Chapter VII (2)

German writers often pretend that the Führer principle does not necessarily result in the establishment of a dictatorship but that it permits the embodiment of the will of the people in its leaders and the realization of the popular will much more efficiently than is possible in democratic states. Such an argument, for example, is presented by Dr. Paul Ritterbusch in _Demokratie und Diktatur_ (_Democracy and Dictatorship_), published in 1939. Professor Ritterbusch claims that Communism leads to a dictatorial system but that the Nazi movement is much closer to the ideals of true democracy. The real nature of National Socialism, however, cannot be understood from the standpoint of the "pluralistic-party state." It does not represent a dictatorship of one party and a suppression of all others but rather an expression of the will and the character of the whole national community in and through one great party which has resolved all internal discords and oppositions within itself. The Führer of this great movement is at once the leader and the expression of the national will. Freed from the enervating effects of internal strife, the movement under the guiding hand of the Führer can bring the whole of the national community to its fullest expression and highest development.

The highest authority, however, Hitler himself, has left no doubt as to the nature of Nazi Party leaders. In a speech delivered at the Sportpalast in Berlin on April 8, 1933, he said:

When our opponents say: "It is easy for you: you are a
dictator"--We answer them, "No, gentlemen, you are wrong;
there is no single dictator, but ten thousand, each in his
own place." And even the highest authority in the hierarchy
has itself only one wish, never to transgress against the
supreme authority to which it, too, is responsible. We have
in our movement developed this loyalty in following the
leader, this blind obedience of which all the others know
nothing and which gave to us the power to surmount
everything.[58]

As has been indicated above, the Führer principle applies not only to the Führer of the Reich, Adolf Hitler, but to all the subordinate leaders of the party and the government apparatus. With respect to this aspect of the Führer principle, Huber (document 1, _post_ p. 155), says:

The ranks of the public services are regarded as forces
organized on the living principle of leadership and
following: The authority of command exercised in the labor
service, the military service, and the civil service is
Führer-authority ... It has been said of the military and
civil services that true leadership is not represented in
their organization on the principles of command and
obedience. In reality there can be no political leadership
which does not have recourse to command and force as the
means for the accomplishment of its ends. Command and force
do not, of course, constitute the true nature of leadership,
but as a means they are indispensable elements of every
fully developed Führer-order.[59]

The Führer principle is officially recognized by the party, and the party interpretation thereof is set forth in the _Party Organization Book_ (document 7 and charts 1 and 1-A, _post_ pp. 186, 488, 489).

There are also included herein, as charts 2 and 2-A and 3 and 3-A (_post_ pp. 490, 491, 492, 493), photostatic copies and translations of two charts from _Der nationalsozialistische Staat_ (_The National Socialist State_) by Dr. Walther Gehl, published in 1935. These charts clearly show the concentration of authority in the Führer and the subordinate relation of the minor leaders in both the state and the party.

The Party: Leadership by an Elite Class

_1. Functions of the Party_

The third pillar of the Nazi state, the link between _Volk_ and Führer, is the Nazi Party. According to Nazi ideology, all authority within the nation is derived ultimately from the people, but it is the party through which the people expresses itself. In _Rechtseinrichtungen und Rechtsaufgaben der Bewegung_ (_Legal Organization and Legal Functions of the Movement_) (document 8, _post_ p. 204), published in 1939, Otto Gauweiler states:

The will of the German people finds its expression in the
party as the political organization of the people. It
represents the political conception, the political
conscience, and the political will. It is the expression and
the organ of the people's creative will to life. It
comprises a select part of the German people for "only the
best Germans should be party members" ... The inner
organization of the party must therefore bring the national
life which is concentrated within itself to manifestation
and development in all the fields of national endeavor in
which the party is represented.[60]

Gauweiler defines the relationship of the party to the state in the following terms:

The party stands above and beside the state as the wielder
of an authority derived from the people with its own
sovereign powers and its own sphere of sovereignty ... The
legal position of the party is therefore that of a
completely sovereign authority whose legal supremacy and
self-sufficiency rest upon the original independent
political authority which the Führer and the movement have
attained as a result of their historical achievements.[61]

Neesse states that "It will be the task of National Socialism to lead back the German people to an organic structure which proceeds from a recognition of the differences in the characters and possibilities of human beings without permitting this recognition to lead to a cleavage of the people into two camps."[62] This task is the responsibility of the party. Although it has become the only political party in Germany, the party does not desire to identify itself with the state. It does not wish to dominate the state or to serve it. It works beside it and cooperates with it. In this respect, Nazi Germany is distinguished from the other one-party states of Europe: "In the one-party state of Russia, the party rules over the state; in the one-party state of Italy, the party serves the state; but in the one-party state of Germany, the party neither serves the state nor rules over it directly but works and struggles together with it for the community of the people."[63] Neesse contends that the party derives its legal basis from the law inherent in the living organism of the German _Volk_:

The inner law of the NSDAP is none other than the inner law
of the German people. The party arises from the people; it
has formed an organization which crystallizes about itself
the feelings of the people, which seemed buried, and the
strength of the people, which seemed lost.[64]

Neesse states that the party has two great tasks--to insure the continuity of national leadership and to preserve the unity of the _Volk_:

The first main task of the party, which is in keeping with
its organic nature, is to protect the National Socialist
idea and to constantly renew it by drawing from the depths
of the German soul, to keep it pure and clear, and to pass
it on thus to coming generations: this is predominantly a
matter of education of the people.

