Chapter XXVII: Book I (2)

In many respects the spectacle which the German General Staff and High Command group presents today is the most degrading of all the groups and organizations before this Court. They are the bearers of a tradition not devoid of valor and honor; but they emerge from this war stained both by criminality and ineptitude. Attracted by the militaristic and aggressive Nazi policies, the German generals found themselves drawn into adventures of a scope they had not foreseen. From crimes in which almost all of them participated willingly and approvingly were born others in which they participated partly because they were too ineffective to alter the governing Nazi policies and partly because they had to continue collaboration to save their own skins.

Having joined the partnership, the General Staff and High Command group planned and carried through manifold acts of aggression which turned Europe into a charnel house and caused the Armed Forces to be used for foul practices, foully executed, of terror, pillage, and wholesale slaughter. Let no one be heard to say that the military uniform shall be a cloak, or that they may find sanctuary by pleading membership in the profession to which their actions were a disgrace.

COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal pleases, the next subject will be the presentation of supplemental evidence concerning the persecution of the churches as presented by Colonel Wheeler.

COLONEL LEONARD WHEELER, JR. (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): Your Honors, the material now to be submitted comprises, first, supplemental proof on the suppression of the churches within Germany: the Evangelical churches, the Catholic Church, and the Bibelforscher (or Bible students); and second, acts of suppression in the annexed and occupied territories, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. A large part of this proof will be from the official files of the Vatican.

I now submit to the Court United States Trial Brief H (supplemental), on “Suppression of the Christian Churches in Germany and in the Occupied Territories,” and Document Book H (supplemental), containing English translations of all the documents referred to in the supplemental brief, or to be referred to in my oral presentation. I shall take up first the supplemental proof on the suppression of the churches in Germany.

Hitler announced in March 1933 a distinction in his policy toward politics and morals on the one hand and religion on the other. I offer in evidence Document Number 3387-PS, Exhibit Number USA-566. This is a speech by Hitler to the Reichstag on March 23, 1933, quoted in the _Völkischer Beobachter_, for March 24, 1933, Page 1, Column 5 of the German newspaper. I quote from this speech:

“While the Government is determined to carry through a political
and moral purging of our public life, it is creating and
insuring the requisites of a truly religious life. The
Government sees in both Christian confessions the factors most
important for the maintenance of our Volkstum. It will respect
agreements concluded between them and the Länder. However, it
expects that its work will meet with like appreciation. The
Government will treat all other denominations with objective
justice. However, it can never condone that belonging to a
certain denomination or to a certain race should be regarded as
a license for the commission or toleration of crime. The
Government will devote its care to harmony between Church and
State.”

Toward the Evangelical churches, the Nazi conspirators proceeded at first with caution, and an appearance of legality. They set up a new constitution of the German Evangelical Church, which introduced the innovation of a single Lutheran Reich Bishop, who assumed all the administrative functions of the old agencies of the churches. I refer to Document Number 3433-PS, the Decree concerning the Constitution of the German Evangelical Church, dated July 14, 1933, appearing in the _Reichsgesetzblatt_, 1933, Part I, Page 471, and request that the Court take judicial notice of it.

It is too well known to require documentation that the new Reich Bishop, Bishop Müller, heeded the voice of his Nazi masters. One of his first steps was to maneuver the Evangelical Youth Association into the Hitler Jugend under the Defendant Von Schirach in December 1933. In proof of this I refer to Document Number 1458 (a)-PS, already in evidence as part of Document Book D. This is an excerpt from Von Schirach’s book, _The Hitler Youth—Idea and Formation_.

By 1935 it had become evident that more than persuasion by the Reich Bishop was necessary. Consequently the Nazi conspirators promulgated a number of public laws which, under innocent sounding titles, gradually wove a tight net of state control over all the affairs of the Evangelical churches. We ask that the Court take judicial notice of these laws published in the _Reichsgesetzblatt_. These may be briefly summarized as follows:

3434-PS, “Law concerning Procedure for Decisions in Legal Affairs of the Evangelical Church,” dated 26 June 1935, signed by Hitler and Frick, appearing in 1935 in _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 774. This gave the Reich Minister of the Interior, the Defendant Frick, when question was raised in a civil lawsuit, sole authority to determine the validity of measures taken in the Evangelical state churches, or in the German Evangelical Church since May 1, 1933.

3435-PS, “First Ordinance for Execution of the Law concerning Procedure for Decisions in Legal Affairs of the Evangelical Church,” dated July 3, 1935, appearing in 1935 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 851. This implemented the earlier law, by setting up an Office for Decisions with three members appointed by the Reich Minister of the Interior.

3466-PS, “Decree to Unite the Competences of Reich and Prussia in Church Affairs,” dated July 16, 1935, signed by Hitler, published in 1935 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 1029. This transferred to Reich Minister without Portfolio Kerrl the Church Affairs hitherto handled by the Reich and Prussian Ministries of the Interior and for Science, Education, and Training of the Population.

3436-PS, “Law for the Safeguarding of the German Evangelical Church,” dated 24 September 1935, published in the 1935 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 1178, signed by Hitler and the Minister for Church Affairs, Dr. Kerrl. This empowered the Reich Minister of Church Affairs to issue ordinances with binding legal force.

3437-PS, “Fifth Decree for Execution of the Law for the Safeguarding of the German Evangelical Church,” dated 2 December 1935, published in 1935 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 1370. This prohibited “Organs of Church Leadership” in the Evangelical churches from filling pastorates, engaging clerical assistants, examining and ordaining candidates of the state churches, visitation, publishing of the banns, and collection and administration of church dues and assessments.

This series of laws culminated on June 26, 1937, in Document Number 3439-PS, the “Fifteenth Decree for the Execution of the Law for Security of the German Evangelical Church,” dated June 25, 1937, published in 1937 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 697. By this, the Reich Minister for Church Affairs, Kerrl, established a finance department for the churches to supervise the administration of all church property, the budget, and the use of budget funds and to regulate salaries and allowances of officials, clergy, and employees. Thus, before the outbreak of the war, the Nazi conspirators had the Evangelical churches tied hand and foot physically and administratively, if not spiritually.

