Chapter XXI: Section IV: , he was responsible for the carrying out of these (1)

measures. Jointly with the SD and the GESTAPO he had the task of
instituting the necessary measures for the execution of
commissars. * * * In the discussion that followed, Mueller
promised in a peculiarly cynical manner that these executions
would take place in the future outside the camp, so that the
troops would not be obliged to watch them. He promised further a
certain limitation in the concept of ‘Bolshevistically
infected.’ This concept and its interpretation had been hitherto
left to the discretion of the SD _Sonderkommandos_. * * * An
agreement was concluded between the OKW, the GESTAPO and the SD.
Pursuant to this agreement Russian prisoners of war under the
control of the OKW were delivered to the GESTAPO and SD for
execution. The term ‘_Sonderbehandlung_’ in the official
documents and way of speaking of the SD was equivalent to
‘condemned to death’.” (_2846-PS_)

On 17 July 1941 instructions were issued by the GESTAPO to Commandos of the SIPO and SD stationed in Stalags, providing in part as follows:

“The activation of commandos will take place in accordance with
the agreement of the Chief of the Security Police and Security
Service and the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces as of 16
July 1941 (see enclosure 1). The commandos will work
independently according to special authorization and in
consequence of the general regulations given to them, in the
limit of the camp organizations. Naturally, the commandos will
keep close contact with the camp-commander and the
defense-officers assigned to him.

“The mission of the commandos is the political investigating of
all camp-inmates, the elimination and further ‘treatment’

“_a._ of all political, criminal or in some other way unbearable
elements among them.

“_b._ of those persons who could be used for the reconstruction
of the occupied territories.

“The commandos must use for their work as far as possible, at
present and even later, the experiences of the camp-commanders
which the latter have collected meanwhile from observation of
the prisoners and examinations of camp inmates.

“Further, the commandos must make efforts from the beginning to
seek out among the prisoners elements which appear reliable,
regardless if there are communists concerned or not, in order to
use them for intelligence purposes inside of the camp and, if
advisable, later in the occupied territories also.

“By use of such informers and by use of all other existing
possibilities, the discovery of all elements to be eliminated
among the prisoners, must proceed step by step at once. * * *

“Above all, the following must be discovered: All important
functionaries of state and party, especially

Professional revolutionaries

Functionaries of the Komintern

All policy forming party functionaries of the KPdSU and
its fellow organizations in the central committees, in
the regional and district committees.

All peoples-commissars and their deputies

All former political commissars in the Red-Army

Leading personalities of the state-authorities of
central and middle regions.

The leading personalities of the business world.

Members of the Soviet-Russian intelligence

All Jews

All persons who are found to be agitators or fanatical
communists. * * *

“Executions are not to be held in the camp or in the immediate
vicinity of the camp. If the camps in the general-government are
in the immediate vicinity of the border, then the prisoners are
to be taken for special treatment, if possible, into the former
Soviet-Russian territory. * * *

“In regard to executions to be carried out and to the possible
removal of reliable civilians and the removal of informers for
the _Einsatz_-group in the occupied territories, the leader of
the _Einsatz-Kommando_ [?] must make an agreement with the
nearest State-Police-Office, as well as with the commandant of
the Security Police Unit and Security Service and beyond these
with the Chief of the _Einsatz_-group concerned in the occupied
territories. * * *” (_502-PS_)

On 23 October 1941 the Camp Commander of the concentration camp Gross Rosen reported to Mueller, Chief of the GESTAPO, a list of Russian PWs who had been executed the preceding day. (_1165-PS_)

On 9 November 1941 Mueller issued a directive to all GESTAPO offices in which he ordered that diseased PWs should be excluded from the transport into the concentration camps for execution. The letter began:

“The commandant of the concentration camps are complaining that
5 to 10 percent of the Soviet Russians destined for execution
are arriving in the camps dead or half dead. Therefore the
impression has arisen that the Stalags are getting rid of such
prisoners in this way. * * *” (_1165-PS_)

The affidavit of Kurt Lindow, former GESTAPO official, states:

“* * * 2. From 1941 until the middle of 1943 there was attached
to subsection IVA1 a special department that was headed by the
_Regierungsoberinspektor_, later _Regierungsamtmann_, and
_SS-Hauptsturmbannfuehrer_ Franz Koenigshaus. In this department
were handled matters concerning prisoners of war. I learned from
this department that instructions and orders by Reichsfuehrer
Himmler, dating from 1941 and 1942, existed according to which
captured Soviet Russian political Commissars and Jewish soldiers
were to be executed. As far as I know proposals for execution of
such PWs were received from the various PW camps. Koenigshaus
had to prepare the orders for execution and submitted them to
the chief of section IV, Mueller, for signature. These orders
were made out so that one order was to be sent to the agency
making the request and a second one to the concentration camp
designated to carry out the execution. The PWs in question were
at first formally released from PW status, then transferred to a
concentration camp for execution. * * *

