Chapter VII: on Purge of Political Opponents and Section 6 of Chapter XV (1)

on the Gestapo and SD.) But presumably such increase was believed to be possible, and was given to von Neurath to use for coercion of the Czechs.

The declared basic policy of the Protectorate was to destroy the identity of the Czechs as a nation and to absorb their territory into the Reich. This is borne out by a memorandum signed by Lt. Gen. of Infantry Frederici (_862-PS_), which is headed “The Deputy General of the Armed Forces with the Reich Protector in Bohemia and Moravia”. It is marked Top Secret and dated 15 October 1940. That was practically a year before von Neurath went on leave, as he puts it, on 27 September 1941. The memorandum discusses “Basic Political Principles in the Protectorate,” and copies went to Keitel and Jodl. The memorandum states:

“On 9 October of this year [1940] the office of the Reich
protector held an official conference in which State Secretary
SS Lt. General K. H. Frank spoke about the following:

“Since creation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,
party agencies, industrial circles, as well as agencies of the
central authorities of Berlin, have had difficulties about the
solution of the Czech problem.

“After ample deliberation, the Reich Protector expressed his
view about the various plans in a memorandum. In this, three
ways of solution were indicated:

“A. German infiltration of Moravia and _reduction of the Czech
nationality to a residual Bohemia_.

“This solution is considered as unsatisfactory, because the
Czech problem, even if in a diminished form, will continue to
exist.

“B. Many arguments can be brought up against the most radical
solution, namely, the deportation of all Czechs. Therefore the
memorandum comes to the conclusion that it can not be carried
out within a reasonable space of time.

“C. Assimilation of the Czechs, i.e. absorption of about half of
the Czech nationality by the Germans, insofar as this is of
importance by being valuable from a racial or other standpoint.
This will take place among other things, also by increasing the
_Arbeitseinsatz_ of the Czechs in the Reich territory, with the
exception of the Sudeten German border district; in other words,
by dispersing the closed Czech nationality. The other half of
the Czech nationality must be deprived of its power, eliminated
and shipped out of the country by all sorts of methods. This
applies particularly to the racially mongoloid part, and to the
major part of the intellectual class. The latter can scarcely be
converted ideologically, and would represent a burden by
constantly making claims for leadership over the other Czech
classes, and thus interfering with a rapid assimilation.

“Elements which counteract the planned Germanization are to be
handled roughly and should be eliminated.

“The above development naturally presupposes an increased influx
of Germans from the Reich territory into the Protectorate.

“After a discussion, the Fuehrer has chosen Solution C
(assimilation) as a directive for the solution of the Czech
problem, and decided that, while keeping up the autonomy of the
Protectorate on the surface, the Germanization will have to be
carried out in a centralized way by the office of the Reich
Protector for years to come. From the above no particular
conclusions are drawn by the Armed Forces. This is the direction
which has always been represented from here.

“In this connection, I refer to my memorandum which was sent to
the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, dated 12
July 1939, entitled ‘The Czech Problem’.” (_862-PS_)

That view of the Reich Protector was accepted and formed a basis of his policy. The result was a program of consolidating German control over Bohemia and Moravia by the systematic oppression of the Czechs through the abolishment of civil liberties, and the systematic undermining of the native political, economic, and cultural structure by a regime of terror. The only protection given by von Neurath was a protection to the perpetrators of innumerable crimes against the Czechs. (Proof of this aspect of von Neurath’s responsibility was left for development by the Soviet prosecuting staff.)

F. _CONCLUSION._

Von Neurath received many honors and rewards as his worth. It even appears that Hitler showered more honors on von Neurath than on some of the leading Nazis who had been with the Party since the very beginning. His appointments as President of the newly created Secret Cabinet Council in 1938 was in itself a new and singular distinction. On 22 September 1940 Hitler awarded him the War Merit Cross, First Class, as Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia. He was also awarded the Golden Badge of the Party, and was promoted by Hitler personally from the rank of _Gruppenfuehrer_ to _Obergruppenfuehrer_ in the SS, on 21 June 1943. Von Neurath and Ribbentrop were the only two Germans to be awarded the _Adlerorden_, a distinction normally reserved for foreigners. Von Neurath’s seventieth birthday, 2 February 1943, was made the occasion for most of the German newspapers to praise his many years of service to the Nazi regime. This service, in the view of the prosecution, may be summed up in two ways:

(1) He was an internal fifth columnist among Conservative political circles in Germany. They had been anti-Nazi but were converted in part by seeing one of themselves, in the person of von Neurath, wholeheartedly with the Nazis.

(2) His previous reputation as a diplomat made public opinion abroad slow to believe that he would be a member of a cabinet which did not stand by its words and assurances. It was most important for Hitler that his own readiness to break every treaty or commitment should be concealed as long as possible, and for this purpose he found in von Neurath his handiest tool.

