Chapter XVII: Part I: , Page 777, our Document Number 3301-PS, found at Page 107 of the (2)

As a result of this conference a series of anti-Jewish decrees and measures were issued and adopted by the Nazi conspirators. I offer in evidence Document 069-PS, Exhibit USA-589. This is a decree of Bormann, dated 17 January 1939, in which Bormann demands compliance with the new anti-Jewish regulations stemming and flowing from the Göring conference just referred to, under which Jews were denied access to housing, travel, and other facilities of ordinary life. I quote the Bormann order, which appears at Page 1 of the English translation of Document 069-PS, which reads as follows:

“According to a report of General Field Marshal Göring, the
Führer has made some basic decisions regarding the Jewish
question. The decisions are brought to your attention in the
enclosure. Strict compliance with these directives is
requested.”—Signed—“Bormann.”

In the interests of expediting the proceedings, I shall resist the temptation to quote extensively from the enclosed order in Bormann’s letter of transmittal. In effect, the crux of it is that Jews are denied sleeping compartments in trains, the right to give their trade to certain hotels in Berlin, Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg, and the like. They are banned and excluded from swimming pools, certain public squares, resort towns, mineral baths, and the like. The stigma, the degradation, and the inconvenience in the ordinary affairs of life promoted by this decree are plain.

I next request the Tribunal to notice judicially the decree of 12 November 1938, 1938 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 1580 (Document JN-6), quite familiar to this Tribunal, for it was the decree which excluded Jews from economic life. This decree forbade Jews to operate retail shops, and it was a decree which went far to eliminate Jews from economic life.

Now Bormann also acted through other state agencies to wipe out the economic existence of large sections of the Jewish population. In that respect I request the Tribunal to notice judicially the authoritative Nazi publication entitled _Decrees of the Deputy of the Führer_, edition of 1937, our Document 3240-PS. At Page 383 of this publication there appears a decree of the Defendant Bormann, dated 8 January 1937, reproducing an order of the Defendant Frick, issued at Bormann’s instigation, denying financial assistance to government employees who employed the services of Jewish doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, morticians, and other professional classes. I shall forbear from quoting the text of that decree. Its substance is as given.

If it please the Tribunal, for the benefit of the translators I shall continue reading from Page 25 of the manuscript.

After the outbreak of war the anti-Jewish measures increased in intensity and brutality. Thus, the Defendant Bormann participated in the arrangements for the deportation to Poland of 60,000 Jewish inhabitants of Vienna, in co-operation with the SS and the Gestapo. I have no doubt that the Tribunal received this document in connection with the case against Von Schirach; it is our Document 1950-PS, and on its face it points out, and Lammers says: Bormann has informed Von Schirach of your proposal to bring about the deportations. I limit myself to pointing out that single, solitary fact.

When Bormann succeeded the Defendant Hess as Chief of the Party Chancellery, he used his vast powers in such a way that he was a prime mover in the program of starvation, degradation, spoliation, and extermination of the Jews—and we use those terms advisedly—subject to the Draconian rule of the conspirators.

I request the Tribunal to notice judicially the decree of 31 May 1941, 1941 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 297, which was signed by the Defendant Bormann and which extends the discriminatory Nuremberg laws into the annexed Eastern territories. I request the Tribunal to notice judicially the 11th ordinance under the Reich citizenship law of 25 November 1941, 1941 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 722, signed by Defendant Bormann, which ordered the confiscation of the property of all Jews who had left Germany or who had been deported.

I request the Tribunal to notice judicially an order of Bormann’s dated 23 October 1941. . .

THE PRESIDENT: You have not given us the PS numbers of either the decree of 31 of May 1941 or the one after that.

LT. LAMBERT: I confess dereliction of duty there. These decrees, in translated form, are all in the document book. I do not have, in my manuscript, their PS citation. However, in the brief now filed with or soon to be delivered to the Tribunal, these decrees are given with their PS numbers opposite.

THE PRESIDENT: 3354-PS and 3241-PS.

LT. LAMBERT: That is very good of you, Sir. Thank you.

I request the Tribunal to notice judicially an order of the Defendant Bormann, dated 23 October 1942, Volume II of the publication _Decrees, Regulations, Announcements_, Page 147. This is our document, I rejoice to be able to say, 3243-PS, which announces a Ministry of Food decree, issued at Bormann’s instigation, which deprived Jews of many essential food items, all special sickness and pregnancy rations for expectant mothers and ordered confiscation of food parcels sent to the beleaguered Jews from the sympathetic outside world.

I now request the Tribunal to notice judicially the 13th ordinance under the Reich citizenship law of 1 July 1943, 1943 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, Page 372, signed by the Defendant Bormann, under which all Jews were completely withdrawn from the protection of the ordinary courts and handed over to the exclusive jurisdiction of Himmler’s police. This is our Document 1422-PS.