“* * * 4. There existed in the PW camps on the Eastern front
small screening teams (_Einsatzkommandos_) headed by lower
ranking members of the Secret Police (GESTAPO). These teams were
assigned to the camp commanders and had the job to segregate the
PWs who were candidates for execution, according to the orders
that had been given, and to report them to the Office of the
Secret Police (_Geheimes Staatspolizeiamt_). * * *” (_2542-PS_)

(3) _The GESTAPO and SD sent recaptured prisoners of war to concentration camps where they were executed (“Bullet Decree”)._ In March 1944 the Chief of the Security Police and SD forwarded an OKW order to regional SIPO and SD offices in which the OKW ordered that, on recapture, every escaped officer and nonworking NCO prisoner of war, with the exception of British and American prisoners of war, were to be handed over to the SIPO and SD, with the words “_Stufe III_”. Whether escaped British and American officers and nonworking NCOs, upon recapture, should be handed over to the SIPO and SD was to be decided by the High Command of the Army. In connection with this order, the Chief of the Security Police and SD (RSHA) issued instructions that the GESTAPO _Leitstellen_ should take over the escaped officers from the camp commandants and transport them in accordance with a procedure theretofore in force to the Mauthausen concentration camp. The camp commandant was to be informed that the prisoners were being handed over under the operation “_Kugel_”. On the journey the prisoners of war were to be placed in irons. The GESTAPO _Leitstellen_ were to make half-yearly reports, giving numbers only, of the handing over of prisoners of war. Escaped officer and nonworking NCO prisoners of war, with the exception of British and Americans, recaptured by police stations were not to be handed back to the Stalag command. The Stalag was to be informed of the recapture and asked to surrender them with the words “_Stufe III_”. (_1650-PS_)

On 27 July 1944 an order from the 6th Corps Area Command was issued on the treatment of prisoners of war, which provided that prisoners of war were to be discharged from prisoner-of-war status and transferred to the GESTAPO if they were guilty of crimes, had escaped and been recaptured, or refused to work or encouraged other prisoners not to work, or were screened out by _Einsatzkommandos_ of the SIPO and SD, or were guilty of sabotage. No reports on transfers were required (_1514-PS_). This decree was known as the “_Kugel Erlass_” (“Bullet Decree”). Prisoners of war sent to Mauthausen concentration camp under it were regarded as dead to the outside world and were executed. (_2478-PS_; _2285-PS_.)

(4) _The GESTAPO and SD were responsible for establishing and classifying concentration camps, and for committing racial and political undesirables to concentration and annihilation camps for slave labor and mass murder._ The first concentration camps were established in 1933 at Dachau in Bavaria and at Oranienburg in Prussia. The GESTAPO was given by law the responsibility of administering the concentration camps. (_2108-PS_)

The GESTAPO had the sole authority to take persons into protective custody, and orders for protective custody were carried out in the State concentration camps. (_1723-PS_)

The GESTAPO issued the orders establishing concentration camps, transforming prisoner of war camps into concentration camps, designating concentration camps as internment camps, changing labor camps into concentration camps, setting up special sections for female prisoners, and so forth. (_D-50_; _D-46_.)

The Chief of the Security Police and SD ordered the classification of concentration camps according to the seriousness of the accusation and the chances for reforming the prisoners from the Nazi viewpoint. The concentration camps were classified as Classes I, II, or III. Class I was for the least serious prisoners, and Class III for the most serious prisoners. (_1063-A-PS_)

Regional offices of the GESTAPO had the authority to commit persons to concentration camps for short periods, at first 21 days and later 56 days, but all other orders for protective custody had to be approved by the GESTAPO headquarters in Berlin. Orders for protective custody issued by GESTAPO headquarters had to be signed by or on behalf of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, at first Heydrich, later Kaltenbrunner. (_2477-PS_)

The Chief of the Security Police and SD had authority to fix the length of the period of custody. During the war it was the policy not to permit the prisoners to know the period of custody and merely to announce the term as “until further notice”. (_1531-PS_)

The local GESTAPO offices which made the arrests maintained a register called the “_Haftbuch_.” In this register the names of all persons arrested were listed, together with personal data, grounds for the arrest, and disposition. When orders were received from the GESTAPO headquarters in Berlin to commit persons who had been arrested to concentration camps, an entry was made in the _Haftbuch_ to that effect. The reason assigned for the arrest and commitment of persons to concentration camps usually was that, according to the GESTAPO, the person endangered by his attitude the existence and security of the people and the State. Further specifications of grounds included such offenses as that of “working against the Greater German Reich with an illegal resistance organization,” “being a Jew,” “suspected of working for the detriment of the Reich,” “being strongly suspected of aiding desertion,” “because as a relative of a deserter he is expected to take advantage of every occasion to harm the German Reich,” “refusal to work,” “sexual intercourse with a Pole,” “religious propaganda,” “working against the Reich,” “loafing on the job,” or “defeatist statements.” Sometimes specification of the grounds simply referred to an “action,” under which a large number of persons would be arrested and sent to concentration camps. (_L-358_; _L-215_.)