* * * * *

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO CONSTANTIN VON
NEURATH

│ │ │
Document │ Description │ Vol. │ Page
│ │ │
│Charter of the International Military │ │
│ Tribunal, Article 6. │ I │ 5
│International Military Tribunal, │ │
│ Indictment Number 1, Section IV (H);│ │
│ Appendix A. │ I │ 29, 64
│ ———— │ │
│Note: A single asterisk (*) before a │ │
│document indicates that the document │ │
│was received in evidence at the │ │
│Nurnberg trial. A double asterisk (**)│ │
│before a document number indicates │ │
│that the document was referred to │ │
│during the trial but was not formally │ │
│received in evidence, for the reason │ │
│given in parentheses following the │ │
│description of the document. The USA │ │
│series number, given in parentheses │ │
│following the description of the │ │
│document, is the official exhibit │ │
│number assigned by the court. │ │
│ ———— │ │
*386-PS │Notes on a conference with Hitler in │ │
│the Reich Chancellery, Berlin, 5 │ │
│November 1937, signed by Hitler’s │ │
│adjutant, Hossbach, and dated 10 │ │
│November 1937. (USA 25) │ III │ 295
│ │ │
*388-PS │File of papers on Case Green (the plan│ │
│for the attack on Czechoslovakia), │ │
│kept by Schmundt, Hitler’s adjutant, │ │
│April-October 1938. (USA 26) │ III │ 305
│ │ │
*789-PS │Speech of the Fuehrer at a conference,│ │
│23 November 1939, to which all Supreme│ │
│Commanders were ordered. (USA 23) │ III │ 572
│ │ │
*812-PS │Letter from Rainer to Seyss-Inquart, │ │
│22 August 1939 and report from │ │
│Gauleiter Rainer to Reichskommissar │ │
│Gauleiter Buerckel, 6 July 1939 on │ │
│events in the NSDAP of Austria from │ │
│1933 to 11 March 1938. (USA 61) │ III │ 586
│ │ │
*862-PS │Memorandum by General Friderici, │ │
│Plenipotentiary of the Wehrmacht to │ │
│the Reich Protector of Bohemia and │ │
│Moravia, initialled by Keitel, Jodl │ │
│and Warlimont, 15 October 1940, │ │
│concerning plan to Germanize │ │
│Czechoslovakia. (USA 313) │ III │ 618
│ │ │
*1439-PS │Treaty of Protection between Slovakia │ │
│and the Reich, signed in Vienna 18 │ │
│March and in Berlin 23 March 1939. │ │
│1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. │ │
│606. (GB 135) │ IV │ 18
│ │ │
1654-PS │Law of 16 March 1935 reintroducing │ │
│universal military conscription. 1935 │ │
│Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 369. │ │
│(Referred to but not offered in │ │
│evidence.) │ IV │ 163
│ │ │
*1708-PS │The Program of the NSDAP. National │ │
│Socialistic Yearbook, 1941, p. 153. │ │
│(USA 255, USA 324) │ IV │ 208
│ │ │
*1760-PS │Affidavit of George S. Messersmith, 28│ │
│August 1945. (USA 57) │ IV │ 305
│ │ │
*1774-PS │Extracts from Organizational Law of │ │
│the Greater German Reich by Ernst │ │
│Rudolf Huber. (GB 246) │ IV │ 349
│ │ │
*1780-PS │Excerpts from diary kept by General │ │
│Jodl, January 1937 to August 1939. │ │
│(USA 72) │ IV │ 360
│ │ │
*2031-PS │Decree establishing a Secret Cabinet │ │
│Council, 4 February 1938. 1938 │ │
│Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 112. (GB│ │
│217) │ IV │ 654
│ │ │
2119-PS │Decree of the Fuehrer and Reich │ │
│Chancellor concerning the Protectorate│ │
│of Bohemia and Moravia, 16 March 1939.│ IV │ 751
│ │ │
*2194-PS │Top secret letter from Ministry for │ │
│Economy and Labor, Saxony, to Reich │ │
│Protector in Bohemia and Moravia, │ │
│enclosing copy of 1938 Secret Defense │ │
│Law of 4 September 1938. (USA 36) │ IV │ 843
│ │ │
*2246-PS │Report of von Papen to Hitler, 1 │ │
│September 1936, concerning Danube │ │
│situation. (USA 67) │ IV │ 930
│ │ │
*2247-PS │Letter from von Papen to Hitler, 17 │ │
│May 1935, concerning intention of │ │
│Austrian government to arm. (USA 64) │ IV │ 930
│ │ │
2261-PS │Directive from Blomberg to Supreme │ │
│Commanders of Army, Navy and Air │ │
│Forces, 24 June 1935; accompanied by │ │
│copy of Reich Defense Law of 21 May │ │
│1935 and copy of Decision of Reich │ │
│Cabinet of 12 May 1935 on the Council │ │
│for defense of the Reich. (USA 24) │ IV │ 934
│ │ │
*2288-PS │Adolf Hitler’s speech before the │ │
│Reichstag, published in Voelkischer │ │
│Beobachter, Southern Germany Special │ │
│Edition, No. 142a, 22 May 1935. (USA │ │
│38) │ IV │ 993
│ │ │
*2289-PS │Hitler’s speech in the Reichstag, 7 │ │
│March 1936, published in Voelkischer │ │
│Beobachter, Berlin Edition, No. 68, 8 │ │
│March 1936. (USA 56) │ IV │ 994
│ │ │
*2353-PS │Extracts from General Thomas’ Basic │ │
│Facts for History of German War and │ │
│Armament Economy. (USA 35) │ IV │ 1071
│ │ │
*2357-PS │Speech by Hitler before Reichstag, 20 │ │
│February 1938, published in Documents │ │
│of German Politics, Part VI, 1, pp. │ │
│50-52. (GB 30) │ IV │ 1099
│ │ │
2358-PS │Speech by Hitler in Sportspalast, │ │
│Berlin, 26 September 1938, from │ │
│Voelkischer Beobachter, Munich │ │
│Edition, 27 September 1938. │ IV │ 1100
│ │ │
*2360-PS │Speech by Hitler before Reichstag, 30 │ │
│January 1939, from Voelkischer │ │
│Beobachter, Munich Edition, 31 January│ │
│1939. (GB 134) │ IV │ 1101
│ │ │
*2385-PS │Affidavit of George S. Messersmith, 30│ │
│August 1945. (USA 68) │ V │ 23
│ │ │
2541-PS │Extracts from German Publications. │ V │ 285
│ │ │
2771-PS │U. S. State Department, National │ │
│Socialism, published by U. S. │ │
│Government Printing Office, 1943. │ V │ 417
│ │ │
*2852-PS │Minutes of meetings of Council of │ │
│Ministers for Reich Defense. (USA 395)│ V │ 512
│ │ │
*2949-PS │Transcripts of telephone calls from │ │
│Air Ministry, 11-14 March 1938. (USA │ │
│76) │ V │ 628
│ │ │
*2972-PS │List of appointments held by von │ │
│Neurath, 17 November 1945. (USA 19) │ V │ 679
│ │ │
*2986-PS │Affidavit of the defendant, Wilhelm │ │
│Frick, 19 November 1945. (USA 409) │ V │ 688
│ │ │
*3045-PS │Letter, 12 March 1938, to British │ │
│Embassy enclosing letter from │ │
│Henderson to Neurath, 11 March 1938. │ │
│(USA 127) │ V │ 765
│ │ │
*3287-PS │Letter from von Neurath to Henderson, │ │
│12 March 1938. (USA 128) │ V │ 1090
│ │ │
*C-139 │Directive for operation “Schulung” │ │
│signed by Blomberg, 2 May 1935. (USA │ │
│53) │ VI │ 951
│ │ │
*C-140 │Directive for preparations in event of│ │
│sanctions, 25 October 1935, signed by │ │
│Blomberg. (USA 51) │ VI │ 952
│ │ │
*C-153 │Naval Armament Plan for the 3rd │ │
│Armament Phase, signed by Raeder, 12 │ │
│May 1934. (USA 43) │ VI │ 967
│ │ │
D-449 │Extract from The Archive, 1937, p. │ │
│650. │ VII │ 58
│ │ │
D-471 │Extract from The Archive, October │ │
│1937, p. 921. │ VII │ 59
│ │ │
*D-660 │Extracts from Hutchinson’s Illustrated│ │
│edition of Mein Kampf. (GB 128) │ VII │ 164
│ │ │
EC-177 │Minutes of second session of Working │ │
│Committee of the Reich Defense held on│ │
│26 April 1933. (USA 390) │ VII │ 328
│ │ │
*EC-407 │Minutes of Twelfth Meeting of Reichs │ │
│Defense Council, 14 May 1936. (GB 247)│ VII │ 462
│ │ │
*L-150 │Memorandum of conversation between │ │
│Ambassador Bullitt and von Neurath, │ │
│German Minister for Foreign Affairs, │ │
│18 May 1936. (USA 65) │ VII │ 890
│ │ │
*TC-22 │Agreement between Austria and German │ │
│Government and Government of Federal │ │
│State of Austria, 11 July 1936. (GB │ │
│20) │ VIII │ 369
│ │ │
*TC-25 │Non-aggression Treaty between Germany │ │
│and USSR and announcement of 25 │ │
│September 1939 relating to it. (GB │ │
│145) │ VIII │ 375
│ │ │
*TC-26 │German assurance to Austria, 21 May │ │
│1935, from Documents of German │ │
│Politics, Part III, p. 94. (GB 19) │ VIII │ 376
│ │ │
*TC-27 │German assurances to Czechoslovakia, │ │
│11 and 12 March 1938, as reported by │ │
│M. Masaryk, the Czechoslovak Minister │ │
│to London to Viscount Halifax. (GB 21)│ VIII │ 377
│ │ │
*TC-34 │German Declaration to the Belgian │ │
│Minister of 13 October 1937. (GB 100) │ VIII │ 381
│ │ │
*TC-44 │Notice by German government of │ │
│existence of German Air Force, 9 March│ │
│1935. (GB 11) │ VIII │ 386
│ │ │
*TC-50 │Proclamation of the Fuehrer to the │ │
│German people and Order of the Fuehrer│ │
│to the Wehrmacht, 15 March 1939, from │ │
│Documents of German Politics, Part │ │
│VII, pp. 499-501. (GB 7) │ VIII │ 402
│ │ │
TC-51 │Decree establishing the Protectorate │ │
│of Bohemia and Moravia, 16 March 1939.│ │
│(GB 8) │ VIII │ 404
│ │ │
*Chart No. 1 │National Socialist German Workers’ │ │
│Party. (2903-PS; USA 2) │ VIII │ 770

