Chapter XXIX: Part II: , Section 2-A, III, f, Pages 15 to 24. I wish to quote from Page (3)

“Protective custody can be decreed as a coercive measure of the
Secret State Police to counter all hostile efforts of persons
who endanger the existence and security of the people and the
State through their attitude.”

I wish also to read into the record the first two paragraphs of that order, which are found at the top of Page 1 of the English translation:

“In a summary of all the previously issued decrees on the
co-operation between the Party and the Gestapo I refer to the
following and ordain:

“1. To the Gestapo has been entrusted the mission by the Führer
to watch over and to eliminate all enemies of the Party and the
National State, as well as all disintegrating forces of all
kinds directed against both. The successful solution of this
mission forms one of the most essential prerequisites for the
unhampered and frictionless work of the Party. The Gestapo, in
its extremely difficult task, is to be granted support and
assistance in every possible way by the NSDAP.”

The conspirators then were directing their apparatus of terror against the “enemies of the State,” against “disintegrating forces,” against those people who endangered the State “through their attitude.” Whom did they consider as belonging in these broad categories? Well, first, there were the men in Germany who wanted peace. We refer to Document L-83 (Exhibit USA-234).

THE PRESIDENT: What was the date of that document that you have been referring to, Number 1723-PS?

MR. DODD: January 25, 1938. It has already been introduced and is included in USA Exhibit B. This document consists of an affidavit of Gerhart H. Seger, and I wish only to read from Page 1, Paragraph 2 of that affidavit:

“2. During the period after World War I, until I was committed
to the Leipzig jail and Oranienburg Concentration Camp, in the
spring of 1933 following the Nazi accession to power in January
of that year, my business and political affiliations exposed me
to the full impact of the Nazi theories and practice of violent
regimentation and terroristic tactics. My conflict with the
Nazis by virtue of my identification with the peace movement and
as duly elected member of the Reichstag representing a political
faith (Social Democratic Party) hostile to National Socialism,
clearly demonstrated that even in the period prior to 1933 the
Nazis considered crimes and terrorism a necessary and desirable
weapon in overcoming democratic opposition.”

Passing to Page 5 of the same document and the paragraph marked “(e)”:

“That the Nazis had already conceived the device of the
concentration camp as a means of suppressing and regimenting
opposition elements was forcefully brought to my attention
during the course of a conversation which I had with Dr. Wilhelm
Frick in December 1932. Frick at that time was chairman of the
Foreign Affairs Committee of the Reichstag of which I was a
member. When I gave an emphatic answer to Frick concerning the
particular matter discussed, he replied, ‘Don’t worry, when we
are in power we shall put all of you guys into concentration
camps.’ When the Nazis came into power, Frick was appointed
Reich Minister of Interior and promptly carried out his threat
in collaboration with Göring, as Chief of the Prussian State
Police, and Himmler.”

This paragraph shows that even before the Nazis had seized power in Germany they had conceived the plan to repress any potential oppositions by terror, and Frick’s statement to Seger is completely consistent with an earlier statement which he made on the 18th of October 1929. We refer to Document Number 2513-PS (Exhibit USA-235), which has also been received in evidence and has been included in USA Exhibit B. We refer to the first page of the English translation, Page 48 of the German text. On Page 1 the quotation begins:

“This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the ballot;
but this cannot continue indefinitely, for history has taught us
that in a battle blood must be shed and iron broken. The ballot
is the beginning of the fateful struggle. We are determined to
promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini
exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed in
accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror.”

THE PRESIDENT: This is the defendant, is it?

MR. DODD: Yes, the Defendant Frick.

There are many additional cases of the use of the concentration camp against the men who wanted peace. There was, for example, a group called the Bibelforscher, that is, Bible research workers, most of whom were known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were pacifists, and so the conspirators provided not only for their prosecution in the regular courts but also for their confinement in concentration camps after they had served the judicial sentences; and we refer to Document Number D-84, Exhibit USA-236.

This document is dated the 5th day of August 1937; and it is an order by the Secret State Police at Berlin, and I refer particularly to the first and last paragraphs of this order, as follows:

“The Reich Minister of Justice had informed me that he does not
share the opinion voiced by subordinate departments on various
occasions according to which the arrest of the Bibelforscher
after they have served a sentence is supposed to jeopardize the
authority of the law courts. He is fully aware of the necessity
for measures by the State Police after the sentence has been
served. He asks, however, not to bring the Bibelforscher into
protective custody under circumstances detrimental to the
respect of the law courts.”