On 16 December 1942, Mueller, Chief of the GESTAPO, reported that, in connection with an increase in slave labor required by concentration camps by 30 January 1943 the GESTAPO could round up 45,000 Jews, including invalids, aged, and children. The telegram stated:

“In accordance with the increased recruitment of manpower into
the concentration camps, which was ordered by 30 January 1943,
the following may be applied in the Jewish sector:

“1. Total amount: 45,000 Jews.

“2. Start of transportation 11 January 1943.

“3. Completion of transportation 31 January 1943.” (_1472-PS_)

On 17 December 1942, Mueller issued an order to the _Kommandeurs_ and _Inspekteurs_ of the SIPO and SD and to the directors of the GESTAPO regional offices, in which he stated that Himmler, Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police, had given orders on 14 December 1942 that at least 35,000 persons who were fit for work had to be put into concentration camps not later than at the end of January. The order further provided that Eastern or foreign workers who had escaped or broken the labor contracts were to be sent to the nearest concentration camps as quickly as possible, and that inmates of detention rooms and educational work camps who were fit for work should be delivered to the nearest concentration camps. (_1063-D-PS_)

On 23 March 1943, Mueller issued another directive referring to said directive of 17 December 1942, in which he stated that measures are to be carried out until 30 April ‘43. More explicit instructions were given as to which concentration camps the slave laborers were to be sent. He said:

“Care has to be taken that only prisoners who are fit for work
are sent to concentration camps, and adolescents only in
accordance with the provisions issued; otherwise, contrary to
the purpose, the concentration camps become overburdened.”
(_L-41_)

On 25 June 1943, Mueller issued an order stating that the decrees of 17 December 1942 and of 23 March 1943 had achieved the intended goal. (_1063-E-PS_)

On 21 April 1943, the Minister of Justice declared in a letter that the RSHA had ordered on 11 March 1943 that all Jews who were released from prison were to be handed over to the GESTAPO for lifelong detainment in the concentration camps at Auschwitz and Lublin. Poles released after an imprisonment of over six months were to be transferred to the GESTAPO for internment in a concentration camp for the duration of the war. (_701-PS_)

The arrest of Jews and their shipment to annihilation camps was carried out under the direction of Eichmann, head of the section handling Jews in the Gestapo. Eichmann’s staff was composed of members of the SIPO, especially the GESTAPO. The Jews were shipped on order of the SIPO and SD to annihilation camps in the East. Eichmann estimated, and so reported to Himmler, that 4,000,000 Jews were killed in the annihilation camps in the East, in addition to the 2,000,000 Jews shot by the _Einsatz_ Groups. The extermination of Jews in the annihilation camps was accomplished mainly after the beginning of 1943, during the time Kaltenbrunner was the Chief of the Security Police and SD. (_2615-PS_)

(5) _The GESTAPO and the SD participated in the deportation of citizens of occupied countries for forced labor and handled the disciplining of forced labor._ On 26 November 1942, Fritz Sauckel transmitted a letter to the president of provincial employment offices in which he stated that he had been advised by the Chief of the Security Police and SD (RSHA) under date of 26 October 1942 that during the month of November the evacuation of Poles in the Lublin district would begin in order to make room for the settlement of persons of the German race. The Poles who were evacuated as a result of this measure were to be put into concentration camps for labor so far as they were criminal or asocial. The remaining Poles who were suitable for labor were to be transported without their families into the Reich, there to be put at the disposal of the Labor Allocation Offices to serve as replacements for Jews eliminated from the armament factories. (_L-61_)

During 1943 the program of mass murder carried out by the _Einsatz_ Groups in the East was modified, and orders were issued to round up hundreds of thousands of persons for the armament industry.

“In the shortest possible time the Ukraine has to put at the
disposal of the armament industry one million workers, 500 of
whom have to be sent from our territory daily. * * * The
activity of the labor offices * * * is to be supported to the
greatest extent possible. * * * When searching villages, esp.
when it has become necessary to burn down a village, the whole
population will be put at the disposal of the Commissions by
force. * * * The most important thing is the recruiting of
workers.” (_3012-PS_)

On 18 June 1941 secret orders were issued from the Chief of the Security Police and SD, signed by Mueller, to prevent the return of Eastern emigrants and civilian workers from the Reich to the East, and to keep them in German war production. Any attempts at refusal to work were to be countered by the GESTAPO with the severest measures, arrest and confinement in concentration camps (_1573-PS_). The Chief of the Security Police and SD had exclusive jurisdiction over labor reformatory camps established under control of the GESTAPO for disciplining foreign workers. (_1063-B-PS_)