21. HANS FRITZSCHE

A. _POSITIONS HELD BY FRITZSCHE IN THE NAZI STATE._

Fritzsche’s Party membership and his various positions in the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi State are shown in two affidavits made by himself (_2976-PS_; _3469-PS_). Fritzsche became a member of the Nazi Party on 1 May 1933, and continued to be a member until Germany’s collapse in 1945.

Fritzsche began his service with the staff of the Reich Ministry for People’s Enlightenment and Propaganda (hereinafter referred to as the Propaganda Ministry) on 1 May 1933, he remained within the Propaganda Ministry until the Nazi downfall in the spring of 1945.

Before the Nazis seized political power in Germany, and beginning in September 1932, Fritzsche was head of the Wireless News Service (_Drahtloser Dienst_), an agency of the Reich Government, which at that time was the government of von Papen. After the Wireless News Service was incorporated into Dr. Goebbels’ Propaganda Ministry in May 1933, Fritzsche continued as its head until 1938. Upon entering the Progapanda Ministry in May 1933, Fritzsche also became head of the news section of the Press Division of the Propaganda Ministry. He continued in this position until 1937. In the summer of 1938 Fritzsche was appointed deputy to Alfred Ingemar Berndt, who was then head of the German Press Division. (The German Press Division, in the Indictment, is called the “Home Press Division.” Since “German Press Division” seems to be a more literal translation, it is referred to as the German Press Division throughout this section. It is sometimes otherwise known as the Domestic Press Division.) This Division, as will be later shown, was the major section of the Press Division of the Reich Cabinet.

In December 1938 Fritzsche succeeded Berndt as the head of the German Press Division. Between 1938 and November 1942, Fritzsche was promoted three times. He advanced in title from Superior Government Counsel to Ministerial Counsel, then to _Ministerialdirigent_, and finally to _Ministerialdirektor_.

In November 1942 Fritzsche was relieved of his position as head of the German Press Division by Dr. Goebbels. In its place he accepted from Dr. Goebbels a newly created position in the Propaganda Ministry, that of Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of the Greater German Radio. At the same time he also became head of the Radio Division of the Propaganda Ministry. He held both these positions in radio until the Nazi downfall.

There are two allegations in the Indictment concerning Fritzsche’s positions for which no proof is available. The first unsupported allegation states that Fritzsche was Editor-in-Chief of the official German News Agency, _Deutsche Nachrichten Buero_. The second unsupported allegation states that Fritzsche was head of the Radio Division of the Propaganda Department of the Nazi Party. Fritzsche, in his affidavit, denies having held either of these positions, and these two allegations must fall for want of other proof.