Against the Catholic Church with its international organization the Nazi conspirators launched a most vigorous and drastic attack—again at first, however, cloaked under a mantle of co-operation and legality. A concordat signed by the Defendant Von Papen, one of the foremost Catholic laymen in Germany, was concluded between the Reich Government and the Vatican on July 20, 1933. It is printed in the 1933 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part II, Page 679 to Page 690, and contained in Document Number 3280 (a)-PS. I ask the Court to take judicial notice of it. I quote Article 1:

“The German Reich guarantees freedom of profession and public
practice of the Catholic religion.

“It acknowledges the right of the Catholic Church, within the
limit of those laws which are applicable to all, to manage and
regulate its own affairs independently and, within the framework
of its own competence, to publish laws and ordinances binding on
its members.”

Other articles which, being matters of common knowledge, I assume need not be read into the record, formulated basic principles such as freedom of the Catholic press, of Catholic education, and of Catholic charitable, professional, and other organizations.

The proposal for the concordat came from the Reich, and not from the Vatican. I refer to Document Number 3268-PS, Exhibit Number USA-356, excerpts from the Allocution of Pope Pius XII to the Sacred College on June 2, 1945, already read into evidence. I quote from Page 1 of the English mimeographed excerpts, Page 1 of the German translation, third paragraph, which has not previously been read, “In the spring of 1933 the German Government asked the Holy See to conclude a concordat with the Reich.”

The present Pope, Pope Pius XII, then Cardinal Pacelli, negotiated and signed the concordat on behalf of the Vatican. As Archbishop Pacelli he had previously been Papal Nuncio in Germany for 12 years.

Relying upon the Nazis’ assurances, particularly Hitler’s speech of March 23, 1933 above quoted (3387-PS), the Catholic hierarchy revoked its previous opposition against Catholics becoming members of the National Socialist Party. I offer in evidence Document Number 3389-PS, Exhibit USA-566, a pastoral letter, dated March 23, 1933, from the Bishop of Cologne, and I quote from the _Völkischer Beobachter_ for March 29, 1933 Page 2 Columns 2 and 3:

“The Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Schulte, announces to the
Archdiocese of Cologne a declaration of the Bishops’ Conference
at Fulda, which states:

“The bishops of the diocese of Germany, in their dutiful
solicitude to keep the Catholic faith pure and to protect the
inviolable aims and rights of the Catholic Church, have adopted,
for weighty reasons during the last years, an attitude of
opposition toward the National Socialist movement, through
prohibitions and warnings, which were to remain in effect as
long and as far as those reasons remained valid.

“It should now be recognized that there are public and solemn
declarations issued by the highest representative of the Reich
Government—who at the same time is the authoritarian leader of
that movement—which acknowledge the inviolability of the
teachings of the Catholic faith and the unswerving mission and
rights of the Church and which expressly guarantee the full
validity of the legal pacts concluded between the several German
Länder and the Church.

“Without lifting the condemnation, implied in our previous
measures, of certain religious and ethical errors, the
Episcopate now believes it can be confident that those general
prohibitions and warnings prescribed need no longer be regarded
as necessary.”

The Catholic Center Party, yielding to these assurances and to pressure, was dissolved on July 5, 1933. I refer to Document Number 2403-PS, already in evidence as part of U.S. Document Book B, an excerpt from _Documents of German Politics_, the official Nazi publication, a document of which the Court can take judicial notice; and I quote from the last five lines of Page 1 of the English translation, appearing on Page 55 of the original German text, which states:

“Also the parties of German Catholicism which were supposed to
be most deeply rooted, had to bow to the law of the New Order.
On July 4, 1933, the Bavarian People’s Party (Document 27), and
on July 5, 1933, the Center Party (Document 29), published an
announcement of their dissolution.”

In spite of these evidences of confidence and co-operation or submission on the part of the Catholics, the Nazi conspirators almost immediately commenced a series of violations of the concordat. I offer in evidence Document Number 3476-PS, Exhibit USA-567, being the Papal Encyclical, “Mit brennender Sorge”—in German—by Pope Pius XI on March 14, 1937, and also ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of all of it. I quote from, the one-page English excerpt . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Did you say 3476 or 3466?

COL. WHEELER: 3476.

THE PRESIDENT: We don’t seem to have that.

COL. WHEELER: That may be a mistake, Sir, for 3563; the number was changed. The part of it which is in English in the Document Book, Sir, is under 3280-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: 3280?

COL. WHEELER: The difficulty is that the German original came in after the translation had been made from another source.

THE PRESIDENT: 3280(a)-PS?

COL. WHEELER: 3280 without the (a). It’s just a couple of paragraphs.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes; I see.

COL. WHEELER: These are found on Page 2, Paragraph 2, of the German original, which is in evidence now, which was secretly reproduced at Fulda from copies smuggled into Germany from Rome, and read definitely from pulpits all over Germany. I quote:

“It discloses intrigues which from the beginning had no other
aim than a war of extermination. In the furrows in which we had
labored to sow the seeds of true peace, others, like the enemy
in Holy Scripture (Matt. xiii, 25), sowed the tares of
suspicion, discord, hatred, calumny, of secret and open
fundamental hostility to Christ and His Church, fed from a
thousand different sources and making use of every available
means. On them and on them alone and on their silent and vocal
protectors rests the responsibility for the fact that now, on
the horizon of Germany, there is to be seen, not the rainbow of
peace, but the threatening storm clouds of destructive religious
strife.

“Anyone who has even a grain of a sense of truth left in his
mind and even a shadow of a feeling of justice left in his heart
will have to admit that, in the difficult and eventful years
which followed the concordat, every word and every action of
ours was ruled by loyalty to the terms of the agreement; but
also he will have to recognize with surprise and deep disgust
that the unwritten law of the other party has been arbitrary
misinterpretation of agreements, circumvention of agreements,
weakening of the force of agreements and, finally, more or less
open violation of agreements.