(6) _The GESTAPO and SD executed captured commandos and paratroopers, and protected civilians who lynched Allied flyers._ On 4 August 1942 Keitel issued an order which provided that the GESTAPO and SD were responsible for taking counter-measures against single parachutists or small groups of them with special missions. Even if such paratroopers were captured by the _Wehrmacht_, they were to be handed over to the GESTAPO and the SD. (_553-PS_)

On 18 October 1942, Hitler ordered that all members of Commando units, even when in uniform, or members of sabotage groups, armed or not, were to be exterminated to the last man by fighting or by pursuing them. Even if they wished to surrender, they were not to be spared. Members of such Commandos, acting as agents, saboteurs, etc., handed over to the _Wehrmacht_ through other channels, were to be turned over immediately to the SD. (_498-PS_)

On 17 June 1944, the Chief of the Security Police and SD, in a Top Secret letter to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, stated that he had instructed the Commander of the SIPO and SD in Paris to treat parachutists in English uniform as members of Commando operations in accordance with Hitler’s order of 18 October 1942. (_1276-PS_)

On 26 June 1944, WFSt issued an order in which it was stated that enemy paratroopers landing in Brittany were to be treated as commandos, and that it was immaterial whether the paratroopers were in uniform or civilian clothes. The order provided that in cases of doubt enemy soldiers who were captured alive were to be handed over to the SD for examination as to whether the Fuehrer Order of 18 October 1942 was to be applied or not. (_532-PS_)

Commandos turned over to the SIPO and SD under these orders were executed. (_526-PS_; _2374-PS_.)

The affidavit of Adolf Zutter, former adjutant of Mauthausen concentration camp, states in part:

“* * * Concerning the American Military Mission which landed
behind the German front in the Slovakian or Hungarian area in
January, 1945, I remember, when these officers were brought to
Camp Mauthausen; I suppose the number of the arrivals were about
12 to 15 men. They wore a uniform which was American or
Canadian; brown-green color, shirt, and cloth cap. Eight or ten
days after their arrival the execution order came in by
telegraph or teletype. _Standartenfuehrer_ Ziereis came to me
into my office and told me now Kaltenbrunner has given the
permission for the execution. This letter was secret and had the
signature: signed Kaltenbrunner. Then, these people were shot
according to martial law and their belongings were given to me
by 1st Sgt. [_Oberscharfuehrer_] Niedermeyer. * * *” (_L-51_)

On 10 August 1943, Himmler issued an order to the Security Police stating that it was not the task of the Police to interfere in clashes between Germans and English and American terror flyers who had bailed out. (_R-110_)

In 1944 at a conference of _Amt_ Chiefs Kaltenbrunner said:

“All offices of the SD and the security police are to be
informed that pogroms of the populace against English and
American terror-flyers are not to be interfered with; on the
contrary, this hostile mood is to be fostered.” (_2990-PS_)

On 12 June 1944 the Chief of the SD-_Abschnitte_ Koblenz stated that the Army had issued a similar order, namely, that German soldiers were not to protect enemy flyers from the populace and that the Army no longer attached value to enemy flyers taken prisoner. (_745-PS_)

(7) _The GESTAPO and SD took civilians of occupied countries to Germany for secret trial and punishment (“Nacht und Nebel Erlass”)._ On 7 December 1941 Hitler issued the directive, since called the “_Nacht und Nebel Erlass_” (Night and Fog Decree), under which persons who committed offenses against the Reich or occupation forces in occupied territories, except where death sentence was certain, were to be taken secretly to Germany and surrendered to the Security Police and SD for trial or punishment in Germany. An executive ordinance was issued by Keitel the same date, and on 4 February 1942 the directive and ordinance were published to the police and the SS. (_L-90_)

In compliance with the above directive, the military intelligence turned over cases, other than those in which the death sentence was probable, to the GESTAPO and the Secret Field Police for secret deporting to Germany. (_833-PS_)

After the civilians arrived in Germany, no word of the disposition of their cases was permitted to reach the country from which they came, or their relatives. Even when they died awaiting trial, the SIPO and SD refused to notify the families, so that anxiety would be created in the minds of the family of the arrested person. (_668-PS_)

(8) _The GESTAPO and SD arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied territories under special criminal procedure and by summary methods._ The GESTAPO arrested, placed in protective custody, and executed civilians of occupied territories under certain circumstances. Even where there were courts capable of handling emergency cases, the GESTAPO conducted its own executions without regard to normal judicial processes. (_674-PS_)

On 18 September 1942, Thierack, the Reich Minister of Justice, and Himmler came to an understanding by which antisocial elements were to be turned over to Himmler to be worked to death, and a special criminal procedure was to be applied by the police to the Jews, Poles, gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians who were not to be tried in ordinary criminal courts. (_654-PS_)

On 5 September 1942 an order was issued by the RSHA to the offices of the GESTAPO and SD covering this understanding. This order provided that ordinary criminal procedure would not be applied against Poles, Jews, gypsies, and other Eastern people, but that instead they would be turned over to the police. Such persons of foreign extraction were to be treated on a basis entirely different from that applied to Germans.