The second great task, which is in keeping with its
organizational nature, is to form the people and the state
into the unity of the nation and to create for the German
national community forms which are ever new and suited to
its vital development: this is predominantly a matter of
state formation. These two tasks, one of which deals with
substance and the other with function, belong together. It
is as impossible to separate them as it is to split up the
party into organism and organization, form and content.[65]

Huber (document 1, _post_ p. 155) describes the tasks of the party in similar terms. He states that the party is charged with the "education of the people to a political people" through the awakening of the political consciousness of each individual; the inculcation of a "uniform political philosophy," that is, the teaching of Nazi principles; "the selection of leaders," including the choice and training of especially promising boys to be the Führers of the future; and the shaping of the "political will of the people" in accordance with the Führer's aims.[66]

The educational tasks of the party are stressed by Beck, who develops the idea that the _Volk_ can be divided into three main groups, "a supporting, a leading, and a creative class."[67] It is the duty of the leading class, that is, the party, from which the creative class of leaders is drawn, to provide for the education of the supporting class.

Every member of the body of the people must belong to the
politically supporting class, that is, each one who bears
within himself the basic racial, spiritual, and mental
values of the people ... Here no sort of leading or creative
activity is demanded but only a recognition of the leading
and creative will ... Only those are called to leadership in
political life who have recognized the community-bound law
of all human life in purest clarity and in the all-embracing
extent of its validity and who will place all the powers of
their personal lives with the help of a politically moral
character in the service of the formation of community life
... From the politically leading class arise the politically
creative personalities. These are the mysterious elemental
forces which are beyond all explanation by human reason and
which through their action and by means of the living idea
within them give to the community of the people an
expression which is fresh, young, and eternal. Here is the
fulfilment of the highest and purest political humanity ...
The education of the socialist personality is essentially
the forming of the politically supporting class within the
German people and the encouragement of those political
tendencies which make a man a political leader. To educate
to political creativeness is just as impossible as to
educate to genius. Education can only furnish the spiritual
atmosphere, can only prepare the spiritual living-space for
the politically creative personality by forming a uniform
political consciousness in the socialistic personality, and
in the development of politically creative personalities it
can at the most give special attention to those values of
character and spirit which are of decisive importance for
the development of this personality.[68]

Goebbels in _The Nature and Form of National Socialism_ (document 2, _post_ p. 170) emphasizes the responsibility of the party for the leadership of the state:

The party must always continue to represent the hierarchy of
National Socialist leadership. This minority must always
insist upon its prerogative to control the state. It must
keep the way open for the German youth which wishes to take
its place in this hierarchy. In reality the hierarchy has
fewer rights than duties! It is responsible for the
leadership of the state and it solemnly relieves the people
of this responsibility. It has the duty to control the state
in the best interests and to the general welfare of the
nation.[69]

Dr. Frick, German Minister of the Interior, in his chapter in _Germany Speaks_ indicates the exclusive position of the party in the Third Reich:

National Socialist Germany, however, is not merely a unitary
state: it is also a unitary nation and its governance is
based on the principle of leadership ...

In National Socialist Germany, leadership is in the hands of
an organized community, the National Socialist Party; and as
the latter represents the will of the nation, the policy
adopted by it in harmony with the vital interests of the
nation is at the same time the policy adopted by the country
... The National Socialist Party is the only political party
in Germany and therefore the true representative of the
people ...[70]

To Dr. Ley, the party is identical with the Führer. As he wrote in the _Angriff_ on April 9, 1942 (document 6, _post_ p. 184), "The National Socialist Party is Hitler, and Hitler is the party."

The role of the party in legislation, in political matters, and in the appointment of Government officials is indicated by the Führer's decree of May 29, 1941,[71] as amplified by the order of January 16, 1942, concerning its execution.[72] (Document 9, _post_ p. 212). This order provides that all legislative proposals and proposed laws and decrees, as well as any proposed changes therein, must pass through and receive the approval of the Party Chancelry.

_2. Party Membership_

Details concerning the qualifications and duties of party members are contained in the _Party Organization Book_ for 1940 (document 7, _post_ p. 186).

Membership is finally confirmed by the issuance of a
membership card or a membership book. Anyone who becomes a
party member does not merely join an organization but he
becomes a soldier in the German freedom movement and that
means much more than just paying his dues and attending the
members' meetings. He obligates himself to subordinate his
own ego and to place everything he has in the service of the
people's cause. Only he who is capable of doing this should
become a party member. A selection must be made in
accordance with this idea.

Readiness to fight, readiness to sacrifice, and strength of
character are the requirements for a good National
Socialist. Small blemishes, such as a false step which
someone has made in his youth, should be overlooked; the
contribution in the struggle for Germany should alone be
decisive. The healthy will naturally prevail over the bad if
the will to health finds sufficient support in leadership
and achievement. Admission to the party should not be
controlled by the old bourgeois point of view. The party
must always represent the elite of the people.[73]

German blood is one of the prerequisites for party membership. The _Party Organization Book_ for 1940 (document 7, _post_ p. 186) also states, "Only those racial comrades who possess German citizenship are eligible for admission."[74]

Party members shall not exceed ten per cent of the German population of the region. "The ideal proportion of the number of party members to the number of racial comrades is set at ten per cent. This proportion is to apply also to the individual Province [Gau]."[75]

_3. Pledges and Symbols of Allegiance_

Party members take an oath of loyalty to the Führer in the following terms: "I pledge allegiance to my Führer, Adolf Hitler. I promise at all times to respect and obey him and the leaders whom he appoints over me."[76]

(a) The Hitler Salute

A pledge of allegiance to the Führer is also implied in the Nazi salute, which is usually accompanied by the greeting, "Heil Hitler." The phrase _mit deutschen Gruss_, which is commonly used as a closing salutation in letters, is another form of the Hitler greeting. _Knaurs Konversations-Lexikon_ (_Knaur's Conversational Dictionary_), published in Berlin in 1934, contains the following definition:

_German greeting_, Hitler greeting: by raising the right
arm; used by the old Germans with the spear as a greeting of
arms _[Waffengruss]._ Communal greeting of the National
Socialists; introduced into general use in 1933.