“Only 10 days after the Concordat was signed. . . .”

THE PRESIDENT: None of this is in our book.

COL. WHEELER: That’s not in your book?

THE PRESIDENT: Not what you’ve been reading. The first paragraph, down to the words “destructive religious wars” is in our book. The rest isn’t in it.

COL. WHEELER: I think there must have been an error today then, Sir. There was a second edition of that 3280, which contains the second paragraph. I’ll have that substituted as soon as this is over.

THE PRESIDENT: All right.

DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): The United States Prosecution said earlier in the proceedings that a certain part of the material now being presented as evidence in the question of the opposition to the churches was made available by the Vatican. The Defendant Hans Frank has just sent me some questions which I do not want to withhold from the Tribunal. The questions are these:

1. Is the Vatican a Signatory to the Charter of the International Military Tribunal?

2. Did the Vatican deliver the material in an accusatory capacity?

3. Has the Vatican, acting as a co-prosecutor, identified itself with the principles of these proceedings?

The Defendant Hans Frank adds by way of explanation that his continued membership in the Roman Catholic Church depends on the reply to these questions.

THE PRESIDENT: I think it desirable that the Tribunal understand your objections. The first question that you ask is: Is the Vatican a Signatory to the Charter? Is that right?

DR. SEIDL: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Your second question was what? What was your second question?

DR. SEIDL: The second question is: Whether the Vatican submitted the material which is now being presented, acting as co-prosecutor?

THE PRESIDENT: And your third?

DR. SEIDL: The third question is—and it is addressed directly to the Prosecution—whether the Vatican, as prosecutor, has identified itself with the principles upon which this Trial is being conducted?

[_There was a pause in the proceedings while the Judges conferred._]

THE PRESIDENT: In the opinion of the Tribunal the observations which have just been made by counsel on behalf of the Defendant Frank are entirely irrelevant, and any motion which they were intended to support is denied. The Prosecution will therefore continue.

COL. WHEELER: I now offer in evidence the first of a number of documents which the Vatican has supplied to the Prosecution in this case from its own files and which authoritatively state the acts of suppression of the Church by the Nazi conspirators. This first Vatican document, which deals in part with acts of suppression within Germany, is Document Number 3261-PS, Exhibit Number USA-568, a verbal note of the Secretariat of State of His Holiness the Pope to the German Embassy, dated January 18, 1942. I read the certificate accompanying this document:

“The Vatican, November 13th, 1945.

“I, Domenico Tardini, Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical
Affairs, hereby certify that the attached document, consisting
of nine printed pages and entitled, ‘Verbal note of the
Secretariat of State of His Holiness to the German Embassy,’
January 18th, 1942, Pages 3-11, is a true and correct
translation into the English language from the Italian language
of a carbon copy of a document now in the possession of the
Secretariat of State of His Holiness, the original of which was
dispatched to the German Embassy.”—Signed—“Domenico Tardini.”

The paper in the document book, Your Honors, is a mimeographed copy of the same printed document which we received from the Vatican. We did not have enough printed documents to make them in the document books.

On Page 2 of the English mimeographed text of this verbal note, Paragraphs 3 and 4—appearing on Page 2 of the German translation, Paragraphs 3 and 4—the Papal Secretary of State describes, I quote:

“Measures and acts which gravely violate the rights of the
Church, being contrary not only to the existing concordats but
to the principles of international law ratified by the Second
Hague Conference . . .”

THE PRESIDENT: Did you say you were reading the third paragraph?

COL. WHEELER: Yes, Your Honor. It is the third full paragraph on Page 2. It starts in the middle of the paragraph with the last word on the seventh line of the third paragraph.

THE PRESIDENT: It is very difficult for us to find it if you don’t tell us it begins in the middle of the paragraph.

COL. WHEELER: The last word of that line is “measures”. It’s the seventh line of the paragraph beginning “Yet, despite this keen desire,” Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, I see.

COL. WHEELER: “. . . but often—and this is much more grave—to
the very fundamental principles of Divine Law both natural and
positive.”

The next paragraph specifies these measures. I quote:

“Let it suffice to recall in this connection, among other
things, the changing of the Catholic state elementary schools
into undenominational schools; the permanent or temporary
closing of many minor seminaries, of not a few major seminaries,
and of some theological faculties; the suppression of almost all
the private schools and of numerous Catholic boarding schools
and colleges; the repudiation, decided upon unilaterally, of
financial obligations which the State, municipalities, and so
forth, had towards the Church; the increasing difficulties put
in the way of the activity of the religious orders and
congregations in the spiritual, cultural, and social field, and
above all the suppression of abbeys, monasteries, convents, and
religious houses in such great numbers that one is led to infer
a deliberate intention of rendering impossible the very
existence of the orders and congregations in Germany.”

The Nazis did not overlook other sects or denominations in their efforts to suppress Christian religion in Germany. They persecuted the “Bibelforscher” or Bible students . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Perhaps, if you are going on to another church, it would be better to break off until tomorrow morning.

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 8 January 1946 at 1000 hours._]

TWENTY-NINTH DAY
Tuesday, 8 January 1946

_Morning Session_

COL. WHEELER: The Nazis did not overlook other sects or denominations in their efforts to suppress Christian religion in Germany. They persecuted the Bibelforscher or International Bible Students as well. There has already been introduced and read into evidence Document Number D-84, Exhibit Number USA-236, showing that members of this sect were not only prosecuted in the courts, but also seized and sent to concentration camps, even after serving or remitting of their judicial sentences.

In Document Number 2928-PS, Exhibit Number USA-239, included in U.S. Document Book A, further evidence of persecution of Bibelforscher appears.

THE PRESIDENT: I think you are going a little bit fast. We are not going to refer to D-84?