And then, the Paragraph numbered “(2)”:

“If information regarding the impending release of a
Bibelforscher from arrest is received from the authorities
carrying out the sentence, my decision regarding the ordering of
measures by the State Police will be asked for without delay in
accordance with my circular decree dated 22. 4. 37, so that
transfer to a concentration camp can take place immediately
after the sentence has been served. Should a transfer into
concentration camp immediately after the serving of the sentence
not be possible, Bibelforscher will be detained in police
prisons.”

The labor unions, of which I think it is safe to say the majority are traditionally opposed to wars of aggression, also felt the full force of Nazi terror. A member of the American staff, Major Wallis, has already submitted evidence before this Tribunal concerning the conspirators’ campaign against the trade unions. But the concentration camp was an important weapon in this campaign; and the Tribunal will recall that in Document Number 2324-PS, to which I made reference this morning, the Defendant Göring made it plain that members of the Social Democratic Party were to be confined in concentration camps. Now labor leaders were very largely members of that party, and they soon learned the horrors of protective custody. We refer to Document Number 2330-PS (Exhibit USA-237), which has already been received as part of USA Exhibit G, which consists of an order that one Joseph Simon should be placed in protective custody. We refer to the middle of the first page of the English translation of that order, beginning with the material under the word “reasons.”

THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the sentence before that—the two lines before it. The words are, “The arrestee has no right to appeal against the decree of protective custody.”

MR. DODD: “The arrestee has no right to appeal against the application of protective custody.” Then comes a title: “Reasons”:

“Simon was for many years a member of the Socialist Party and
temporarily a member of the Union Socialiste Populaire. From
1907 to 1918 he was Landtag deputy of the Socialist Party; from
1908 to 1930 Social Democratic City Counsellor (Stadtrat) in
Nuremberg. In view of the decisive role which Simon played in
the international trade unions and in regard to his connection
with international Marxist leaders and central agencies, which
he continued after the national recovery, he was placed under
protective custody on the 3rd day of May 1933 and was kept,
until 25 January 1934, in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Simon
is under the grave suspicion that even after this date he played
an active part in the illegal continuation of the Socialist
Party. He took part in meetings which aimed at the illegal
continuation of the Socialist Party and propagation of illegal
Marxist printed matter in Germany. Through this radical
attitude, which is hostile to the State, Simon directly
endangers public security and order.”

We do not wish to burden these proceedings with a multiplication of such instances, but we refer the Tribunal to documents which have already been offered in connection with the presentation of the evidence concerning the destruction of the trade unions. In particular, we wish to refer to Document Number 2334-PS and Document Number 2928-PS, (Exhibits USA-238 and 239) both of which are included within USA Exhibit G.

Thousands of Jews, as the world so well knows, were, of course, confined in these concentration camps. The evidence on this point will be developed in a later presentation by another member of the prosecuting staff of the United States. But among the wealth of evidence available on this point showing the confinement of Germans only because they were Jews, we wish to offer a document, Number 3051-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-240. This is a copy of a teletype from SS Gruppenführer Heydrich, and it is dated the 10th of November 1938. It was sent to all headquarters of the State Police and all districts and subdistricts of the SD. We refer to Paragraph 5 of this teletype. Paragraph 5 is found on Page 3 of the English translation. It begins at the bottom of Page 2 and runs over to Page 3. Quoting from Paragraph 5:

“As soon as the course of events of this night allows the use of
the officials employed for this purpose, as many Jews,
especially rich ones, as can be accommodated in the existing
prisons are to be arrested in all districts. For the time being
only healthy men, not too old, are to be arrested. Upon their
arrest, the appropriate concentration camps should be contacted
immediately, in order to confine them in these camps as fast as
possible.

“Special care should be taken that the Jews arrested in
accordance with these instructions are not ill-treated.”

Himmler in 1943 indicated that use of the concentration camp against the Jews had been motivated not simply by Nazi racialism. Himmler indicated that this policy had been motivated by a fear that the Jews might have been an obstacle to aggression. There is no necessity to consider whether this fear was justified. The important consideration is that the fear existed; and with reference to it we refer to Document 1919-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-170. The document is a speech delivered by Himmler at the meeting of the SS major generals at Posen on 4 October 1943, in the course of which he sought to justify the Nazi anti-Jewish policy. We refer to a portion of this document or this speech, which is found on Page 4, Paragraph 3, of the English translation, starting with the words, “I mean the clearing out of the Jews”:

“I mean the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination of the
Jewish race. It’s one of those things it is easy to talk about.
‘The Jewish race is being exterminated’, says one Party member,
‘that’s quite clear; it’s in our program; elimination of the
Jews, and we’re doing it, exterminating them.’ And then there
come 80 million worthy Germans and each one has his decent Jew.
Of course, the others are vermin, but this one is an A-l Jew.
Not one of all those who talk this way has witnessed it, not one
of them has been through it. Most of you must know what it means
when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1,000. To
have stuck it out and at the same time—apart from exceptions
caused by human weakness—to have remained decent fellows, that
is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history
which has never been written and is never to be written, for we
know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves,
if—with bombing raids, the burden and deprivations of war—we
still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs,
agitators, and trouble-mongers.”