That this greeting was used by the Nazis as early as 1923 is demonstrated by a photograph which appeared in _Das Buch der NSDAP, Werden, Kampf and Ziel der NSDAP_ (_The Book of the NSDAP, Growth, Struggle, and Goal of the NSDAP_) by Walter M. Espe (Berlin, 1934), illustration 34 (document 10, _post_ p. 214).

In the same book (page 23 in the supplement entitled "_Die NSDAP_") the following distinction is made between the usual Nazi greeting and the Storm Troopers' salute:

While the German greeting consists merely in raising the
right hand in any desired manner and represents rather a
general comradely greeting, the SA salute is executed, in
accordance with the specifications of the SA service
regulations, by placing the left hand on the belt and
raising the extended right arm.

The SA salute is to be given to all higher ranking leaders
of the SA and the SS and of the veterans' organization which
has been incorporated into the SA, as well as to the Army
and the national and security police forces.

The comradely German greeting is to be exchanged between all
equally ranking members of the SA and the SS and members of
a corresponding rank in the Army, the police, the veterans'
organization, the German air-sport league, the Hitler Youth,
the railway guards, and the whole membership of the party so
far as they are distinguishable by regulation uniforms.

(b) The Swastika

Early in its history the Nazi Party adopted the swastika banner as its official emblem.[77] It was designed by Hitler himself, who wrote in _Mein Kampf_:

I myself after countless attempts had laid down a final
form: a flag with a background of red cloth, having a white
circle, and, in its center, a black swastika....

As National Socialists we see our program in our flag. In
the _red_ we see the social idea of the movement, in the
_white_ the nationalistic idea, and in the _swastika_ the
fight for the victory of Aryan man and at the same time for
the victory of the idea of creative work, which in itself
always was and always will be anti-Semitic.[78]

The swastika banner came into general use after January 30, 1933 as a symbol of allegiance to the Hitler regime, but not until two years later was it made the German national flag by the Reich flag law of September 15, 1935.[79] Another law, decreed on April 7, 1937,[80] specified that:

The insignia which the NSDAP, its formations, and associated
organizations use for their officers, their structure, their
organization, and their symbols may not be used by other
associations either alone or with embellishments.

It is interesting to note that party regulations forbid members to use passport photographs in which they appear in party uniform or wearing party insignia and that party members are forbidden to discuss foreign policy with foreigners unless they are officially designated by the Führer to do so. The pertinent regulations read:

_Pass Photos on Identification Cards_

Members of the NSDAP must not use pass photos which show the
holder of any identification card in a uniform of the party
or of any of its formations. It is also forbidden to use as
pass photos pictures which show the person wearing a party
button.

* * * * *

_Conversations With Foreigners_

It is forbidden to all party members to engage in
discussions of foreign policy with foreigners. Only such
persons as have been designated by the Führer are entitled
to do so.[81]

The Totalitarian State

The Weimar Constitution, although never formally abrogated by the Nazis, was rendered totally ineffectual by two basic laws, promulgated within two months after the seizure of power by the party. The first of these was the "Decree of the Reich's President for the Protection of the People and State" (document 11-I, _post_ p. 215), issued February 28, 1933, the day after the Reichstag was burned down. It suspended "until further notice"[82] articles of the Weimar Constitution guaranteeing essential democratic rights of the individual. Thus, according to article I of this decree, "restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searches, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed."[83] The abrogation by the Nazis of these fundamental rights of democracy has never been repealed or amended. In fact, this decree represents the presupposition and confirmation of the police sway established throughout Germany by the Nazis.[84]

The second basic law, known as the "Enabling Act," the "Law To Remove the Distress of People and State," of March 24, 1933 (document 11-II, _post_ p. 217), swept away parliamentary government entirely. By abrogating the pertinent articles of the Weimar Constitution, it enabled the Nazi Cabinet under Hitler's chancelorship to appropriate money and legislate without any responsibility to the Reichstag or any obligation to respect the Constitution.

The dissolution of democracy in Germany was sealed by the unification of the authoritarian Nazi Party with the German state. Soon after the party came to power in 1933, steps were taken to effect and secure this unity. The process is described by Huber (document 1, _post_ p. 155) as follows:

On July 14, 1933 was issued the law against the formation of
new parties which raised the NSDAP to the only political
party in Germany [document 11-III] ... The overthrow of the
old party-state was accompanied by the construction of the
new movement-state [_Bewegungsstaat_]. Out of a political
fighting organization the NSDAP grew to a community capable
of carrying the state and the nation. This process was
accomplished step by step in the first months after the
National Socialist seizure of power. The assumption of the
office of Chancelor by the Führer of the movement formed the
basis for this development. Various party leaders were
appointed as _Reichsminister_; the governors of the
provinces were national leaders or _Gauleiter_ of the party,
such as General von Epp; the Prussian government officials
are as a rule _Gauleiter_ of the party; the Prussian police
chiefs are mostly high-ranking SA leaders. By this system of
a union of the personnel of the party and state offices the
unity of party and state was achieved.[85]

The culmination of this development was reached in the "Law To Safeguard the Unity of Party and State," of December 1, 1933 (document 11-IV, _post_ p. 221), which proclaimed the NSDAP "the bearer of the German state-idea and indissolubly joined to the state." In order to guarantee the complete cooperation of the party and SA with the public officials, the Führer's Deputy and the Chief of Staff of the SA were made members of the Cabinet.