“* * * Such considerations which may be right for adjudicating a
punishable offense committed by a German are, however, wrong for
adjudicating a punishable offense committed by a person of alien
race. In the case of punishable offenses committed by a person
of alien race the personal motives actuating the offender must
be completely eliminated. The only standard may be that German
civil order is endangered by his action, and that consequently
preventive measures must be taken to prevent the recurrence of
such risks. In other words, the action of a person of alien race
is not to be viewed from the angle of judicial expiation, but
from the angle of the police guard against danger.

“As a result of this, the administration of penal law for
persons of alien race must be transferred from the hands of the
administrators of justice into the hands of the police. * * *”
(_L-316_)

(9) _The GESTAPO and SD executed or confined persons in concentration camps for crimes allegedly committed by their relatives._ On 19 July 1944, the Commander of the SIPO and SD for the District Radom published an order transmitted through the Higher SS and Police Leaders to the effect that in all cases of assassination or attempted assassination of Germans, or where saboteurs had destroyed vital installations, not only the guilty person but also all his (or her) male relatives should be shot and the female relatives over 16 years of age put into a concentration camp. (_L-37_)

In the summer of 1944, the _Einsatzkommando_ of the SIPO and SD at Luxembourg caused persons to be confined at Sachsenhausen concentration camp because they were relatives of deserters and were, therefore, “expected to endanger the interest of the German Reich if allowed to go free.” (_L-215_)

(10) _The GESTAPO and SD were instructed to murder prisoners in the SIPO and SD prisons to prevent their release by the Allied armies._ On 21 July 1944, the _Kommandeur_ of the SIPO and SD for the District Radom forwarded an order of the _Befehlshaber_ of the SIPO and SD to the effect that it was essential that the number of inmates of the SIPO and SD prisons be kept as low as possible. Inmates were to be subjected only to short formal interrogations and then to be sent by the quickest route to concentration camps. Preparations were to be made for total clearance of the prisons should the situation at the front necessitate such action. In the case of sudden emergency precluding the evacuation of the prisoners, they were to be shot and their bodies buried or otherwise disposed of, the buildings to be dynamited, and so forth. In similar circumstances, the Jews who were still employed in the armament industries or in other work were to be dealt with in the same way. The liberation of prisoners or Jews by the enemy was to be avoided at all costs. (_L-53_)

(11) _The GESTAPO and the SD participated in the seizure and spoliation of public and private property._ In connection with the program for the mass extermination of Jews and Communist functionaries, the GESTAPO and the SD seized all personal effects of the persons executed or murdered. On the eastern front the victims were required not only to give up all their personal possessions, but even to remove their outer garments prior to being murdered. (_2620-PS_)

In connection with the program of confiscation of scientific, religious, and art archives and objects, an agreement was entered into between Rosenberg and Heydrich, under which the SD and Rosenberg were to cooperate closely in the confiscation of public and private collections. (_071-PS_)

(12) _The GESTAPO and SD conducted third degree interrogations._ On 26 October 1939 an order to all GESTAPO offices from the RSHA signed Mueller, “by order,” in referring to execution of protective custody during the war, stated in part:

“In certain cases, the Reichsfuehrer SS and Chief of the German
Police will order flogging in addition to detention in a
concentration camp. Orders of this kind will, in the future,
also be transmitted to the State Police District Office
concerned. In this case, too, there is no objection to spreading
the rumour of this increased punishment. * * *” (_1531-PS_)

On 12 June 1942 the Chief of the Security Police and SD, through Mueller, published an order authorizing the use of third degree methods in interrogating where preliminary investigation indicates that the prisoner could give information on important facts such as subversive activities, but not to extort confessions of the prisoner’s own crimes. The order stated in part:

“* * * 2. Third degree may, under this supposition, only be
employed against Communists, Marxists, Jehovah’s Witnesses,
saboteurs, terrorists, members of resistance movements,
parachute agents, antisocial elements, Polish or Soviet-Russian
loafers or tramps. In all other cases, my permission must first
be obtained.