It is clear, we say, from the foregoing that prior to the launching of the aggression, the concentration camp had been one of the principal weapons by which the conspirators achieved the social cohesion which was needed for the execution of their plans for aggression. After they launched their aggression and their armies swept over Europe, they brought the concentration camp to occupied countries; and they also brought the citizens of the occupied countries to Germany and subjected them to the whole apparatus of Nazi brutality.

Document Number R-91 is Exhibit USA-241. This document consists of a communication dated the 16th day of December 1942 sent by Müller to Himmler, for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, and deals with the seizure of Polish Jews for deportation to concentration camps in Germany. I am beginning with the first paragraph. It says, quoting directly:

“In connection with the increase in the transfer of labor to the
concentration camps ordered to be completed by 30 January 1943,
the following procedure may be applied in the Jewish section:

“1. Total number: 45,000 Jews.

“2. Start of transportation: 11 January 1943. End of
transportation: 31 January 1943. (The Reich railroads are unable
to provide special trains for the evacuation during the period
from 15 December 1942 to 10 January 1943 because of the
increased traffic of Armed Forces leave trains.)

“3. Composition: The 45,000 Jews are to consist of 30,000 Jews
from the district of Bialystok; 10,000 Jews from the Ghetto of
Theresienstadt, 5,000 of whom are Jews fit for work who
heretofore had been used for smaller jobs required for the
ghetto and 5,000 Jews who are generally incapable of working,
also Jews over 60-years old.”

And passing the next sentence:

“As heretofore only such Jews would be taken for the evacuation
who do not have any particular connections and who are not in
possession of any high decorations. Three thousand Jews from the
occupied Dutch territories, 2,000 Jews from Berlin—45,000. The
figure of 45,000 includes those unfit for work (old Jews and
children). By use of a practical standard, the screening of the
arriving Jews in Auschwitz should yield at least 10,000 to
15,000 people fit for work.”

The Jews of Hungary suffered the same tragic fate. Between 19 March 1944 and the 1st of August 1944, more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews were rounded up. Many of these were put in wagons and sent to extermination camps, and we refer to Document Number 2605-PS, Exhibit USA-242. This document is an affidavit made in London by Dr. Rudolph Kastner, a former official of the Hungarian Zionist Organization. We refer to Page 3 of the document, the third full paragraph. In March 1944, quoting:

“Together with the German military occupation, there arrived in
Budapest a ‘Special Section Commando’ of the German Secret
Police with the sole object of liquidating the Hungarian Jews.
It was headed by Adolf Aichmann, SS Obersturmbannführer, Chief
of Section IV B of the Reich Security Head Office. His immediate
collaborators were: SS Obersturmbannführer Hermann Krumey,
Hauptsturmführer Wisliczeny, Hunsche, Novak, Dr. Seidl, and
later Danegger, Wrtok. They arrested and later deported to
Mauthausen all the leaders of Jewish political and business life
and journalists, together with, the Hungarian democratic and
anti-fascist politicians; taking advantage of the ‘interregnum’
following upon the German occupation lasting 4 days, they have
placed their Quislings in the Ministry of the Interior.”

On Page 7 of that same document, the 8th paragraph, beginning with the words “Commanders of the death camps” and quoting:

“Commanders of the death camps gassed only on direct or indirect
instructions of Aichmann. The particular officer of IV B who
directed the deportations from some particular country had the
authority to indicate whether the train should go to a death
camp or not and what should happen to the passengers. The
instructions were usually carried by the SS non-commissioned
officers escorting the train. The letters ‘A’ or ‘M’”—capital
letters “A” or “M”—“on the escorting instruction documents
indicated Auschwitz (Oswieczim) or Majdanek; it meant that the
passengers were to be gassed.”

And passing over the next sentence, we come to these words:

“Regarding Hungarian Jews the following general ruling was laid
down in Auschwitz: Children up to the age of 12 or 14, older
people over 50, as well as the sick, or people with criminal
records (who were transported in specially marked wagons) were
taken immediately on their arrival to the gas chambers.