COL. WHEELER: I am not going to read from it, Sir.

THE PRESIDENT: Then you go to 2928-PS?

COL. WHEELER: 2928-PS; it is in the document book, Sir. This document is an affidavit by Matthias Lex, Vice President of the national union of shoemakers. In describing his experience in Dachau Concentration Camp he says, and I quote from the third page of his affidavit:

“I include in the political prisoners the International Bible
Students”—Bibelforscher—“whose number I estimate at over 150.”

I want to read further from the last line of that page and the next few lines of the next page:

“The following groups were kept entirely isolated: The members
of the so-called ‘punishment
companies,’”—Strafkompanien—“those who were in a concentration
camp for a second time, and after about 1937 also the
‘Bibelforscher’. Members of the ‘punishment companies’ were such
prisoners who had committed disciplinary or slight offenses
against the camp regulations. The following groups lived
separately but could mix with the other groups during the day,
either while working or while strolling through the camp:

“Political prisoners, Jews, anti-socials, gypsies, felons,
homosexuals, and, before 1937, also the International Bible
Students.”

I refer also to Document Number 1531-PS—this is not in the document book—Exhibit Number USA-248, which is already in evidence. This was an order by the RSHA in 1942 authorizing third-degree methods against Jehovah’s Witnesses. That was read by Colonel Storey.

I now turn to acts of suppression in the annexed and occupied territories. In Austria Bishop Rusch of Innsbruck has written an illuminating report on this subject. I offer this sworn statement in evidence, Document 3278-PS, Exhibit Number USA-569. This is a report on the fighting of National Socialism in the Apostolic Administration of Innsbruck-Feldkirch, of Tyrol and Vorarlberg. In this the Bishop declares, and I start on the first page of the English text, and of the German translation:

“After having seized power, National Socialism immediately
showed the tendency to exclude the Church from publicity.”

The expression “publicity”—this was written in English by the Bishop—evidently means “public activities.” I continue with the quote:

“At Corpus Christi in 1938 the customary solemn procession was
forbidden. In the summer of the same year all ecclesiastical
schools and kindergartens were disbanded. Daily newspaper and
weekly reviews of Christian thinking were likewise removed. In
the same year all kinds of ecclesiastical organizations,
especially youth organizations such as Boy Scouts, were
disbanded, all activity forbidden.

“The effect of these prohibitions came soon: The clergy took
opposition against them, they could not do otherwise. Then a
great wave of priest arrests followed. About a fifth of them
were eventually arrested. Reasons for arrests were:

“1. The ‘pulpit-paragraph.’ When Party actions were mentioned or
criticized even in the humblest manner.

“2. The practice of taking care of young people. A specially
heavy prohibition was given in November 1939. Children’s or
youth’s mass or services were forbidden. Religion or faith
lessons were not allowed to be given in the church except
lessons of preparing for first Communion or confirmation.
Teaching of religion at school was very often forbidden without
any reason.

“The priest, according to his conscience, could not follow this
public proscription and this explained the great number of
arrests of priests. Finally, the priests were arrested on
account of their ‘caritative’ work. It was, for instance,
forbidden to give anything to foreigners or prisoners. A priest
was arrested because he gave a cup of coffee and bread to two
hungry Dutchmen. This ‘caritative’ act was seen to favor
elements foreign to the race.

“In 1939 and 1940 a new activity began. Cloisters and abbeys
were seized, disbanded, and many churches belonging to them
closed. Among these two convents were disbanded: the cloister of
the Dominican Sisters of Bludenz and that of the ‘Perpetual
Adoration’ of Innsbruck. In the latter the Sisters were dragged,
one by one, out of the cloister by the Gestapo. In the same way
ecclesiastical property such as association-houses, parish and
youth homes were seized. A list of these closed churches,
disbanded cloisters, and ecclesiastical institutions is
attached.

“Despite all these measures the results were not satisfactory.
Then priests were not only arrested, but also deported to
concentration camps. Eight priests of Tyrol and Vorarlberg have
been imprisoned, among them the Provicar Monseigneur Dr. Charles
Lampert. One died there on account of the ill-treatment, the
others returned. Provicar Lampert was released but required to
remain in Stettin, where later he was re-arrested and executed
in November 1944, after having been condemned to death by secret
proceedings.”

There is attached to this report a three-and-a-half-page list entitled, “List of churches, convents, monasteries, and ecclesiastical objects of Tyrol and Vorarlberg seized—that is, confiscated—and of the institutions, confessional schools, _et cetera_, disbanded.” Unless the Tribunal requires it, I shall not read these names.

I offer in evidence Document 3274-PS, Exhibit Number USA-570, received from Cardinal Innitzer of Vienna and authenticated by him. This is the first joint pastoral letter of the Archbishops and Bishops of Austria after liberation, dated October 17, 1945. I quote from Page 1, second paragraph of the English and German texts, which sums up the Nazi conspirators’ campaign in Austria:

“A war which has raged terribly and horribly, like none other in
past epochs of the history of humanity is at an end. . . . At an
end also is an intellectual battle, the goal of which was the
destruction of Christianity and Church among our people; a
campaign of lies and treachery against truth and love, against
divine and human rights, and against international law.”

I quote further from the fourth and following paragraphs:

“Direct hostility to the Church was revealed in regulations
against orders and monasteries, Catholic schools and
institutions, against religious foundations and activities,
against the ecclesiastical recreation centers and institutions;
without the least rights to defend themselves they were declared
enemies of both people and state and their existence destroyed.

“Religious instruction and education of children and adolescents
were purposely limited, frequently entirely prevented. They
encouraged in every manner all efforts hostile to religion and
the Church and thus sought to rob the children and youth of our
people of the most valuable treasure of holy faith and of true
morality born of the Spirit of God. Unfortunately the attempt
succeeded in innumerable cases to the permanent detriment of
young people.