B. _FRITZSCHE’S PART IN THE CONSPIRACY TO CONSOLIDATE NAZI CONTROL OVER
GERMANY AND TO LAUNCH WARS OF AGGRESSION._

In one of his affidavits (_3469-PS_), which contains numerous statements in the nature of self-serving declarations, Fritzsche states that he first became a successful journalist in the service of the Hugenberg Press, the most important chain of newspaper enterprises in pre-Nazi Germany. The Hugenberg concern owned papers of its own, but it was important primarily because it served newspapers which principally supported the so-called “national” parties of the Reich, including the NSDAP.

In paragraph 5 of this affidavit (_3469-PS_), Fritzsche relates that in September 1932, when von Papen was Reich Chancellor, he was made head of the Wireless News Service, replacing an official who was politically unbearable to the Papen regime. The Wireless News Service was a government agency for spreading news by radio. Fritzsche began making radio broadcasts at about this time, with a success which Goebbels recognized and later exploited on behalf of the Nazi conspirators.

On the evening of the day when the Nazis seized power, the 30 January 1933, two emissaries from Goebbels visited Fritzsche. One of them was Dressler-Andrees, head of the Radio Division of the NSDAP; the other was an assistant of Dressler-Andrees named Sadila-Mantau. These two emissaries notified Fritzsche that although Goebbels was angry with Fritzsche for writing an article critical of Hitler, still Goebbels recognized Fritzsche’s public success on the radio. They stated further that Goebbels desired to retain Fritzsche as head of the Wireless News Service on certain conditions: (1) that Fritzsche discharge all Jews; (2) that he discharge all other personnel who would not join the NSDAP; (3) that he employ with the Wireless News Service the second Goebbels’ emissary, Sadila-Mantau. Fritzsche refused all these conditions except the hiring of Sadila-Mantau. (_3469-PS_)

Fritzsche continued to make radio broadcasts during this period in which he supported the national National Socialist coalition government then still existing.

In early 1933 SA troops several times called at the Wireless News Service and Fritzsche prevented them, with some difficulty, from making news broadcasts.

In April 1933 Goebbels called Fritzsche to him for a personal audience. At paragraph 9 of his affidavit (_3469-PS_) Fritzsche has described his prior relationship with Dr. Goebbels:

“I was acquainted with Dr. Goebbels since 1928. Apparently he
had taken a liking to me, besides the fact that in my press
activities I had always treated the National Socialists in a
friendly way until 1931. Already before 1933, Goebbels, who was
the editor of the ‘_Attack_’ [“_Der Angriff_”] a Nazi newspaper,
had frequently made flattering remarks about the form and
content of my work, which I did as contributor of many
‘National’ newspapers and periodicals, among which were also
reactionary papers and periodicals.” (_3469-PS_)

(1) _Establishment of complete Nazi control over press and radio._ At the first Goebbels-Fritzsche discussion in early April 1933, Goebbels informed Fritzsche of his decision to place the Wireless News Service within the Propaganda Ministry as of 1 May 1933. He suggested that Fritzsche make certain rearrangements in the personnel so as to remove Jews and other persons who did not support the NSDAP. Fritzsche debated with Goebbels concerning some of these steps. During this period Fritzsche made some effort to place Jews in other jobs.

In a second conference with Goebbels shortly thereafter, Fritzsche informed Goebbels about the steps he had taken in reorganizing the Wireless News Service. Goebbels thereupon informed Fritzsche that he would like to have him reorganize and modernize the entire news services of Germany within the controls of the Propaganda Ministry. On 17 March 1933, approximately two months before this time, the Propaganda Ministry had been created by decree. (_2029-PS_) Fritzsche was intrigued by the Goebbels offer. He proceeded to conclude the Goebbels-inspired reorganization of the Wireless News Service and, on 1 May 1933, together with the remaining members of his staff, he joined the Propaganda Ministry. On this same day he joined the NSDAP and took the customary oath of unconditional loyalty to the Fuehrer (_3469-PS_).

From this time on, whatever reservations Fritzsche may have had, either then or later, to the course of events under the Nazis, Fritzsche was completely within the Nazi camp. For the next 13 years he assisted in creating and in using the propaganda devices which the conspirators successfully employed in each of the principal phases of the conspiracy.

From 1933 until 1942 Fritzsche held one or more positions within the German Press Division. For four years, from 1938 to 1942—the period when the Nazis undertook military invasions of neighboring countries—he headed this Division. By virtue of its functions, the German Press Division became an important and unique instrument of the Nazi conspirators, not only in dominating the minds and psychology of Germans, but also as an instrument of foreign policy and psychological warfare against other nations. Thus, the already broad jurisdiction of the Propaganda Ministry was extended as follows by a Hitler decree of 30 June 1933:

“The Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda has
jurisdiction over the whole field of spiritual indoctrination of
the nation, of propagandizing the State, of cultural and
economic propaganda, of enlightenment of the public at home and
abroad. Furthermore, he is in charge of the administration of
all institutions serving those purposes.” (_2030-PS_)

An exposition of the general functions of the German Press Division of the Propaganda Ministry is contained in an excerpt from a book by George Wilhelm Mueller, a Ministerial Director in the Propaganda Ministry. (_2434-PS_) Paragraphs 14, 15 and 16 of Fritzsche’s affidavit contain an exposition of the functions of the German Press Division, a description which confirms and adds to the exposition in Mueller’s book. Concerning the German Press Division, Fritzsche’s affidavit (_3469-PS_) states:

“During the whole period from 1933 to 1945 it was the task of
the German Press Division to supervise the entire domestic press
and to provide it with directives by which this division became
an efficient instrument in the hands of the German State
leadership. More than 2,300 German daily newspapers were subject
to this control. The aim of this supervision and control, in the
first years following 1933, was to change basically the
conditions existing in the press before the seizure of power.
That meant the coordination into the New Order of those
newspapers and periodicals which were in the service of
capitalistic special interests or party politics. While the
administrative functions, wherever possible, were exercised by
the professional associations and the Reich Press Chamber, the
political leadership of the German press was entrusted to the
German Press Division. The head of the German Press Division
held daily press conferences in the Ministry for the
representatives of all German newspapers. Hereby all
instructions were given to the representatives of the press.
These instructions were transmitted daily, almost without
exception, and mostly by telephone, from headquarters by Dr.
Otto Dietrich, Reich Press Chief, in a fixed statement, the
so-called ‘Daily Parole of the Reich Press Chief.’ Before the
statement was fixed the head of the German Press Division
submitted to him—Dietrich—the current press wishes expressed
by Dr. Goebbels and by other Ministries. This was the case
especially with the wishes of the Foreign Office, about which
Dr. Dietrich always wanted to make decisions personally or
through his representatives at the headquarters, Helmut
Suendermann and chief editor Lorenz. The practical use of the
general directions in detail was thus left entirely to the
individual work of the individual editor. Therefore, it is by no
means true that the newspapers and periodicals were a monopoly
of the German Press Division or that essays and leading articles
through it had to be submitted to the Ministry. Even in war
times this happened in exceptional cases only. The less
important newspapers and periodicals which were not represented
at the daily press conferences received their information in a
different way—by providing them either with ready-made articles
and reports, or with a confidential printed instruction. The
publications of all other official agencies were directed and
coordinated likewise by the German Press Division. To enable the
periodicals to get acquainted with the daily political problems
of newspapers and to discuss these problems in greater detail,
the _Informationskorrespondenz_ was issued especially for
periodicals. Later on it was taken over by the Periodical Press
Division. The German Press Division likewise was in charge of
pictorial reporting in so far as it directed the employment of
pictorial reporters at important events. In this way, and
conditioned by the current political situation, the entire
German Press was made a permanent instrument of the Propaganda
Ministry by the German Press Division. Thereby, the entire
German Press was subordinate to the political aims of the
Government. This was exemplified by the timely measuring and the
emphatic presentation of such press polemics as appeared to be
most useful, as shown for instance in the following themes: the
class struggle of the system era; the leadership principle and
the authoritarian state; the party and interest politics of the
system era; the Jewish problem; the conspiracy of World Jewry;
the Bolshevistic danger; the plutocratic Democracy abroad; the
race problem generally; the church; the economic misery abroad;
the foreign policy; and living space [_lebensraum_].”
(_3469-PS_)

This description of Fritzsche’s establishes clearly that the German Press Division was the instrument for subordinating the entire German press to the political aims of the Nazi Government.

Fritzsche’s early activities within the German Press Division on behalf of the conspirators are described in his affidavit (_3469-PS_). In a conference with Goebbels the following occurred:

“At this time Dr. Goebbels suggested to me, as a specialist on
news technique, the establishment and direction of a section
‘News,’ within the Press Division of his Ministry, in order to
organize fully and to modernize the German news agencies. In
executing this assignment given to me by Dr. Goebbels I took for
my field the entire news field for the German Press and the
radio in accordance with the directions given by the Propaganda
Ministry, at first with the exception of the DNB, German News
Agency.” (_3469-PS_)

The reason why the DNB was excepted from Fritzsche’s field at this time is that it did not come into existence until 1934.

Later on in his affidavit Fritzsche mentions the sizeable funds put at his disposal in building up the Nazi news services. Altogether, the German news agencies received a ten-fold increase in their budget from the Reich, an increase from 400,000 to 4,000,000 marks. Fritzsche himself selected and employed the Chief Editor for the Transocean News Agency and also for the Europa Press. Fritzsche states that some of the

“* * * directions of the Propaganda Ministry which I had to
follow were * * * increase of German news copy abroad at any
cost * * * spreading of favorable news on the internal
construction and peaceful intentions of the National Socialistic
System. * * *” (_3469-PS_)

About the summer of 1934 Funk, then Reich Press Chief, achieved the fusion of the two most important domestic news agencies, the Wolff Telegraph Agency and the Telegraph Union, and thus formed the official German news agency known as DNB. Although Fritzsche held no position with DNB at any time, nevertheless as head of the news section of the German Press Division, Fritzsche’s duties gave him official jurisdiction over the DNB, which was the official domestic news agency of the Reich after 1934. Fritzsche admits that he coordinated the work of the various foreign news agencies

“within the inland Europe and overseas foreign countries with
each other and in relationship to DNB” (_3469-PS_).

The Wireless News Service was headed by Fritzsche from 1930 to 1937. After January 1933 the Wireless News Service was the official instrument of the Nazi government in spreading news over the radio. During the same time that Fritzsche headed the Wireless News Service, he personally made radio broadcasts to the German people. These broadcasts were naturally subject to the controls of the Propaganda Ministry and reflected its purposes. The influence of Fritzsche’s broadcasts to the German people, during this period of consolidation of control by the Nazi conspirators, is all the more important since Fritzsche was concurrently head of the Wireless News Service, and thus in control of all radio news.

(2) _Use of propaganda to prepare the way for aggressions_. The use made by the Nazi conspirators of psychological warfare is well known. Before each major aggression, with some few exceptions based on expediency, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically for the attack. They used the press, after their earlier conquests, as a means for further influencing foreign politics and in maneuvering for the next following aggression.

By the time of the occupation of the Sudetenland on 1 October 1938, Fritzsche had become deputy head of the entire German Press Division. Fritzsche states that the role of German propaganda before the Munich Agreement on the Sudetenland was directed by his immediate chief, Berndt, head of the German Press Division. Fritzsche describes Berndt’s propaganda as follows:

“He exaggerated minor events very strongly, used sometimes old
episodes as new—and there even came complaints from the
Sudetenland itself that much of the news reported by the German
press was untrustworthy. As a matter of fact, after the great
foreign political success at Munich in September 1938, there
came a noticeable crisis in confidence of the German people in
the trustworthiness of its press. This was one reason for the
recalling of Berndt, in December 1938 after the conclusion of
the Sudeten action and for my appointment as head of the German
Press Division. Beyond this, Berndt, by his admittedly
successful but still primitive military-like orders to the
German Press, had lost the confidence of the German editors.”
(_3469-PS_)

Fritzsche was accordingly made head of the German Press Division in place of Berndt. Between December 1938 and 1942, Fritzsche, as head of the German Press Division, personally gave to the representatives of the principal German newspapers the “daily parole of the Reich Press Chief.” During this period he was the principal conspirator directly concerned with the manipulations of the press.