“The others passed before an SS doctor who, on sight, indicated
who was fit for work and who was not. Those unfit were sent to
the gas chambers, while the others were distributed in various
labor camps.”

In the so-called “Eastern Territories” these victims were apprehended for extermination . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, don’t you want Page 5 for the numbers which you have stated “up to the 27th of June 1944”? You haven’t yet given us any authority for the numbers that you have stated.

MR. DODD: Oh, yes. On Page 5 of that same document, 2605-PS, quoting: “Up to the 27th of June 1944, 475,000 Jews were deported.”

In the so-called “Eastern Territories” these victims were apprehended for extermination in concentration camps without any charges having been made against them. In the western occupied territories charges seemed to have been made against some of the victims. Some of the charges which the Nazi conspirators considered sufficient basis for confinement to the concentration camps are shown by reference to Document Number L-215, which bears Exhibit Number USA-243. This document is the summary of the file, the dossier, of 25 persons arrested in Luxembourg for commitment to various concentration camps and sets forth the charges made against each person. Beginning with the paragraph after the name “Henricy,” at the bottom of the first page, and quoting:

“Name: Henricy; charge: . . . by associating with members of
illegal resistance movements and making money for them,
violating legal foreign exchange rates, by harming the interests
of the Reich and being expected in the future to disobey
official administrative regulations and act as an enemy of the
Reich; place of confinement—Natzweiler.”

Next comes the name of “Krier” and the charge:

“. . . by being responsible for continuous sabotage of labor and
causing fear because of his political and criminal past—freedom
would only further his anti-social urge; place of
confinement—Buchenwald.”

Passing to the middle of Page 2, after the name “Monti”:

“Charge:. . . by being strongly suspected of aiding desertion;
place of confinement—Sachsenhausen.”

Next, after the name “Junker”:

“Charge:. . . because as a relative of a deserter he is expected
to endanger the interests of the Greater German Reich if allowed
to go free; place of confinement—Sachsenhausen.”

“Jaeger” is the next name and the charge against Jaeger, quoting:

“. . . because as a relative of a deserter he is expected, to
take advantage of every occasion to harm the Greater German
Reich if allowed to go free; place of
confinement—Sachsenhausen.”

And down to the name “Ludwig” and the charge against Ludwig:

“. . . for being strongly suspected of aiding desertion; place
of confinement—Dachau.”

Not only civilians of the occupied countries but also prisoners of war were subjected to the horrors and the brutality of the concentration camps; and we refer to Document Number 1165-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-244. This document is a memorandum to all officers of the State Police signed by Müller, the Chief of the Gestapo, dated the 9th of November 1941. The memorandum has the revealing title of—and I quote—“Transportation of Russian Prisoners of War, destined for Execution, into the Concentration Camps.”

I wish to quote also from the body of this memorandum, which is found on Page 2 of the English translation, and I quote directly:

“The commandants of the concentration camps are complaining that
5 to 10 percent of the Soviet Russians destined for execution
are arriving in the camps dead or half dead. Therefore the
impression has arisen that the Stalags are getting rid of such
prisoners in this way.

“It was particularly noted that when marching, for example, from
the railroad station to the camp a rather large number of PW’s
collapsed on the way from exhaustion, either dead or half dead,
and had to be picked up by a truck following the convoy.

“It cannot be prevented that the German people take notice of
these occurrences.

“Even if the transportation to the camps is generally taken care
of by the Wehrmacht, the population will attribute this
situation to the SS.

“In order to prevent, if possible, similar occurrences in the
future, I therefore order that, effective from today on, Soviet
Russians declared definitely suspect and obviously marked by
death (for example with hunger-typhus) and therefore not able to
withstand the exertions of even a short march on foot shall in
the future, as a matter of basic principle, be excluded from the
transport into the concentration camps for execution.”

More evidence of the confinement of Russian prisoners of war in concentration camps is found in an official report of the investigation of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp by the Headquarters of the United States Third Army, the Judge Advocate Section, and particularly the War Crimes Branch, under the date of the 21st day of June 1945. It is our Document Number 2309-PS and bears Exhibit Number USA-245. At the bottom of Page 2 of the English text the last two sentences of that last paragraph say, and I quote:

“In 1941 an additional stockade was added at the Flossenbürg
camp to hold 2,000 Russian prisoners. Of these 2,000 prisoners
only 102 survived.”