“* * * 4. Third degree can, according to the circumstances,
consist amongst other methods, of:

very simple diet (bread and water)

hard bunk

dark cell

deprivation of sleep

exhaustive drilling

also in flogging (for more than 20 strokes a doctor must
be consulted).” (_1531-PS_)

On 24 February 1944 the _Kommandeur_ of the SIPO and SD for the district Radom, “in view of the variety of methods used to date in third-degree interrogations and in order to avoid excesses,” published an order issued by the BdS Cracow based on regulations in force for the Reich which followed closely the limitations laid down in the above decree of 12 June 1942. (_L-89_)

G. _Crimes of the GESTAPO and SD Against Humanity._

(1) _The GESTAPO and the SD were primary agencies for the persecution of the Jews._ The persecution of the Jews under the Nazi regime is a story of increasingly severe treatment, beginning with restrictions, then seizure and spoliation of property, commitment to concentration camps, deportation, slave labor, and finally mass murder. The responsibility of the GESTAPO and the SD for the mass extermination program carried out by the Einsatz Groups of the SIPO and SD and in the annihilation camps to which Jews were sent by the SIPO and SD has already been considered. In this subdivision, the place of the GESTAPO and SD in the development of this persecution will be treated.

Section B of the SD dealt with problems of nationality, including minorities, race and national health, immigration, and resettlement. Section B4 of the GESTAPO, headed by Eichmann, dealt with Jewish affairs, including matters of evacuation, means of suppressing enemies of the people and State, and dispossession of rights of German citizenship. One of the functions of the SD was to furnish information concerning the Jews to the GESTAPO. One of the functions of the GESTAPO was to carry out the Nazi program of persecution of the Jews. (_L-185_; _L-219_.)

The GESTAPO was charged with the enforcement of discriminatory laws, such as those preventing Jews from engaging in business, restricting their right to travel, and prohibiting them from associating with gentiles. Violations of such restrictions resulted in protective custody and confinement in concentration camps by the GESTAPO. (_L-217_; _L-152_; _L-167_.)

The Chief of the Security Police and SD ordered the GESTAPO and the SD to supervise the anti-Jewish pogrom staged in November 1938 following the von Rath incident in Paris. As many Jews were to be arrested in all districts as the available jail space would hold. Well-to-do Jews were to be singled out for arrest, and primarily only healthy male adults of not too advanced age. Immediately after completion of the arrests, the competent concentration camp was to be notified in order to provide for speediest transfer of Jews to the camps. (_3051-PS_)

On 11 November 1938 Heydrich reported to Goering by secret express letter on the results of the action as reported by the GESTAPO. The report stated in part:

“* * * The extent of the destruction of Jewish shops and houses
cannot yet be verified by figures. The figures given in the
reports: 815 shops destroyed, 171 dwelling houses set on fire or
destroyed, only indicate a fraction of the actual damage caused,
as far as arson is concerned. Due to the urgency of the
reporting, the reports received to date are entirely limited to
general statements such as ‘numerous’ or ‘most shops destroyed.’
Therefore the figures given must have been exceeded
considerably.

“191 synagogues were set on fire, and another 76 completely
destroyed. In addition 11 parish halls, [_Gemeindehauser_]
cemetery chapels and similar buildings were set on fire and 3
more completely destroyed.

“20,000 Jews were arrested, also 7 Aryans and 3 foreigners. The
latter were arrested for their own safety.

“36 deaths were reported and those seriously injured were also
numbered at 36. Those killed and injured are Jews. One Jew is
still missing. The Jews killed include one Polish national, and
those injured include 2 Poles.” (_3058-PS_)

On 31 July 1941 Goering sent the following order to the Chief of the Security Police and SD, Heydrich:

“Complementing the task that was assigned to you on 24 January
1939, which dealt with arriving at a solution of the Jewish
problem through furtherance of emigration and evacuation as
advantageous as possible, I hereby charge you with making all
necessary preparations in regard to organizational and financial
matters for bringing about a complete solution of the Jewish
question in the German sphere of influence in Europe.”
(_710-PS_)

In February or March 1943, according to Gottfried Boley, _Ministerialrat_ in the Reich Chancery, a conference on the solution of the Jewish problem, attended by representatives of the ministries, was called by Kaltenbrunner as Chief of the Security Police and SD. Boley states:

“The meeting was presided over by Eichmann who had charge of
Jewish problems in the GESTAPO. In his opening remarks Eichmann
referred to former conferences that had taken place in the
office of the Chief of the Security Police and SD, and that on
this occasion he wished to discuss the matter in a more basic
manner. He stated that the Jewish question had to be solved in a
quick and proper way. Representatives of the Chief of the
Security Police and SD who attended the conference made it clear
to those present that the remaining Jews had to be sent forcibly
to concentration camps or be sterilized. Those present at the
conference must have carried away the impression that the
objectives were the extermination of the Jewish people.”
(_2645-PS_)

The deportation of Jews into concentration camps was part of the program for slave labor. Jews not fit for work were screened out at extermination centers, such as Auschwitz, and the remainder were taken into concentration and work camps. The orders were issued by Himmler and passed through the Chief of the Security Police and SD, Kaltenbrunner (formerly Heydrich) to Mueller, Chief of the GESTAPO, and then to Eichmann for execution. (_2376-PS_; _1472-PS_.)