“Spiritual care of souls in churches and ecclesiastical houses,
in hospitals and other institutions was seriously obstructed. It
was made ineffectual in the Armed Forces and in the Labor
Service, in the transfer of youth to the country and, beyond
that, even in individual families and among numerous persons, to
say nothing of the prohibition of spiritual ministration to
people of another nationality and of other races.

“How often was the divine service as such, also sermons,
missions, Communion days, retreats, processions, pilgrimages,
restricted for the most impossible reasons and made entirely
impossible!

“Catholic literature, newspapers, periodicals, church papers,
religious writings were stopped, books and libraries destroyed.

“What an injustice occurred in the dissolution of many Catholic
societies, in the destruction of numerous church activities!

“Individual Catholic and Christian believers, whose religious
confession was allegedly free, were spied upon, criticized on
account of their belief, scorned on account of their Christian
activity. How many religious officials, teachers, public and
private employees, laborers, businessmen, and artisans, indeed,
even peasants were put under pressure and terror! Many lost
their jobs, some were pensioned off, others dismissed without
pension, demoted, deprived of their real professional activity.
Often enough such people who remained loyal to their convictions
were discriminated against, condemned to hunger or tortured in
concentration camps. Christianity and the Church were
continually scorned and exposed to hatred.

“The apostasy movement found every assistance. Every opportunity
was used to induce many to withdraw from the Church.”

In assessing responsibility for these acts of suppression in Austria, the Court will recall that the Defendant Von Schirach was Gauleiter of Vienna from 1940 to 1945.

I now come to the acts of suppression in Czechoslovakia, where, the Court will recollect, the Defendant Von Neurath was Reich Protector for Bohemia and Moravia from 1939 to 1943 and was succeeded by the Defendant Frick. These acts have been summarized in an official Czech Government report. I refer to Document 998-PS, Exhibit Number USA-91, already in evidence. These are excerpts not previously read or referred to from the “Czech Official Report for the Prosecution and Trial of the German Major War Criminals by the International Military Tribunal Established according to the Agreement of the Four Great Powers, of August 8, 1945.” Since this is an official government document or report of one of the United Nations, I ask that the Tribunal take judicial notice of it under Article 21 of the Charter and I suggest that I be permitted to summarize rather than read it.

It describes the maltreatment of Catholic priests—487 of whom were sent to concentration camps as hostages—dissolution of religious orders, suppression of religious instruction in Czech schools, suppression of Catholic weeklies and monthlies, dissolution of the Catholic gymnastic organization of 800,000 members, and seizure of Catholic Church property. It describes the entire prohibition of the Czechoslovak National Church and confiscation of all its property in Slovakia and its crippling in Bohemia.

The report describes the severe restriction on freedom of preaching by the Protestants and the persecution and imprisonment and execution of ministers and the suppression of Protestant Church youth organizations and theological schools and shows the complete subordination and later dissolution of the Greek Orthodox Church. It states that all Evangelical education was handed over to the civil authorities and many Evangelical teachers lost their employment.

The repressive measures adopted by the Nazi conspirators in Poland against the Christian Church were even more drastic and sweeping.

The Vatican documents now to be introduced describe persecutions of the Catholic Church in Poland in three areas: First, the incorporated territories, especially the Warthegau; second, the Government General; and third, the incorporated Eastern territories.

The Court will recall that the incorporated territories comprised territories adjacent to the old Reich, chiefly the Reich District Wartheland or Warthegau, which included particularly the cities of Poznan and Lodz and the Reich district Danzig-West Prussia.

The occupied Polish territories which were organized into the Government General comprised the remainder of Poland, seized by the German forces in 1939 and extending to the new boundary with the Soviets formed at that time. This included Warsaw and Kraków. After the Nazis attacked the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in June 1941, the parts of old Poland lying farther to the east and then overrun were included in the so-called Occupied Eastern Territories.

For the purpose of tying the defendants’ responsibility for the persecutions occurring in their respective areas, the Court will bear in mind that the Defendant Frick was the official chiefly responsible for the reorganization of the Eastern territories. The Defendant Frank was head of the Government General from 1939 to 1945. The Defendant Seyss-Inquart was Deputy Governor General there from 1939 to 1940. And the Defendant Rosenberg was Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories from July 17, 1941 to the end.

I now offer in evidence Document Number 3263-PS, Exhibit Number USA-571, headed, “Memorandum of the Secretariat of State to the German Embassy regarding the religious situation in the ‘Warthegau,’ October 8, 1942.” This document bears a certificate of authenticity from the Vatican signed by the Papal Secretary of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs corresponding to that accompanying Document 3261-PS, read in evidence a few minutes ago. Unless the Court requires otherwise, I suggest that it is not necessary to read each of these certificates, which are all similar one to another. I quote from Document 3263-PS, the first paragraph:

“For quite a long time the religious situation in the region
called ‘Warthegau’ gives cause for very grave and
ever-increasing anxiety. There, in fact, the Episcopate has been
little by little almost completely eliminated; the secular and
regular clergy have been reduced to proportions that are
absolutely inadequate, because they have been in large part
deported and exiled; the education of clerics has been
forbidden; the Catholic education of youth is meeting with the
greatest opposition; the nuns have been dispersed;
insurmountable obstacles have been put in the way of affording
people the help of religion; very many churches have been
closed; Catholic intellectual and charitable institutions have
been destroyed; ecclesiastical property has been seized.”

On March 2, 1943 the Cardinal Secretary of State addressed to the Defendant Von Ribbentrop, Foreign Minister of the Reich, a note setting forth in detail the persecution of bishops, priests, and other ecclesiastics and the suppression of the exercise of religion in the occupied Polish provinces. This document is so explicit and so authoritative that it deserves extensive quotation. I accordingly offer it in evidence: Document Number 3264-PS, Exhibit Number USA-572. It is headed, “A Note of His Eminence the Cardinal Secretary of State to the Foreign Minister of the Reich about the religious situation in the ‘Warthegau’ and in the other Polish provinces subject to Germany.” It bears a Vatican certificate of authenticity like that of Document 3261-PS. It is signed, “L. Card. Maglione,” meaning “Luigi Cardinal Maglione.” I quote from this note, starting with Page 1, the third paragraph of the English mimeographed text and of the German translation:

“The place where, above all, the religious situation, by its
unusual gravity, calls for special consideration is the
territory called the ‘Reichsgau Wartheland.’