With regard to the relation between the party and the state, Neesse writes:

The NSDAP is not a structure which stands under direct state
control, to which single tasks of public administration are
entrusted by the state, but it holds and maintains is claim
to totality as the "bearer of the German state-idea" in all
fields relating to the community--regardless of how various
single functions are divided between the organization of the
party and the organization of the state.[86]

To maintain cooperation between the party and state organizations, the highest state offices are given to the men holding the corresponding party offices. Gauweiler (document 8, _post_ p. 204) attributes to the party supreme leadership in all phases of national life. Thus the state becomes merely an administrative machine which the party has set up in accordance with and for the accomplishment of its aims:

As the responsible bearer and shaper of the destiny of the
whole German nation the party has created an entirely new
state, for that which sought to foist itself upon her as a
state was simply the product of a deep human confusion. The
state of the past and its political ideal had never
satisfied the longing of the German people. The National
Socialist movement already carried its state within itself
at the time of its early struggles. It was able to place the
completely formed body of its own state at the disposal of
the state which it had taken over.[87]

The official party interpretation of the relation between party and state, as set forth in the _Party Organization Book_ for 1940, appears in the Appendix as document 7 (_post_ p. 186).

Goebbels in his lecture on _The Nature and Form of National Socialism_ (document 2, _post_ p. 170) stressed the importance of _Gleichschaltung_ or the penetration of Nazi ideology into all fields of national life. This to his mind must be the result of the National Socialist revolution. The same aims, ideals, and standards must be applied to economics and to politics, to cultural and social development, to education and religion, and to foreign and domestic relations.

The result of this concept of the totalitarian state has been the compulsory regimentation of all phases of German life to conform to the pattern established by the party. The totalitarian state does not recognize personal liberties for the individual. The legal position of the individual citizen in the Third Reich is clearly set forth by Huber (document 1, _post_ p. 155):

Not until the nationalistic political philosophy had become
dominant could the liberalistic idea of basic rights be
really overcome. The concept of personal liberties of the
individual as opposed to the authority of the state had to
disappear; it is not to be reconciled with the principle of
the nationalistic Reich. There are no personal liberties of
the individual which fall outside of the realm of the state
and which must be respected by the state. The member of the
people, organically connected with the whole community, has
replaced the isolated individual; he is included in the
totality of the political people and is drawn into the
collective action. There can no longer be any question of a
private sphere, free of state influence, which is sacred and
untouchable before the political unity. The constitution of
the nationalistic Reich is therefore not based upon a system
of inborn and inalienable rights of the individual.[88]

In place of these rights the constitution of the Third Reich guarantees to the individual his place in the community of the people:

The legal position of the individual member of the people
forms an entirely new concept which is indispensable for the
construction of a nationalistic order. The legal position of
the individual is always related to the community and
conditioned by duty. It is developed not for the sake of the
individual but for the community, which can only be filled
with life, power, and purpose when a suitable field of
action is insured for the individual member. Without a
concrete determination of the individual's legal position
there can be no real community.

This legal position represents the organic fixation of the
individual in the living order. Rights and obligations arise
from the application of this legal position to specific
individual relationships ... But all rights must be regarded
as duty-bound rights. Their exercise is always dependent
upon the fulfilment by the individual of those duties to
which all rights are subordinate ...[89]

The concept of private property in the totalitarian state is also at variance with the democratic concept of private property. In the Third Reich the holder of property is considered merely as a manager responsible to the _Volk_ for the use of the property in the common interest. Huber sets forth the Nazi view in the following words:

"Private property" as conceived under the liberalistic
economic order was a reversal of the true concept of
property. This "private property" represented the right of
the individual to manage and to speculate with inherited or
acquired property as he pleased, without regard for the
general interests ... German socialism had to overcome this
"private," that is, unrestrained and irresponsible view of
property. All property is common property. The owner is
bound by the people and the Reich to the responsible
management of his goods. His legal position is only
justified when he satisfies this responsibility to the
community.[90]

Pursuant to this view of the nature of ownership, property may be confiscated whenever the state decides that public management would be in the interests of the community, or if the owner is found guilty of irresponsible management, in which case no compensation is paid him.

Reference has been made to the appointment of party members to important state offices. Gauweiler (document 8, _post_ p. 204) points out that the party insured the infusion of the entire structure of the state with its ideology through the civil-service law (_Beamtengesetz_) of January 26, 1937,[91] which provides that a person appointed to a civil-service position must be "filled with National Socialist views, since only thus can he be an executor of the will of the state which is carried by the NSDAP. It demands of him that he be ready at all times to exert himself unreservedly in behalf of the National Socialist state and that he be aware of the fact that the NSDAP, as the mouthpiece of the people's will, is the vital force behind the concept of the German state."[92]

The infiltration of party members into the civil service has now proceeded to such a point that early in 1942 Pfundtner, the Secretary of State in the German Ministry of the Interior, could write in the periodical _Akademie für deutsches Recht_:

The German civil servant must furthermore be a National
Socialist to the marrow of his bones and must be a member of
the party or of one of its formations. The state will
primarily see to it that the Young Guard of the movement is
directed toward a civil-service career and also that the
civil servant takes an active part in the party so that the
political idea and service of the state become closely
welded.[93]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES TO FIRST SECTION

[Footnote 8: Huber, _Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches_ (Hamburg, 1939), pp. 54-55.]

[Footnote 9: _Ibid._, pp. 153-155.]

[Footnote 10: _Ibid._, pp. 156-157.]

[Footnote 11: _Ibid._, p. 157.]

[Footnote 12: _Ibid._, p. 158.]

[Footnote 13: _Ibid._, p. 163.]

[Footnote 14: _Ibid._, p. 164.]

[Footnote 15: _Ibid._, pp. 165-166.]