In Galicia, the deportation of Jews was carried out during the period from April 1942 to June 1943. At the end of that time Galicia had been entirely cleared of Jews. In all, 434,392 Jews were deported from Galicia alone. In connection with the deportations, Jewish property was confiscated, including furniture, clothing, money, dental fillings, gold teeth, wedding rings, and other personal property of all kinds. The Security Police participated in this action along with other police and SS detachments. (_L-18_)

In Warsaw the Security Police played a responsible role in the segregation of the Jews and placing them in the Ghetto, in the subsequent removal of the Jews to concentration camps, and in the final clearance of the Ghetto. The Ghetto was established in November of 1940. Over 300,000 Jews were deported from it between July and October 1942, and 6,500 more were deported in January 1943. In April and May 1943 the final clearance of the Ghetto was accomplished under the direction of the SS and Police Leader of the Warsaw area, and with units of the SIPO, Waffen SS, Order Police, and some military and Polish police units. Thousands of Jews were killed in the action. About 7,000 were transported to “T. II” where they were exterminated. The remaining 40,000 to 45,000 were placed in concentration camps. (_1061-PS_)

In Denmark the _Kommandeur_ of the SIPO and SD was ordered in September of 1943 to arrest all Danish citizens of Jewish belief and send them to Stettin by ship and from there to the concentration camp at Theresienstadt. In spite of the protests of the _Kommandeur_ of the SIPO and SD, Kaltenbrunner as Chief of the Security Police and SD gave direct orders to carry out the anti-Jewish action. Eichmann, head of the Jewish section in the GESTAPO, had direct charge of the clearance program. (_2375-PS_)

In Hungary the deportation of Jews was again carried out by Eichmann. This action took place under direction of the GESTAPO after the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944. About 450,000 Jews were deported from Hungary due to the pressure and direction of the GESTAPO. (_2605-PS_)

(2) _The GESTAPO and the SD were primary agencies for the persecution of the churches._ The fight against the churches was never brought out into the open by the GESTAPO and the SD as in the case of the persecution of the Jews. The struggle was designed to weaken the churches and to lay a foundation for the ultimate destruction of the confessional churches after the end of the war. (_1815-PS_)

Section C2 of the SD dealt with education and religious life. Section B1 of the GESTAPO dealt with political Catholicism. Section B2 with political Protestantism sects, and Section B3 with other churches and Freemasonry. (_L-185_)

As early as 1934 the GESTAPO enforced restrictions against the churches. An order by the State Police of Dusseldorf prohibited the churches from engaging in public activities, especially public appearances in groups, sports, hikes, and the establishment of holiday or outdoor camps. (_R-145_)

In 1934 the Bavarian Political Police placed three ministers in protective custody for refusing to carry out the order of the Government to ring church bells on the occasion of the death of Hindenburg. (_1521-PS_)

The GESTAPO dissolved those church organizations which it considered to have political objectives. In 1938 the GESTAPO at Munich dissolved by order the Guild of the Virgin Mary of the Bavarian dioceses. (_1481-PS_)

An insight into the hidden objectives and secret methods of the GESTAPO and the SD in the fight against the churches is disclosed in the file of the GESTAPO regional office at Aachen (_1815-PS_). On 12 May 1941 the Chief of the GESTAPO issued a directive in which he reported that the Chief of the Security Police and SD had issued an order under which the treatment of church politics which had theretofore been divided between the SD and the GESTAPO was to be taken over entirely by the GESTAPO. The SD “church specialists” were to be temporarily transferred to the same posts in the GESTAPO and operate an intelligence service in the church political sphere there. SD files concerning church political opposition were to be handed over to the GESTAPO, but the SD was to retain material concerning the confessional influence on the lives of the people.

On 22 and 23 September 1941 a conference of church specialists attached to GESTAPO regional offices was held in the lecture hall of the RSHA in Berlin. The notes on the speeches delivered at this conference indicate that the GESTAPO considered the church as an enemy to be attacked with determination and “true fanaticism.” The immediate objective of the GESTAPO was stated to be to insure that the Church did not win back any lost ground. The ultimate objective was stated to be the destruction of the confessional churches. This was to be brought about by the collection of material through the GESTAPO church intelligence system to be produced at a proper time as evidence for the charge of treasonable activities during the German fight for existence.

The executive measures to be applied by the GESTAPO were discussed. It was stated to be impractical to deal with political offenses under normal legal procedure owing to lack of political perception which prevailed among the legal authorities. The so-called “agitator-Priests,” therefore, had to be handled by GESTAPO measures, and when necessary removed to a concentration camp. The following punishments were to be applied to priests according to individual circumstances: warning, fine, forbidden to preach, forbidden to remain in parish, forbidden all activity as a priest, short-term arrest, protective custody. Retreats, youth and recreational camps, evening services, processions and pilgrimages were all to be forbidden on grounds of interfering with the war effort, blackouts, overburdened transportation, etc.