“Six bishops resided in that region in August 1939; now there is
left only one. In fact, the Bishop of Lodz and his auxiliary
were, in the course of the year 1941, confined first in a small
district of the diocese and then expelled and exiled in the
‘Generalgouvernement.’

“Another bishop, Monseigneur Michael Kozal, Auxiliary and Vicar
General of Wloclawek, was arrested in the autumn of 1939,
detained for some time in a prison in the city and later in a
religious house in Lad, and finally was transferred to the
concentration camp at Dachau.

“Since His Eminence the Cardinal Archbishop of Gniezno and
Poznan and the Bishop of Wloclawek, who had gone away during the
period of military operations, were not allowed to return to
their Sees, the only bishop who now remains in the ‘Warthegau’
is His Excellency Monseigneur Valentine Dymek, Auxiliary of
Poznan; and he, at least up to November 1942, was interned in
his own house.”

I pass now to Page 2, fourth paragraph of the English text, the fifth paragraph of the German text:

“If the lot of their Excellencies the Bishops has been a source
of anxiety for the Holy See, the condition of an immense number
of priests and members of religious orders has caused it, and
still causes it, no less grief.

“In the territory now called ‘Warthegau’ more than 2,000 priests
exercised their ministry before the war; they are now reduced to
a very small number.

“According to accounts received from various quarters by the
Holy See, in the first months of the military occupation not a
few members of the secular clergy were shot or otherwise put to
death, while others—some hundreds—were imprisoned or treated
in an unseemly manner, being forced into employments unbecoming
their state and exposed to scorn and derision.

“Then, while numbers of ecclesiastics were exiled or constrained
in some other way to take refuge in the ‘Generalgouvernement,’
many others were transferred to concentration camps. At the
beginning of October 1941 the priests from the dioceses of the
‘Warthegau’ detained in Dachau already numbered several
hundreds; but their number increased considerably in that month
following a sharp intensification of police measures which
culminated in the imprisonment and deportation of further
hundreds of ecclesiastics. Entire ‘Kreise’ (districts) remained
thus completely deprived of clergy. In the city of Poznan itself
the spiritual care of some 200,000 Catholics remained in the
hands of not more than four priests.

“No less painful was the fate reserved for the regular clergy.
Many religious were shot or otherwise killed; the great majority
of the others were imprisoned, deported, or expelled.

“In the same way far-reaching measures were taken against the
institutions preparing candidates for the ecclesiastical state.
The diocesan seminaries of Gniezno and Poznan, of Wloclawek, and
of Lodz were closed. The seminary in Poznan for the training of
priests destined to work among Polish Catholics abroad was also
closed.

“The novitiates and houses of formation of the religious orders
and congregations were closed.

“Not even the nuns were able to continue their charitable
activities without molestation. For them was set up a special
concentration camp at Bojanowo, where towards the middle of 1941
about 400 sisters were interned and employed in manual labor. To
a representation of the Holy See made through the Apostolic
Nunciature in Berlin (Memorandum N. 40.348 of June 11th, 1941)
your Reich Ministry for Foreign Affairs replied in the
Memorandum Pol. III 1886 of September 28 of the same year that
it was only a question of a temporary measure, taken with the
consent of the Reich lieutenant for Wartheland, in order to
supply the lack of housing for Polish Catholic sisters. In the
same memorandum it was admitted that as a result of
reorganization of charitable institutions many Catholic sisters
were without employment.

“But, in spite of the fact that this measure was declared to be
temporary, it is certain that towards the end of 1942 some
hundreds of nuns were still interned at Bojanowo. It is
established that for some time the religious were deprived even
of spiritual help.

“Likewise in the matter of education and religious instruction
of youth no attention was paid in the ‘Warthegau’ to the rights
of the Catholic Church.

“All the Catholic schools were suppressed.”

THE PRESIDENT: Who was the Foreign Minister of the Reich at the time that document was sent?

COL. WHEELER: It was the Defendant Von Ribbentrop.

I turn to Page 4, the 10th paragraph of the English text, Page 5, 4th paragraph of the German text:

“The use of the Polish language in sacred functions, and even in
the Sacrament of Penance, was forbidden. Moreover—and this is a
matter worthy of special mention and is at variance with the
natural law and with the dispositions accepted by the legal
systems of all nations—for the celebration of marriage between
Poles the minimum age limit was fixed at 28 years for men and 25
years for women.

“Catholic Action was so badly hit as to be completely destroyed.
The National Institute, which was at the head of the whole
Catholic Action movement in Poland, was suppressed; as a result
all the associations belonging to it, which were flourishing, as
well as all Catholic cultural, charity, and social service
institutions, were abolished.

“In the whole of the ‘Warthegau’ there is no longer any Catholic
press and not even a Catholic bookshop.

“Grave measures were repeatedly taken with regard to
ecclesiastical property.

“Many of the churches closed to public worship were turned over
to profane uses. From such an insult not even the Cathedrals of
Gniezno, Poznan, Wloclawek, and Lodz were spared. Episcopal
residences were confiscated, the real estate belonging to the
seminaries, convents, diocesan museums, libraries, and church
funds were confiscated or sequestered.”

I pass now to the third full paragraph on Page 5, a two-line paragraph:

“Even before ecclesiastical property was affected, the
allowances to the clergy had been abolished.”

Now, reading from Page 6, the fourth full paragraph of the English text:

“The administrative regulations published by the lieutenant’s
office for the application of the ordinance of September 13th,
1941 made the situation of the Catholics in that region, still
more difficult.