[Footnote 16: Neesse, _Die Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei--Versuch einer Rechtsdeutung_ (Stuttgart, 1935), p. 44.]

[Footnote 17: _Ibid._, p. 51.]

[Footnote 18: _Ibid._, p. 54.]

[Footnote 19: _Ibid._, p. 58.]

[Footnote 20: _Ibid._, pp. 54-56.]

[Footnote 21: _Ibid._, p. 59.]

[Footnote 22: _Ibid._, pp. 60-61.]

[Footnote 23: _Ibid._, pp. 65-66.]

[Footnote 24: Scurla, _Die Grundgedanken des Nationalsozialismus und das Ausland_ (Berlin, 1938), pp. 10-11.]

[Footnote 25: _Ibid._, p. 9.]

[Footnote 26: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 27: _Ibid._, p. 13.]

[Footnote 28: Beck, _Die Erziehung im dritten Reich_ (Dortmund and Breslau, 1936), p. 20.]

[Footnote 29: _Ibid._, pp. 20-21.]

[Footnote 30: _Ibid._, p. 35.]

[Footnote 31: _Ibid._, pp. 52-55.]

[Footnote 32: _Ibid._, p. 46.]

[Footnote 33: _Ibid._, p. 57.]

[Footnote 34: _Ibid._, p. 118.]

[Footnote 35: _Ibid._, p. 140.]

[Footnote 36: Rosenberg, _Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts_ (Munich, 1935), p. 28 (1st ed. 1930).]

[Footnote 37: _Ibid._, p. 114.]

[Footnote 38: _Ibid._, p. 479.]

[Footnote 39: _Ibid._, p. 542.]

[Footnote 40: Gottfried Feder, _The Programme of the Party of Hitler_ (translated by E.T.S. Dugdale: Munich, 1932), p. 18.]

[Footnote 41: Rosenberg, _Wesen, Grundsätze und Ziele der NSDAP_ (Munich, 1933), pp. 16-18 (1st ed. 1922).]

[Footnote 42: Rosenberg, _Der Mythus des 20. Jahrhunderts_, p. 673.]

[Footnote 43: Beck, _op. cit._, p. 110.]

[Footnote 44: _Ibid._, p. 110.]

[Footnote 45: Huber, "_Aufbau und Gefüge des Reiches_," published in the book _Idee und Ordnung des Reiches_ (ed. by Huber: Hamburg, Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt, 1941), p. 12.]

[Footnote 46: Huber, _Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches_ (Hamburg, 1939), pp. 194-198.]

[Footnote 47: _Ibid._, pp. 199-200.]

[Footnote 48: _Ibid._, pp. 207-208.]

[Footnote 49: _Ibid._, pp. 213-214.]

[Footnote 50: _Ibid._, p. 230.]

[Footnote 51: Neesse, _op. cit._, p. 146.]

[Footnote 52: _Ibid._, p. 143.]

[Footnote 53: _Ibid._, pp. 144-147.]

[Footnote 54: _Germany Speaks_ (containing articles by twenty-one leading members of the Nazi Party and the German Government: London, 1938), p. 31.]

[Footnote 55: _Reichsgesetzblatt_ (1942), p. 247. (All citations to the _Reichsgesetzblatt_ refer to part I thereof.)]

[Footnote 56: Neesse, _op. cit._, p. 150.]

[Footnote 57: Beck, _op. cit._, p. 131.]

[Footnote 58: _My New Order_, p. 159.]

[Footnote 59: Huber, _Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches_ (Hamburg, 1939), p. 410.]

[Footnote 60: Gauweiler, _Rechtseinrichtungen und Rechtsaufgaben der Bewegung_ (Munich, 1939), p. 2.]

[Footnote 61: _Ibid._, p. 9.]

[Footnote 62: Neesse, _op. cit,_, p. 71.]

[Footnote 63: _Ibid._, p. 119.]

[Footnote 64: _Ibid._, p. 126.]

[Footnote 65: _Ibid._, pp. 139-140.]

[Footnote 66: Huber, _Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches_ (Hamburg, 1939), pp. 293-296.]

[Footnote 67: Beck, _op. cit._, p. 37.]

[Footnote 68: _Ibid._, pp. 37-38.]

[Footnote 69: Goebbels, _op. cit._, p. 19.]

[Footnote 70: _Germany Speaks_, pp. 30-31.]

[Footnote 71: _Reichsgesetzblatt_ (1941), p. 295.]

[Footnote 72: _Ibid._, (1942), p. 35.]

[Footnote 73: _Organisationsbuch der NSDAP_ (ed. by the National Organizational Director of the NSDAP: Munich, 1940), p. 5.]

[Footnote 74: _Ibid._, p. 6b.]

[Footnote 75: _Ibid._, p. 6d.]

[Footnote 76: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 77: The German pocket reference book for current events (_Taschen-Brockhaus zum Zeitgeschehen_: Leipzig, 1942) states that the swastika banner was designed by Hitler for the NSDAP in 1919.]

[Footnote 78: Adolf Hitler, _Mein Kampf_ (Munich, Verlag Frank Eher, G.m.b.H., 1933 [copyright 1925]), pp. 556-557.]

[Footnote 79: _Reichsgesetzblatt_ (1935), p. 1145.]

[Footnote 80: _Ibid._ (1937), p. 442.]

[Footnote 81: _Organisationsbuch der NSDAP_ (Munich, 1940), p. 8.]

[Footnote 82: _Reichsgesetzblatt_ (1933), p. 83.]

