, she would still be the most powerful nation in Europe. Against this background, we must view the plan for ruthless warfare, which means a plan for the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Hostages in large numbers were demanded and killed. Mass punishments were inflicted, so savage that whole communities were extinguished. Rosenberg was advised of the annihilation of three unidentified villages in Slovakia. In May of 1943, another village of about 40 farms and 220 inhabitants was ordered wiped out. The entire population was ordered shot, the cattle and property impounded, and the order required that “the village will be destroyed totally by fire.” A secret report from Rosenberg’s Reich Ministry of Eastern territory reveals that:

“Food rations allowed the Russian population are so low that
they fail to secure their existence and provide only for minimum
subsistence of limited duration. The population, does not know
if they will still live tomorrow. They are faced with death by
starvation.

“The roads are clogged by hundreds of thousands of people,
sometime as many as one million according to the estimate of
experts, who wander around in search of nourishment.

“Sauckel’s action has caused great unrest among the civilians.
Russian girls were deloused by men, nude photos in forced
positions were taken, women doctors were locked into freight
cars for the pleasure of the transport commanders, women in
night shirts were fettered and forced through the Russian towns
to the railroad station, etc. All this material has been sent to
the OKH.”

Perhaps the deportation to slave labor was the most horrible and extensive slaving operation in history. On few other subjects is our evidence so abundant or so damaging. In a speech made on January 25, 1944, the defendant Frank, Governor-General of Poland, boasted, “I have sent 1,300,000 Polish workers into the Reich.” The defendant Sauckel reported that “out of the five million foreign workers who arrived in Germany not even 200,000 came voluntarily.” This fact was reported to the Fuehrer and defendants Speer, Goering, and Keitel (_R-124_). Children of 10 to 14 years were impressed into service by telegraphic order of Rosenberg’s Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories:

“The Command is further charged with the transferring of
worthwhile Russian youth between 10-14 years of age, to the
Reich. The authority is not affected by the changes connected
with the evacuation and transportation to the reception camps of
Pialystok, Krajewo, and Olitei. The Fuehrer wishes that this
activity be increased even more.” (_200-PS_).

When enough labor was not forthcoming, prisoners of war were forced in war work in flagrant violation of international conventions (_016-PS_). Slave labor came from France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, and the East. Methods of recruitment were violent (_R-124, 018-PS, 204-PS_). The treatment of these slave laborers was stated in general terms, not difficult to translate into concrete deprivations, in a letter to the defendant Rosenberg from the defendant Sauckel, which stated:

“All _prisoners of war_, from the _territories_ of the West as
well of the East, actually in Germany, must be completely
incorporated into the German armament and munition industries.
Their production must be brought to the highest possible level.

“The complete employment of all prisoners of war as well as the
use of a gigantic number of new foreign civilian workers, men
and women, has become an undisputable necessity for the solution
of the mobilization of labor program in this war.

“All the men must be fed, sheltered and treated in such a way as
to exploit them to the highest possible extent at the lowest
conceivable degrees of expenditure.” (_016-PS_).

In pursuance of the Nazi plan permanently to reduce the living standards of their neighbors and to weaken them physically and economically, a long series of crimes were committed. There was extensive destruction, serving no military purpose, of the property of civilians. Dikes were thrown open in Holland almost at the close of the war not to achieve military ends but to destroy the resources and retard the economy of the thrifty Netherlanders.