The first important foreign aggression after Fritzsche became head of the German Press Division was the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia. Fritzsche describes the propaganda action surrounding the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia as follows:

“The action for the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia, which
took place on 15 March 1939, while I was head of the German
Press Division, was not prepared for such a long period as the
Sudeten action. According to my memory, it was in February that
I received the order from the Reich Press Chief, Dr. Dietrich,
which was repeated as a request by the envoy Paul Schmidt of the
Foreign Office, to bring the attention of the press to the
efforts for independence of Slovakia and to the continued
anti-German coalition politics of the Prague government. I did
this. The daily paroles of the Reich Press Chief and the press
conference minutes at that time show the wording of the
corresponding instructions. These were the typical headlines of
leading newspapers and the emphatic leading articles of the
German daily press at that time: (1) the terrorizing of Germans
within the Czech territory by arrest, shooting of Germans by the
state police, destruction and damaging of German homes by Czech
gangsters; (2) the concentration of Czech forces on the Sudeten
frontier; (3) the kidnaping, deporting, and persecuting of
Slovakian minorities by the Czechs; that the Czechs must get out
of Slovakia; (4) secret meetings of Red functionaries in Prague.
Some few days before the visit of Hacha, I received the
instruction to publish in the press very emphatically the
incoming news on the unrest in Czechoslovakia. Such information
I received only partly from the German News Agency, DNB. Mostly
it came from the Press Division of the Foreign Office and some
of it came from big newspapers with their own news services.
Among the newspapers offering information was above all the
‘_Voelkischer Beobachter_’ which, as I learned later on,
received its information from the SS Standartenfuehrer Gunter
D’Alquen. He was at this time in Pressburg. I had forbidden all
news agencies and newspapers to issue news on unrest in
Czechoslovakia before I had seen it. I wanted to avoid a
repetition of the very annoying results of the Sudeten action
propaganda, and I did not want to suffer a loss of prestige
caused by untrue news. Thus, all news checked by me was
admittedly full of tendency [_voller Tendenz_] however, not
invented. After the visit of Hacha in Berlin and after the
beginning of the invasion of the German Army, which took place
on 15 March 1939, the German press had enough material for
describing those events. Historically and politically the event
was justified with the indication that the declaration of
independence of Slovakia had required an interference and that
Hacha with his signature had avoided a war and had reinstated a
thousand-year union between Bohemia and the Reich.” (_3469-PS_)

The propaganda campaign of the press preceding the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 bears again the handiwork of Fritzsche and his German Press Division. Fritzsche speaks of the conspirators’ treatment of this episode as follows:

“Very complicated and changing was the press and propagandists
treatment in the case of Poland. Under the influence of the
German-Polish agreement, it was generally forbidden in the
German press for many years to publish anything on the situation
of the German minority in Poland. This remained also the case
when in the Spring of 1939 the German press was asked to become
somewhat more active as to the problem of Danzig. Also, when the
first Polish-English conversations took place, and when the
German press was instructed to use a sharper tone against
Poland, the question of the German minority still remained in
the background. But during the summer this problem was picked up
again and created immediately a noticeable sharpening of the
situation, namely, each larger German newspaper had for quite
some time an abundance of material on complaints of the Germans
in Poland without the editors having had a chance to use this
material. The German papers, from the time of the minority
discussion at Geneva, still had correspondents of free
collaborators in Kattewitz, Bromberg, Posen, Thorn, etc. Their
material now came forth with a bound. Concerning this the
leading German newspapers, upon the basis of directions given
out in the so-called ‘daily parole’ brought out the following
publicity with great emphasis: (1) cruelty and terror against
Germans and the extermination of Germans in Poland; (2) forced
labor of thousands of German men and women in Poland; (3)
Poland, land of servitude and disorder; the desertion of Polish
soldiers; the increased inflation in Poland; (4) provocation of
frontier clashes upon direction of the Polish Government; the
Polish lust to conquer; (5) persecution of Czechs and Ukrainians
by Poland. The Polish Press replied particularly sharply.”
(_3469-PS_)

The press campaign preceding the invasion of Yugoslavia followed the conventional pattern. The customary definitions, lies, incitement, and threats, and the usual attempt to divide and weaken the victim, are contained in Fritzsche’s description of this propaganda action:

“During the period immediately preceding the invasion of
Yugoslavia, on the 16th of April 1941, the German press
emphasized by headlines and leading articles the following
topics: (1) the planned persecution of Germans in Yugoslavia,
including the burning down of German villages by Serbian
soldiers; also the confining of Germans in concentration camps
and also the physical mishandling of German-speaking persons;
(2) the arming of Serbian bandits by the Serbian Government; (3)
the incitement of Yugoslavia by the plutocrats against Germany;
(4) the increasing anti-Serbian feeling in Croatia; (5) the
chaotic economic and social conditions in Yugoslavia.”

Since Germany had a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, and because the conspirators wanted the advantage of surprise, there was no special propaganda campaign immediately preceding the attack on the U.S.S.R. Fritzsche’s affidavit discusses the propaganda line which was given the German people in justification of this aggressive war:

“During the night from the 21st to the 22nd of June 1941,
Ribbentrop called me in for a conference in the Foreign Office
Building at about 5 o’clock in the morning, at which
representatives of the domestic and foreign press were present.
Ribbentrop informed us that the war against the Soviet Union
would start that same day and asked the German press to present
the war against the Soviet Union as a preventative war for the
defense of the Fatherland, as a war which was forced upon us
through the immediate danger of an attack of the Soviet Union
against Germany. The claim that this was a preventative war was
later repeated by the newspapers which received their
instructions from me during the usual daily parole of the Reich
Press Chief. I, myself, have also given this presentation of the
cause of the war in my regular broadcasts.” (_3469-PS_)