“For example, on November 19, 1941 came a decree of the Reich
lieutenant by which among other things it was set forth that, as
from the previous September 13th, the property of the former
juridical persons of the Roman Catholic Church should pass over
to the ‘Römisch-katholische Kirche deutscher Nationalität im
Reichsgau Wartheland’ insofar as, on the request of the
above-mentioned ‘Religionsgesellschaft’ such property shall be
recognized by the Reich lieutenant as non-Polish property.’ In
virtue of this decree practically all the goods of the Catholic
Church in the ‘Warthegau’ were lost.”

Now I pass to Page 7, the second full paragraph:

“If we pass from the ‘Warthegau’ to the other territories in the
East, we unfortunately find there, too, acts and measures
against the rights of the Church and of the Catholic faithful,
though they vary in gravity and extension from one place to
another.

“In the provinces which were declared annexed to the German
Reich and joined up with the Gaue of East Prussia, of Danzig
West Prussia and of Upper Silesia, the situation is very like
that described above in regard to seminaries, the use of the
Polish mother-tongue in sacred functions, charitable works,
associations of Catholic Action, the separation of the faithful
according to nationality. There, too, one must deplore the
closing of churches to public worship, the exile, deportation,
the violent death of not a few of the clergy (reduced by
two-thirds in the diocese of Culma and by at least a third in
the diocese of Katowice), the suppression of religious
instruction in the schools, and above all the complete
suppression in fact of the Episcopate. Actually, after the
Bishop of Culma, who had left during the military operations,
had been refused permission to return to his diocese, there
followed in February 1941 the expulsion of the Bishop of Plock
and his auxiliary, who both died later in captivity; the Bishop,
the venerable octogenarian Monseigneur Julian Anthony
Nowowiejski, died at Dzialdowo on May 28th, 1941, and the
auxiliary, Monseigneur Leo Wetmanski, ‘in a transit camp’ on
October 10th of the same year.

“In the territory called the ‘Generalgouvernement,’ as in the
Polish provinces which had been occupied by Soviet troops in the
period between September 1939 and June 1941, the religious
situation is such as to cause the Holy See lively apprehension
and serious preoccupation. Without pausing to describe the
treatment meted out in many cases to the clergy (priests
imprisoned, deported, and even put to death), the confiscation
of ecclesiastical property, the closing of churches, the
suppression even of associations and publications of simply and
exclusively religious character, the closing of the Catholic
secondary and higher schools and of the Catholic University of
Lublin, let it suffice to recall two series of specially grave
measures: those which affect the seminaries and those which
weigh on the Episcopate.

“When the buildings of the various seminaries had been
completely or in part occupied, the intention for some time
(November 1940-February 1941) was to reduce these institutions
for the training of priests to two—those of Kraków and
Sandomierz; then the others were permitted to reopen, but only
on condition that no new students were admitted, which in
practice inevitably means that all these institutions will soon
be closed.”

I skip one paragraph here.

“Mention has several times been made of ecclesiastics deported
or confined in concentration camps. The majority of them were
transferred to the Altreich, where their number already exceeds
a thousand.”

THE PRESIDENT: What was the “Altreich”?

COL. WHEELER: The Altreich is the Old Reich of Germany.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COL. WHEELER: “When the Holy See asked that they should be
liberated and be permitted to emigrate to neutral countries of
Europe or America (1940), the petition was refused; it was only
promised that they should all be collected in the concentration
camp at Dachau, that they should be dispensed from too hard
labor, and that some should be permitted to say Mass, which the
others could hear.

“The treatment of the ecclesiastics interned at Dachau, which,
for a certain time in 1941 was in fact somewhat mitigated,
worsened again at the end of that year. Particularly sorrowful
were the announcements which for many months in 1942 came from
that camp of the frequent deaths of priests, even of some young
priests among them.”

I pass by two paragraphs.

“Polish Catholics are not allowed to contract marriage in the
territory of the Altreich; just as requests for religious
instruction or instruction in preparation for confession and
Holy Communion for the children of these workers are, in
principle, not accepted.”

What happened to complaints—even from the Vatican—as to religious affairs in the overrun territories is disclosed in Document Number 3266-PS, Exhibit Number USA-573, which I now offer in evidence. This is a letter from the Cardinal Archbishop of Breslau to the Papal Secretary of State, dated December 7, 1942. It bears a Vatican authentication similar to those already read.

This letter lays at the door of the Party Chancellery the responsibility for determining the policy and exercising final authority on religious questions in the occupied territories. I quote from Page 1, the first paragraph of this letter, and remind the Court that the Defendant Bormann was at that time Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery and that the Defendant Kaltenbrunner was the Chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, the RSHA. I quote from Document 3266-PS, beginning with the sixth line:

“About some of the gravest injuries inflicted on the Church, I
not only protested on each occasion as the individual incident
occurred, but I also made a most formal protest about them _in
globo_ in a document which, as spokesman of the Hierarchy, I
sent to the supreme ruler of the State and to the ministries of
the Reich on December 10th, 1941. Not a word by way of answer
has been sent to us.

“Your Eminence knows very well the greatest difficulty in the
way of opening negotiations comes from the overruling authority
which the ‘National Socialist Party Chancery’ exercises in
relation to the Chancery of the Reich and to the single Reich
ministries. This ‘Parteikanzlei’ directs the course to be
followed by the State, whereas the ministries and the
Chancellery of the Reich are obliged and compelled to adjust
their decrees to these directions. Besides, there is the fact
that the ‘supreme office for the security of the Reich,’ called
the ‘Reichssicherheitshauptamt’ enjoys an authority which
precludes all legal action and all appeals. Under it are the
‘secret offices for public security,’ called ‘Geheime
Staatspolizei’ (a title shortened usually to Gestapo), of which
there is one for each province. Against the decrees of this
central office and of the secret offices there is no appeal
through the courts, and no complaint made to the ministries has
any effect. Not infrequently the councillors of the ministries
suggest that they have not been able to do as they would wish to
because of the opposition of these Party offices. As far as the
executive power is concerned, the organization called the SS,
that is, ‘The Schutzstaffeln der Partei,’ is in practice
supreme. . . .