[Footnote 83: _Ibid._]

[Footnote 84: In his book _Die deutsche Polizei_ (_The German Police_) (_Darmstadt_, L.C. Wittich Verlag, 1941), p. 24, the prominent Nazi police official, Dr. Werner Best, wrote that this law "is to be regarded not as a 'police law'--that is, as the regulation of police functions and activities--but as the expression of the new conception of the state as it has been transformed by the National Socialist revolution, from which the new 'police' concept is derived." Also, this law was for the police "the confirmation that the work already begun was in agreement with the law giving will of the Supreme Leadership of the Reich."]

[Footnote 85: Huber, _Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches_ (Hamburg, 1939) p. 288.]

[Footnote 86: Neesse, _op. cit._, p. 131.]

[Footnote 87: Gauweiler, _op. cit._, p. 3.]

[Footnote 88: Huber, _Verfassungsrecht des grossdeutschen Reiches_ (Hamburg, 1939), p. 361.]

[Footnote 89: _Ibid._, pp. 365-366.]

[Footnote 90: _Ibid._, pp. 372-373.]

[Footnote 91: _Reichsgesetzblatt_ (1937), pp. 39-70.]

[Footnote 92: Gauweiler, _op. cit._, p. 156.]

[Footnote 93: Reported in a bulletin of the official German news agency, DNB, Apr. 14, 1942.]

NAZI AIMS AND METHODS

Political Aims

The political aims of National Socialism have been written so clearly in history in the past 10 years that it does not appear necessary to discuss them at length here.

The detailed program of the Nazi Party consists of the 25 points which were adopted on February 24, 1920 at a party mass meeting in Munich. (The 25-point program appears in the Appendix as document 12, _post_ p. 222.) The points of particular interest in this study are the first four, which are set forth below:

1. We demand the union of all Germans to form a Great
Germany on the basis of the right of the self-determination
enjoyed by nations.

2. We demand equality of rights for the German People in its
dealings with other nations, and abolition of the Peace
Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.

3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the
nourishment of our people and for settling our superfluous
population.

4. None but members of the nation may be citizens of the
State. None but those of German blood, whatever their creed,
may be members of the nation. No Jew, therefore, may be a
member of the nation.[94]

_1. Internal Objectives_

A statement of the internal objectives of National Socialism is made by Gauweiler in his _Legal Organization and Legal Functions of the Movement_ (document 8, _post_ p. 204). The laws of the Reich must seek to establish and promote the five basic values recognized by Nazi ideology:

1. Race: The legal protection of the race, which has created
a new concept of nationality [_Volkszugehörigkeit_], is
consciously put in first place, for the most significant
historical principle which has been established by the
victory of National Socialism is that of the necessity for
keeping race and blood pure. All human mistakes and errors
can be corrected except one: "the error regarding the
importance of maintaining the basic values of a nation."

The purpose of this legal protection of the basic value of
_race_ must be the prevention for all time of a further
mixture of German blood with foreign blood, as well as the
prevention of continued procreation of racially unworthy and
undesirable members of the people.

2. Soil [_Boden_]: The living-space and the basis for the
food supply of the German people are its territory and soil.
The farmer is the first and deepest representative of the
people since he nourishes the people from the fertility of
the earth and he maintains the nation through the fertility
of his own family. Here National Socialism had to accomplish
two great legal ends: the reestablishment and the protection
of the farmer class and the securing of its land for the
farmer family.

3. Work: The nation's work as a basic national value is
grounded on the leading concept of "work of the hands and of
the head" within and for the community of the people and the
elevation of work to the only criterion for the value of an
individual within the community. In place of the idea of
class warfare, National Socialism had to establish the
national community legally; in place of the defamation of
work and its degradation to an object of barter, National
Socialism had to raise it to an ethical duty and the right
to work had to become the most clearly defined personal
right of the individual. The concept of the honor of work
had to be established as the basic concept of the national
honor.

4. The Reich: With the securing of the three basic values of
race, soil, and work arises the National Socialist Reich.

The infusion of foreign cultural and legal influences in
Germany was a consequence of the weakening of the central
authority of the German Reich since the Middle Ages. The
creation and insuring of a strong central authority in
contrast to the disorganized, federalistic system of the
Weimar Republic became one of the principal lines of
National Socialist legal policy. In consequence of the
National Socialist revolution, the Reich took on the legal
form of a totalitarian state and received a supreme and
completely authoritative lawgiver in the person of the
Führer. The principle of a division of power could no longer
maintain itself: The formulation, the interpretation, and
the execution of the law are all performed by the Führer
himself or under his authority.

5. Honor: The fifth great value of the nation is its honor.
The honor of the people, the Reich, the party, the Führer,
and the individual citizen are all regarded as goods to be
protected by law. The basis of national honor is loyalty.
National Socialist criminal law is therefore essentially
organized as a system of punishment for breaches of faith.
Every crime and offense against the community is a breach of
faith which must result in loss of honor.[95]

_2. Foreign Policy_

The close connection between the internal political program of the National Socialist movement, as expressed in the foregoing paragraphs, and its foreign policy was indicated by Hitler when he wrote in _Mein Kampf_ (document 13-I, _post_ p. 226):

As National Socialists we can further set forth the
following principle with regard to the nature of the foreign
policy of a folk-state:

_It is the task of the foreign policy of a folk-state to
secure the existence on this planet of the race which is
encompassed by the state and at the same time to establish a
healthy, viable, natural relation between the number and
growth of the folk on the one hand and the size and quality
of its soil and territory on the other hand._[96]

And in the same work he states:

Yes, we can only learn from the past that we must undertake
the setting of aims for our political activity in two
directions: _Soil and territory as the goal of our foreign
policy, and a new, philosophically firm and uniform
foundation as the goal of our domestic political
activity._[97]

The political objectives of National Socialism, then, by definition of Hitler himself, are the internal unification of the German people and external expansion.