Fritzsche, throughout his affidavit, constantly refers to his expert technical assistance to the apparatus of the Propaganda Ministry. In 1939, apparently becoming dissatisfied with the efficiency of the existing facilities of the German Press Division, he established a new instrument for improving the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda:

“About the summer of 1939 I established within the German Press
Division a section called ‘Speed-Service.’ * * * At the start it
had the task of checking the correctness of news from foreign
countries. Later on, about the Fall of 1939, this section also
elaborated on collecting materials which were put at the
disposal of the entire German press. For instance, dates from
the British Colonial policy, from political statements of the
British Prime Minister in former times, descriptions of social
distress in hostile countries, etc. Almost all German newspapers
used such material as a basis for their polemics. Hereby was
achieved a great unification within the fighting front of the
German press. The title ‘Speed Service’ was chosen because
materials for current comments were supplied with unusual
speed.” (_3469-PS_)

Throughout this entire period preceding and including the launching of aggressive wars, Fritzsche made regular radio broadcasts to the German people under the program titles of “Political Newspaper Review,” “Political and Radio Show,” and later “Hans Fritzsche Speaks.” His broadcasts naturally reflected the polemics and the controls of his Ministry and thus of the conspiracy. Fritzsche, the most eminent member of Goebbels’ propaganda team, helped substantially in making possible, both within Germany and without, the conspirators’ plans for aggressive war.

C. _FRITZSCHE’S USE OF PROPAGANDA TO FURTHER THE CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT
ATROCITIES AND EXPLOIT OCCUPIED TERRITORIES._

Fritzsche incited atrocities and encouraged a ruthless occupation policy. The results of propaganda as a weapon of the Nazi conspirators reaches into every aspect of this conspiracy, including the atrocities and ruthless exploitation in occupied countries. It is likely that many ordinary Germans would never have participated in or tolerated the atrocities committed throughout Europe, had they not been conditioned and goaded by the constant Nazi propaganda. The callousness and zeal of the people who actually committed the atrocities was in large part due to the constant and corrosive propaganda of Fritzsche and his official associates.

(1) _Persecution of the Jews._ With respect to Jews, the Department of Propaganda within the Propaganda Ministry had a special branch for the “Enlightenment of the German people and of the world as to the Jewish question, fighting with propagandistic weapons against enemies of the State and hostile ideologies.” This quotation is taken from a book written in 1940 by Ministerial Director Mueller, entitled “The Propaganda Ministry.” (_2434-PS_)

In his radio broadcasts Fritzsche took a particularly active part in this “enlightenment” concerning the Jewish question. These broadcasts were full of provocative libels against Jews, the result of which was to inflame Germans to further atrocities against Jews. Even Streicher, the master Jew-baiter of all time, could scarcely outdo Fritzsche in some of his anti-Jewish incitements. Broadcasts by Fritzsche which were monitored and translated by the British Broadcasting Corporation are quite revealing (_3064-PS_). These radio speeches of Fritzsche were broadcast during the period 1941-1945, which was a period of intensified anti-Jewish measures.

For instance, in a broadcast on 18 December 1941, Fritzsche declared:

“The fate of Jewry in Europe has turned out as unpleasant as the
Fuehrer predicted in the case of a European war. After the
extension of the war instigated by Jews, this unpleasant fate
may also spread to the New World, for you can hardly assume that
the nations of this New World will pardon the Jews for the
misery of which the nations of the Old World did not absolve
them.” (_3064-PS_)

On 18 March 1941 Fritzsche broadcast as follows:

“But the crown of all wrongly-applied Rooseveltian logics is the
sentence ‘There never was a race and there never will be a race
which can serve the rest of mankind as a master.’ Here too we
can only applaud Mr. Roosevelt. Precisely because there exists
no race which can be the master of the rest of mankind, we
Germans have taken the liberty to break the domination of Jewry
and of its capital in Germany, of Jewry which believed to have
inherited the Crown of secret world domination.” (_3064-PS_)

On 9 October 1941 Fritzsche declared over the radio:

“We know very well that these German victories, unparalleled in
history, have not yet stopped the source of hatred, which, for a
long time, has fed the war mongers and from which this war
originated. The international Jewish-Democratic Bolshevistic
campaign of incitement against Germany still finds cover in this
or that fox’s lair or rat-hole. We have seen only too frequently
how the defeats suffered by the war mongers only doubled their
senseless and impotent fury.” (_3064-PS_)

And on 8 January 1944 Fritzsche broadcast the following:

“It is revealed clearly once more that not a system of
Government, not a young nationalism, not a new and well applied
Socialism brought about this war. The guilty ones are
exclusively the Jews and the Plutocrats. If discussion on the
post-war problems brings this to light so clearly, we welcome it
as a contribution for later discussions and also as a
contribution to the fight we are waging now, for we refuse to
believe that world history will confide its future developments
to those powers which have brought about this war. This clique
of Jews and Plutocrats have invested their money in armaments
and they had to see to it that they would get their interests
and sinking funds; hence they unleashed this war.” (_3064-PS_)

Finally, in a broadcast on 13 January 1945, Fritzsche stated:

“If Jewry provided a link between divergent elements as
Plutocracy and Bolshevism and if Jewry was first able to work
successfully in the Democratic countries in preparing this war
against Germany, it has by now placed itself unreservedly on the
side of Bolshevism which, with its entirely mistaken slogans of
racial freedom against racial hatred, has created the very
conditions the Jewish race requires in its struggle for
domination over other races.”

* * * * * *

“Not the last result of German resistance on the fronts, so
unexpected to the enemy, is the fruition of a development which
began in the pre-war years, the process of subordinating British
policy to far-reaching Jewish points of view. It began long
before this when Jewish emigrants from Germany started their
war-mongering against us from British and American soil.”

* * * * * *

“This whole attempt aiming at the establishment of Jewish world
domination, now increasingly recognizable, has come to a head at
the very moment when the people’s understanding of their racial
origins has been far too much awakened to promise success to the
undertaking.” (_3064-PS_)

All this was designed not only as a justification of prior anti-Jewish actions, but also as an invitation to further persecution of the Jews.