“On a number of very grave and fundamental issues we have also
presented our complaints to the supreme leader of the Reich, the
Führer. Either no answer is given, or it is apparently edited by
the above-mentioned Party Chancery, which does not consider
itself bound by the Concordat made with the Holy See.”

I now offer in evidence Document Number 3279-PS, Exhibit Number USA-574. This is an excerpt from Charge Number 17 against the Defendant Hans Frank, Governor General of Poland, entitled, “Maltreatment and Persecution of the Catholic Clergy in the Western Provinces,” submitted by the Polish Government under the terms of Article 21 of the Four-Power-Agreement of August 8, 1945. This gives further figures indicating the extent of the persecution of priests. I quote:

“The extract attached hereto and dealing with the ‘General
Conditions and Results of the Persecution’ is taken from the
text of Charge 17, Page 5, Paragraph IV, of the Polish
Government against the defendants named in the Indictment before
the International Military Tribunal, subject: ‘Maltreatment and
Persecution of the Catholic Clergy in the Incorporated Western
Provinces of Poland.’ It is a true translation into English of
the original Polish.

“It is submitted herewith to the International Military Tribunal
in accordance with Article 21 of the Charter of the Court.”

Signed: “Dr. Tadeusz Cyprian, Polish Deputy Representative on
the United Nations War Crimes Commission in London, signing on
behalf of the Polish Government and of the Main Commission for
Investigation of German War Crimes in Poland, whose seal I
hereby attach.”

THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think you need read such certificates as that.

COL. WHEELER: This is the only one, Sir, that I have. I now read from this extract:

“General Conditions and Results of the Persecution:

“11. The general situation of the clergy in the Archdiocese of
Poznan in the beginning of April 1940 is summarized in the
following words of Cardinal Hlond’s second report:

“Five priests shot; 27 priests confined in harsh concentration
camps at Stutthof and in other camps; 190 priests in prison or
in concentration camps at Bruczkow, Chludowo, Goruszki,
Kazimierz, Biskupi, Lad, Lubin, and Puszczykowo; 35 priests
seriously ill in consequence of ill-treatment; 122 parishes
entirely left without priests.

“12. In the Diocese of Chelmno, where about 650 priests were
installed before the war, only 3 percent were allowed to stay,
the 97 percent of them were imprisoned, executed, or put into
concentration camps.

“13. By January 1941 about 700 priests were killed, 3,000 were
in prison or concentration camps.”

I refer also to Document Number 3268(a)-PS, Exhibit Number USA-356, excerpts from the allocution of Pope Pius XII to the Sacred College June 2, 1945, which has already been introduced into evidence and read from extensively. I shall not read from that again. This gives some very revealing figures concerning the priests and lay brothers confined in the concentration camp at Dachau.

The Tribunal will recall, from the previous reading of this document, the imprisonment of 2,800 priests and lay brothers in Dachau alone from 1940 to 1945, of whom all but about 800 were dead by April 1945, including an auxiliary bishop.

This document presents a forceful summary of the principal steps in the struggle of the Nazi conspirators against the Catholic Church.

In summation the Prosecution submits that the evidence presented to the Court proves that the attempted suppression of the Christian churches in Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland was an integral part of the defendants’ conspiracy to eliminate internal opposition and otherwise to prepare for and wage aggressive war and shows the same conspiratorial pattern as their other War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.

COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, before we present the subject of individual defendants, by agreement with our British colleagues, Major Elwyn Jones will now present a brief subject entitled, “Aggression as a Basic Nazi Idea.”

MAJOR F. ELWYN JONES (Junior Counsel for the United Kingdom): May it please the Tribunal, it is now my duty to draw to the Tribunal’s attention a document which became the statement of faith of these defendants. I refer to Hitler’s _Mein Kampf_. It is perhaps appropriate that this should be considered at this stage of the Trial just before the Prosecution presents to the Tribunal the evidence against the individual defendants under Counts One and Two of the Indictment, for this book, _Mein Kampf_, gave to the defendants adequate foreknowledge of the unlawful aims of the Nazi leadership. It was not only Hitler’s political testament; by adoption it became theirs.

This book, _Mein Kampf_, might be described as the blueprint of Nazi aggression. Its whole tenor and content enforce the Prosecution’s submission that the Nazi pursuit of aggressive designs was no mere accident arising out of the immediate political situation in Europe and the world which existed during the period of Nazi power. _Mein Kampf_ establishes unequivocally that the use of aggressive war to serve their aims in foreign policy was part of the very creed of the Nazi Party.

A great German philosopher has said that “ideas have hands and feet.” It became the deliberate aim of these defendants to see to it that the ideas, doctrines, and policies of _Mein Kampf_ should become the active faith and guide for action of the German nation, and particularly of its malleable youth.

As my American colleagues have already submitted to the Tribunal, from 1933 to 1939 an extensive indoctrination in the ideas of _Mein Kampf_ was pursued in the schools and universities of Germany, as well as in the Hitler Youth under the direction of the Defendant Baldur von Schirach and in the SA and SS and amongst the German population as a whole by the agency of the Defendant Rosenberg.

A copy of this book _Mein Kampf_ was officially presented to all newly married couples in Germany, and I now hand to the Tribunal such a wedding present from the Nazis to the newlyweds of Germany and for the purposes of the record it will be Exhibit GB-128 (Document Number D-660). The Tribunal will see that the dedication on the flyleaf of that copy reads:

“To the newly-married couple, Friedrich Rosebrock and Else née
zum Beck, with best wishes for a happy and blessed marriage.
Presented by the Communal Administration on the occasion of
their marriage on the 14th of November 1940. For the Mayor, the
Registrar.”