While the Nazis have never concealed the first of these objectives, the second was the subject for a great deal of dissimulation up to the outbreak of the present war. Typical of the false front which the Nazis presented to the outside world with reference to their foreign policy objectives are the statements made by Dr. Scurla in _Basic Principles of National Socialism With Special Reference to Foreign Countries_. Dr. Scurla quotes Hitler's speech of May 17, 1933 in which he said, "We see the European nations around us as given facts. French, Poles, etc., are our neighbor peoples, and we know that no conceivable historic occurrence could change this reality,"[98] and comments:

This folk principle, which has grown out of the National
Socialist ideology, implies the recognition of the
independence and the equal rights of each people. We do not
see how anyone can discern in this a "pan-Germanic" and
imperialistic threat against our neighbors. This principle
does not admit the difference between "great powers" and
"minor states," between majority peoples and minorities. It
means at the same time a clear rejection of any imperialism
which aims at the subjugation of foreign peoples or the
denationalization of alien populations. It demands the
unqualified acknowledgment of the right to live of every
folk, and of every folk-group, which is forced to live as a
foreign group in another state. The western European
national state together with its parliamentary democracy was
not able to do justice to the natural and living entities,
the peoples, in their struggle for existence.[99]

Farther on in the same work Scurla states:

Out of its fundamental ideologic view, however, Germany
rejects every form of imperialism, even that of peaceful
penetration. It is unable to concede to any people the
authority to develop ideas and ways of living, to which then
another people has to subordinate itself, even if some other
order is suited to its essential nature ... It does not at
all, however, consider the German order obligatory for other
peoples. National Socialism, as has been said a hundred
times, is exclusively the sum total of the German
world-view.[100]

Similar assurances by Nazi leaders were frequently made in order to induce a sense of security in neighboring countries. Hitler, for example, in a proclamation opening the party congress at Nuremberg on September 11, 1935 said:

National Socialism has no aggressive intentions against any
European nation. On the contrary, we are convinced that the
nations of Europe must continue their characteristic
national existence, as created by tradition, history and
economy; if not, Europe as a whole will be destroyed.[101]

But such assurances, which were intended exclusively for foreign consumption, were refuted by the basic policy laid down in _Mein Kampf_, which has been persistently pursued throughout the 10 years of the Nazi regime and has been realized to the extent that Germany now dominates and is in control of most of the European continent. In _Mein Kampf_ (document 13-I, _post_ p. 226) Hitler wrote:

_Our task, the mission of the National Socialist movement,
however, is to lead our folk to such political insight that
it will see its future goal fulfilled not in the
intoxicating impression of a new Alexandrian campaign but
rather in the industrious work of the German plow, which
waits only to be given land by the sword._[102]

Hitler suggests a future foreign policy for Germany which would assure _Lebensraum_ and domination of the European continent. In _Mein Kampf_ he states:

But the political testament of the German nation for its
outwardly directed activity should and must always have the
following import:

_Never tolerate the establishment of two continental powers
in Europe. See an attack against Germany in every attempt to
organize a second military power on the German borders, even
if it is only in the form of the establishment of a state
which is a potential military power, and see therein not
only the right but also the duty to prevent the formation of
such a state with all means, even to the use of force, or if
it has already been established, to destroy it again. See to
it that the strength of our folk has its foundations not in
colonies but in the soil of the European homeland. Never
regard the foundations of the Reich as secure, if it is not
able to give every off-shoot of our folk its own bit of soil
and territory for centuries to come. Never forget that the
most sacred right in the world is the right to the soil
which a man wishes to till himself, and the most sacred
sacrifice is the blood which he spills for this soil_.[103]

It is impossible to adduce from the writings of Hitler, or other Nazi leaders direct statements indicating that they aspire to the domination of the entire world. Such expressions, however, may be inferred not only from the direction of German foreign policy and the effusions of the geopoliticians but also from the following statement made by Hitler in _Mein Kampf_ (document 13-I, _post_ p. 226):

... If the German folk, in its historical development, had
possessed that herdlike unity which other peoples have
enjoyed, the German Reich would today be mistress of the
globe. World history would have taken another course, and no
one can tell whether in this way that might not have been
attained which so many deluded pacifists are hoping today to
wheedle by moaning and whining: a peace supported not by the
palm branches of tearful pacifistic female mourners but
founded by the victorious sword of a master race
[_Herrenvolk_] which places the world in the service of a
higher culture.[104]

Like Hitler, Rosenberg envisaged the extension of Nazi power far beyond the borders of Germany. In his _Nature, Principles, and Aims of the NSDAP_ he stated, "But National Socialism also believes that, far beyond Germany's borders, its principles and its ideology ... will lead the way in the unavoidable struggles for power in the other countries of Europe and America."[105]

Propaganda

_1. Professed Peaceful Intentions as a Cloak for Imperialistic Designs_

The falsity of Nazi propaganda has been demonstrated repeatedly during the past decade. That its keynote was set by Hitler himself becomes evident upon an examination of his statements on foreign policy over a period of years. Not only has his policy been marked by a series of shifts and turns, so that the policy of one year was frequently canceled by the policy of the next, but a comparison of his words with his subsequent deeds makes it evident that he deliberately sought to lull other countries into a feeling of security until he was ready to move against them. On May 17, 1933 he asserted:

_No fresh European war is capable of putting something
better in the place of unsatisfactory conditions which exist
to-day ..._ The outbreak of such madness without end would
lead to the collapse of existing social order in Europe ...
The German Government are convinced that to-day there can be
only one great task, and that is to assure the peace of the
world ... _The German Government wish to settle all
difficult questions with other Governments by peaceful
methods._ They know that any military action in Europe, even
if completely successful, would, in view of the sacrifice,
bear no relation to the profit to be obtained ...