Soviet prisoners of war found their allies in the concentration camps too; and at Page 4 of this same Document Number 2309-PS, it will show, particularly Paragraph 5 on Page 4, and I quote it:

“The victims of Flossenbürg included among them: Russian
civilians and prisoners of war, German nationals, Italians,
Belgians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, British, and American
prisoners of war. No practical means was available to complete a
list of victims of this camp; however, since the foundation of
the camp in 1938 until the day of liberation, it is estimated
that more than 29,000 inmates died.”

Escaped prisoners of war were sent to concentration camps by the conspirators, and these camps were specially set up as extermination centers; and we refer to Document Number 1650-PS, bearing Exhibit Number USA-246. This document is a communication from the Secret State Police of Cologne and it is dated the 4th day of March 1944. At the very top of the English text it says, “To be transmitted in secret—to be handled as a secret Government matter.”

In the third paragraph, quoting:

“Concerns: Measures to be taken against captured escaped
prisoners of war who are officers or non-working noncommissioned
officers, except British and American prisoners of war. The
Supreme Command of the Army has ordered as follows:

“1. Every captured escaped prisoner of war who is an officer or
a non-working noncommissioned officer, except British and
American prisoners of war, is to be turned over to the Chief of
the Security Police and of the Security Service under the
classification Step III regardless of whether the escape
occurred during a transport, whether it was a mass escape, or an
individual one.

“2. Since the transfer of the prisoners of war to the Security
Police and Security Service may not become officially known to
the outside under any circumstances, other prisoners of war may
by no means be informed of the capture. The captured prisoners
are to be reported to the Army Information Bureau as ‘escaped
and not captured.’ Their mail is to be handled accordingly.
Inquiries of representatives of the protective power, of the
International Red Cross, and of other aid societies will be
given the same answer.”

The same communication carried a copy of an order of SS General Müller, acting for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, directing the Gestapo to transport escaped prisoners directly to Mauthausen; and I quote the first two paragraphs of Müller’s order, which begins on the bottom of Page 1 and runs over to Page 2 of the English text. Quoting:

“The State Police directorates will accept the captured escaped
officer prisoners of war from the prisoner-of-war camp
commandants and will transport them to the Concentration Camp
Mauthausen following the procedure previously used, unless the
circumstances render a special transport imperative. The
prisoners of war are to be put in irons on the transport—not on
the way to the station if it is subject to view by the public.
The camp commandant at Mauthausen is to be notified that the
transfer occurs within the scope of the action ‘Kugel.’ The
State Police directorates will submit semi-yearly reports on
these transfers giving merely the figures, the first report
being due on 5 July 1944.”

Passing the next three sentences, we come to this line:

“For the sake of secrecy the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces
has been requested to inform the prisoner-of-war camps to turn
the captured prisoners over to the local State Police office
concerned and not to send them directly to Mauthausen.”

It is no coincidence that the literal translation for the German word “Kugel” is the English word “bullet,” since Mauthausen, where the escaped prisoners were sent, was an extermination center.

Nazi conquest was marked by the establishment of concentration camps over all of Europe. In this connection we refer to Document Number R-129. It is a report on the location of concentration camps signed by Pohl, who was an SS general who was in charge of concentration camp labor policies. Document Number R-129 bears our Exhibit Number USA-217.

I wish to refer particularly to Section 1, Paragraphs numbered 1 and 2 of this document, which are found on Page 1 of the English translation. It is addressed to the Reichsführer SS and bears the stamp “secret”:

“Reichsführer:

“Today I report about the present situation of the concentration
camps and about measures I have taken in order to carry out your
order of 3 March 1942:

“1. At the outbreak of war there existed the following
concentration camps:

“a. Dachau—1939, 4,000 prisoners; today, 8,000.

“b. Sachsenhausen—1939, 6,500 prisoners; today, 10,000.

“c. Buchenwald—1939, 5,300 prisoners; today, 9,000.

“d. Mauthausen—1939, 1,500 prisoners; today, 5,500.

“e. Flossenbürg—1939, 1,600 prisoners; today, 4,700.

“f. Ravensbrück—1939, 2,500 prisoners; today, 7,500.”

And then it goes on to say in Paragraph Number 2, quoting:

“In the years 1940 and 1942 nine additional camps were erected:

“a. Auschwitz, b. Neuengamme, c. Gusen, d. Natzweiler, e.
Gross-Rosen, f. Lublin, g. Niederhagen, h. Stutthof, i.
Arbeitsdorf.”

In addition to the camps in the occupied territory mentioned in this Document R-129, from which I have just read these names and figures, there were many, many others. I refer to the official report by the United States Third Army Headquarters, to which we have already made reference, Document Number 2309-PS, on Page 2 in the English text,