(2) _Ruthless treatment of peoples of the USSR._ Fritzsche also incited and encouraged ruthless measures against the peoples of the USSR.

In his regular broadcasts Fritzsche’s incitements against the peoples of the USSR were often linked to, and were certainly as inflammatory as, his rantings against the Jews. It is ironic that his propaganda ascribing atrocities to the peoples of the USSR are accurate descriptions of some of the many atrocities committed by the German invaders. Shortly after the invasion of the USSR in June 1941 Fritzsche broadcast as follows:

“The evidence of letters reaching us from the front, of P. K.
[_Propaganda Kompanie_] reporters and soldiers on leave
demonstrates that, in this struggle in the East, not one
political system is pitted against another, not one view of life
is fighting another, but that culture, civilization, and human
decency make a stand against the diabolical principle of a
sub-human world.”

“It was only the Fuehrer’s decision to strike in time that saved
our homeland from the fate of being overrun by those sub-human
creatures, and our men, women, and children from the unspeakable
horror of being their prey.” (_3064-PS_)

In his broadcast on 10 July 1941 Fritzsche spoke of the alleged inhuman deeds committed in various areas by the Soviet Union, and he states that upon seeing the evidence of those deeds one is

“* * * finally to make the holy resolve to give his aid in the
final destruction of those who are capable of such dastardly
acts.”

* * * * * *

“The Bolshevist agitators make no effort to deny that in towns,
thousands, in the villages, hundreds, of corpses of men, women
and children have been found, who had been either killed or
tortured to death. Yet the Bolshevik agitators allege that this
was not done by Soviet Commissars but by German soldiers. Now we
Germans know our soldiers. No German woman, father, or mother
requires proof that their husband or their son cannot have
committed such atrocious acts.” (_3064-PS_)

Evidence to be offered by the Soviet prosecuting staff will prove that representatives of the Nazi conspirators did not hesitate to exterminate Soviet soldiers and civilians by scientific mass methods. The incitements by Fritzsche make him an accomplice in these crimes. His labeling of the Soviet peoples as members of a “sub-human world” seeking to “exterminate” the German people, and similar talk, helped fashion the psychological atmosphere of unreason and hatred which not only made possible these atrocities in the East, but made them appear a holy duty.

(3) _Exploitation of occupied territories._ Fritzsche encouraged and glorified the policy of the Nazi conspirators in ruthlessly exploiting the occupied countries. In his radio broadcast of 9 October 1941 he stated:

“Today we can only say: Blitzkrieg or no—this German
thunderstorm has cleansed the atmosphere of Europe. It is quite
true that the dangers threatening us were eliminated one after
the other with lightning speed; but in these lightning blows
which shattered England’s allies on the Continent, we saw not a
proof of the weakness, but a proof of the strength and
superiority of the Fuehrer’s gift as a statesman and military
leader; a proof of the German peoples’ force; we saw the proof
that no opponent can stand up to the courage, discipline, and
readiness for sacrifice displayed by the German soldier; and we
are particularly grateful for these lightning, unmatched
victories, because—as the Fuehrer emphasized last Friday—they
give us the possibility of embarking on the organization of
Europe and of lifting of the treasures of this old continent,
already now in the middle of war, without it being necessary for
millions and millions of German soldiers to be on guard,
fighting day and night along this or that threatened frontier;
and the possibilities of this continent are so rich that they
suffice for any need of peace or war.” (_3064-PS_)

In his affidavit, Fritzsche admits having encouraged the exploitation of foreign countries:

“The utilization of the productive capacity of the occupied
countries for the strengthening of the war potential, I have
openly and gloriously praised, chiefly because the competent
authorities put at my disposal much material, especially on the
voluntary placement of manpower.” (_3469-PS_)

(4) _Control of German radio._ In addition to continuing as the head of the German Press Division until after the conspirators had begun the last of their aggression, Fritzsche was also the high commander of the entire German radio system. In November 1942 Goebbels created a new position, that of Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of the Greater German Radio, a position which Fritzsche was the first and the last to hold. In his affidavit, Fritzsche narrates how the entire German Radio and Television System was organized under his supervision:

“My office practically represented the high command of German
radio.” (_3469-PS_)

As special Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of the Greater German Radio, Fritzsche issued orders to all the Reich propaganda offices by teletype. These were used in conforming the entire radio apparatus of Germany to the desires of the conspirators.

Goebbels customarily held an eleven o’clock conference with his closest collaborators within the Propaganda Ministry. When both Goebbels and his undersecretary, Dr. Naumann, were absent, Goebbels, after 1943, entrusted Fritzsche with the holding of this eleven o’clock press conference.

In Goebbels’ introduction to a book by Fritzsche, called “War to the War Mongers,” he took occasion to praise Fritzsche’s broadcasts in this fashion:

“Nobody knows better than I how much work is involved in those
broadcasts, how many times they were dictated within the last
minutes to find some minutes later a willing ear by the whole
nation.” (_3255-PS_)

It is clear from Goebbels himself that the entire German nation was prepared to lend willing ears to Fritzsche, after he had made his reputation on the radio.

The rumor passed that Fritzsche was “His Master’s Voice” (_Die Stimme seines Herren_). This is borne out by Fritzsche’s functions. When Fritzsche spoke on the radio it was plain to the German people that they were listening to the high command of the conspirators in this field.

D. _CONCLUSION._

Fritzsche was not the type of conspirator who signed decrees, or who sat in the inner councils planning the overall grand strategy. The function of propaganda is, for the most part, apart from the field of such planning. The function of a propaganda agency is somewhat more analogous to an advertising agency or public relations department, the job of which is to sell the product and to win the market for the enterprise in question. Here the enterprise was the Nazi conspiracy. In a conspiracy which depends upon fraud as a means, the salesmen of the conspiratorial group are quite as essential and culpable as the master planners, even though he may not have contributed substantially to the formulation of all the basic strategy, but rather concentrated on making the execution of this strategy possible. In this case, propaganda was a weapon of tremendous importance to this conspiracy. Furthermore, the leading propagandists were major accomplices in this conspiracy, and Fritzsche was one of them.