Germany will tread no other path than that laid down by the
Treaties. The German Government will discuss all political
and economic questions only within the framework of, and
through, the Treaties.

_The German people have no thought of invading any
country._[106]
(Document 14, _post_ pp. 282-233.)

And on March 7, 1936 he stated:

After three years I believe that I can regard the struggle
for German equality as concluded to-day. I believe,
moreover, that thereby the first and foremost reason for our
withdrawal from European collective collaboration has ceased
to exist. _We have no territorial demands to make in
Europe._[107] (Document 14, _post_ p. 237.)

Moreover, he did not shrink from giving specific assurances of Germany's peaceful intentions toward his subsequent victims:

There are Germans and Poles in Europe, and they ought to
live together in agreement. The Poles cannot think, of
Europe without the Germans and the Germans cannot think of
Europe without the Poles. (Oct. 24, 1933)

_Germans and Poles must reconcile themselves as to the fact
of each others' existence._ It has seemed to me necessary to
demonstrate by an example that it is possible for two
nations to talk over their differences without giving the
task to a third or a fourth ...

_The assertion that the German Reich plans to coerce the
Austrian State is absurd and cannot be substantiated or
proved_ ... The assertion of the Austrian Government that
from the side of the Reich an attack would be undertaken or
planned I must emphatically reject ... The German Reich is
always ready to hold out a hand for a real understanding,
with full respect for the free will of Austrian Germans ...
(Jan. 13, 1934)

_The lie goes forth again that Germany to-morrow or the day
after will fall upon Austria or Czecho-Slovakia_. I ask
myself always: Who can these elements be who will have no
peace, who incite continually, who must so distrust, and
want no understanding? Who are they? I know they are not the
millions who, if these inciters had their way, would have to
take up arms. (May 1, 1936)

Germany and Poland are two nations, and these nations will
live, and neither of them will be able to do away with the
other. I recognized all of this, and we all must recognize
that a people of 33,000,000 will always strive for an outlet
to the sea ... _We have assured all our immediate neighbors
of the integrity of their territory as far as Germany is
concerned. That is no hollow phrase; it is our sacred will_
...
(Sept. 26, 1938)[108]
(Document 14, _post_ pp. 233, 234, 238, 240-241.)

Yugoslavia is a State that has increasingly attracted the
attention of our people since the war. The high regard that
the German soldiers then felt for this brave people has
since been deepened and developed into genuine friendship.
Our economic relations with this country are undergoing
constant development and expansion, just as is the case with
the friendly countries of Bulgaria, Greece, Rumania, Turkey,
Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden,
Finland, and the Baltic States. (Jan. 30, 1939)[109]

In Hitler's Reichstag speech of April 28, 1939, in which he replied to President Roosevelt's telegraphic message inviting him and Mussolini to pledge themselves not to attack 31 countries mentioned by name, he stated:

_... All states bordering on Germany have received much more
binding assurances, and above all suggestions, than Mr.
Roosevelt asked from me in his curious telegram ..._

The German Government is nevertheless prepared to give each
of the States named an assurance of the kind desired by Mr.
Roosevelt on the condition of absolute reciprocity, provided
that the State wishes it and itself addresses to Germany a
request for such an assurance together with appropriate
proposals.[110]

And on September 1, 1939, with reference to the recently concluded pact between Germany and Russia, he said:

You know that Russia and Germany are governed by two
different doctrines. There was only one question that had to
be cleared up. Germany has no intention of exporting its
doctrine. Given the fact that Soviet Russia has no intention
of exporting its doctrine to Germany, I no longer see any
reason why we should still oppose one another. On both sides
we are clear on that. Any struggle between our people would
only be of advantage to others. We have, therefore, resolved
to conclude a pact which rules out forever any use of
violence between us.[111]

Additional assurances of this nature are quoted in a series of extracts from Hitler's speeches, dating from February 10, 1933 to September 1, 1939, which was printed in the _London Times_ of September 26, 1939 (document 14, _post_ p. 232).

_2. Internal Propaganda_

Within Germany the notorious propaganda machine of Dr. Goebbels, together with a systematic terrorization of oppositionist elements, has been the principle support of the rise and triumph of the Nazi movement. In his _Legal Organization and Legal Functions of the Movement_ (document 8, _post_ p. 204), Gauweiler gives an idea of the permeation of all phases of national life with a propaganda designed to make Nazi "legal principles" acceptable to the masses. He makes it clear that all of the Nazi propaganda machinery is in the service of this program; political lecturers, the press, the radio, and the films all play a part in helping the people to understand and appreciate the new legal code. The schools and Hitler Youth groups provide instruction for all young people in the fundamentals of National Socialist law, and pupils in those schools which train the carefully selected future leaders are given an especially strong dose of Nazi legal theory and practice.

In order to appeal to the broadest audience, Nazi propaganda has always sought to present all questions in the simplest possible terms. Goebbels himself, in his _Nature and Form of National Socialism_ (document 2, _post_ p. 170), wrote as follows:

National Socialism has simplified the thinking of the German
people and led it back to its original primitive formulas.
It has presented the complicated processes of political and
economic life in their simplest terms. This was done with
the well-considered intention of leading the broad masses of
the people once again to take part in political life. In
order to find understanding among the masses, we consciously
practiced a popular [_volksgebundene_] propaganda. We have
taken complexes of facts which were formerly accessible only
to a few specialists and experts, carried them to the
streets, and hammered them into the brain of the little man.
All things were presented so simply that even the most
primitive mind could grasp them. We refused to work with
unclear or insubstantial concepts but we gave all things a
clearly defined sense. Here lay the secret of our
success.[112]