In executing this program close cooperation was required between the GESTAPO and the SD. The study and treatment of the Church in its opposition to the Nazi state was the responsibility of the GESTAPO. The result of this treatment of the Church in the sphere of “religious life” remained the province of the SD. By these means the GESTAPO and the SD carried on the struggle of the Nazi conspirators against the Church.

H. _Conclusion._

The evidence shows that the GESTAPO was created by Goering in Prussia in April 1933 for the specific purpose of serving as a police agency to strike down the actual and ideological enemies of the Nazi regime, and that henceforward the GESTAPO in Prussia and in the other States of the Reich carried out a program of terror against all who were thought to be dangerous to the domination of the conspirators over the people of Germany. Its methods were utterly ruthless. It operated outside the law and sent its victims to the concentration camps. The term “GESTAPO” became the symbol of the Nazi regime of force and terror.

Behind the scenes, operating secretly, the SD, through its vast network of informants, spied upon the German people in their daily lives, on the streets, in the shops, and even within the sanctity of the churches.

The most casual remark of a German citizen might bring him before the GESTAPO, where his fate and freedom were decided without recourse to law. In this government, in which the rule of law was replaced by a tyrannical rule of men, the GESTAPO was the primary instrumentality of oppression.

The GESTAPO and the SD played an important part in almost every criminal act of the conspiracy. The categories of these crimes, apart from the thousands of specific instances of torture and cruelty in policing Germany for the benefit of the conspirators, indicate the extent of GESTAPO and SD complicity.

The GESTAPO and SD fabricated the border incidents which Hitler used as an excuse for attacking Poland.

Through the _Einsatz_ Groups they murdered approximately 2,000,000 defenseless men, women, and children.

They removed Jews, political leaders, and scientists from prisoner of war camps and murdered them.

They took recaptured prisoners of war to concentration camps and murdered some of them.

The GESTAPO established and classified concentration camps and sent millions of people into them for extermination and slave labor.

The GESTAPO cleared Europe of the Jews and was responsible for sending 4,000,000 Jews to their deaths in annihilation camps.

The GESTAPO and SD rounded up hundreds of thousands of citizens of occupied countries and shipped them to Germany for forced labor, and sent slave laborers to labor reformatory camps and concentration camps for disciplining.

They executed captured commandos and paratroopers and protected civilians who lynched Allied flyers.

They took civilians of occupied countries to Germany for secret trial and punishment.

They arrested, tried, and punished citizens of occupied territories under special criminal procedures which did not accord them fair trials, and by summary methods.

They murdered or sent to concentration camps the relatives of persons who had allegedly committed crimes.

They ordered the murder of prisoners in SIPO and SD prisons to prevent their release by the Allied armies.

They participated in the seizure and spoliation of public and private property.

They were primary agencies for the persecution of the Jews and of the churches.

In carrying out these crimes the GESTAPO operated as an organization, closely centralized and controlled from Berlin headquarters. Reports were submitted to Berlin, and all important decisions emanated from Berlin. The regional offices had only limited power to commit persons to concentration camps. All cases, other than those of short duration, had to be submitted to Berlin for approval. From 1943 to the end of the war the defendant Kaltenbrunner was the Chief of the Security Police and SD in Berlin. The GESTAPO was organized on a functional basis. Its principal divisions dealt with the groups and institutions against which it committed the worst crimes—Jews, churches, communists, and political liberals. Thus, in perpetrating these crimes, the GESTAPO acted as an entity, each section performing its part in the general criminal enterprises ordered by Berlin. It must be held responsible as an entity.

The SD was at all times a department of the SS. Its criminality directly concerns and contributes to the criminality of the SS.

As to the GESTAPO, it is submitted that:

1. The GESTAPO is an organization, in the sense in which
that term is used in Article 9 of the Charter.

2. The defendants Goering and Kaltenbrunner committed
the crimes defined in Article 6 of the Charter in their
capacity as members and leaders of the GESTAPO.

3. The GESTAPO, as an organization, participated in and
aided the conspiracy which contemplated and involved the
commission of the crimes defined in Article 6 of the
Charter.

In 1941, on German Police Day, Heydrich, the former Chief of the Security Police and the SD, said:

“Secret State Police, Criminal Police, and SD are still adorned
with the furtive and whispered secrecy of a political detective
story. In a mixture of fear and shuddering—and yet at home with
a certain feeling of security because of their
presence,—brutality, inhumanity bordering on the sadistic, and
ruthlessness are attributed abroad to the men of this
profession.” (Extract from a brochure on Reinhard Heydrich,
published in December 1943.)

The evidence as it is submitted, shows that brutality, inhumanity, sadism, and ruthlessness were characteristic of the GESTAPO and that it was and should be declared, a criminal organization, in accordance with article 9 of the Charter.

* * * * *

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE GEHEIME
STAATSPOLIZEI (GESTAPO) AND SICHERHEITSDIENST (SD)