With leave of the Tribunal, we respectfully request the opportunity to underline the significance of that decree. In a society which desires to live under the rule of law, men are judged only after appearance before, and adjudication by, a court of law. The effect of this decree was to remove all alleged Jewish offenders from the jurisdiction of the courts of law and to turn them over to the police. The police were to have jurisdiction over alleged Jewish offenders, not the tribunal of law.

The result of this law was soon forthcoming, a result for which the Defendant Bormann shares the responsibility. On July 3, 1943, Himmler issued a decree, our Document 3085-PS, 1943 _Ministry of Interior Gazette_, Page 1085. I respectfully request the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this decree, which charged the Himmler police and Gestapo with the execution of the foregoing ordinance closing the courts to the Jews and entrusting them to Himmler’s police.

Finally, with respect to Bormann’s responsibility for the persecution of the Jews, I request the Tribunal to notice judicially a decree of Bormann’s, dated 9 October 1942, Volume II, _Decrees, Regulations, Announcements_, Pages 131, 132. It declared that the problem of eliminating forever millions of Jews from Greater German territory could no longer be solved by emigration merely, but only by the application of ruthless force in special camps in the East.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What are you referring to there?

LT. LAMBERT: That, Sir, is Document 3244-PS.

We had desired at the outset, Sir, to quote this decree in full as an irrefutable answer to a question put by Defense Counsel some days ago in cross-examination, as to whether or not anti-Semitic policies of the conspirators were the policies merely of certain demented or deviational members of the conspiracy and not the concerted, settled policy of the conspiracy itself. Time does not permit the full quotation of this decree, but with the indulgence of the Tribunal, if I may offer the essence of this decree in a brief sentence or two.

Bormann starts out in this decree by saying: Recently rumors have been stimulated throughout the Reich as to “‘violent things’ we are doing with respect to the Jews.” These rumors are being brought back to the Reich by our returning soldiers who have eye-witnessed them in the East. If we are to combat the effect of these rumors, then our attitude, as I now outline it to you officially, must be communicated to the German civil population. Bormann then reviews what he terms “the two-thousand-year-old struggle against Judaism,” and he divides the Party’s program into two spheres: the first, the effort of the Party and the conspirators to excommunicate and expel the Jews from the economic and social life of Germany. Then he adds: When we started rolling with our war, this measure by itself was not enough; we had to resort to forced emigration and set up our camps in the East. He then goes on to say that: As our armies have advanced in the East, we have overrun the lands to which we have sent the Jews, and now these emigration measures, our second proposal, are no longer sufficient.

Then he comes to the proposal, the considered proposal of himself and the Party Chancellery: We must transport these Jews eastward and farther eastward and place them in special camps for forced labor. I quote now merely the last sentence of Bormann’s decree:

“It lies in the very nature of the matter that these problems,
which in part are very difficult, can be solved only with
ruthless severity in the interest of the final security of our
people.”—Bormann.

With leave of the Tribunal, I come now to deal. . .

THE PRESIDENT: Is it signed by Bormann? It does not appear to be. I thought you said, “Bormann.”

LT. LAMBERT: That is what I said, true, Sir.

If the Tribunal will refer, as it has, to Document 3244-PS, it is clear that this is a Bormann decree, issued from the Office of the Deputy to the Führer. It is true in this translation of the decree, Sir, Bormann’s name is not affixed; but in the original volume it is very clear that this is a decree of Bormann’s, issued from the Party Chancellery. The Prosecution so assures the Tribunal and accepts responsibility for that submission.

With leave of the Tribunal, I now come to deal with the responsibility of the Defendant Bormann for overt acts, for the commission and planning of a wide variety of crimes in furtherance of the conspiracy. The Tribunal knows the vast powers that Bormann possessed; that has already been put in evidence. Our point is that he used these vast powers, buttressed by his position as secretary to the Führer attending all the conferences at the Führer’s headquarters, in the planning, the authorization, and the participation in overt acts denominated War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity.

The attention of the Tribunal is invited to Document L-221, previously put in as Exhibit USA-317. The Tribunal knows that this document is a comprehensive report, dated 16 July 1941, made by the Defendant Bormann just 3 weeks after the invasion of the territory of the Soviet Union by Germany. It is a report of a 20-hour conference at Hitler’s field headquarters with the Defendants Göring, Rosenberg, Keitel, and with Reich Minister Lammers. This conference resulted in the adoption of detailed plans and directives for the enslavement, depopulation, Germanization, and annexation of extensive territories in the Soviet Union and other countries of eastern Europe.

In his report on this conference, set forth in Document L-221, Bormann included numerous proposals of his own for the execution of these plans.

Later the Defendant Bormann took a prominent part in implementing the conspiratorial program. The attention of the Tribunal is invited to Document 072-PS, previously put in as Exhibit USA-357. The Tribunal will recall that this is a letter from the Defendant Bormann to the Defendant Rosenberg, dated 19 April 1941, dealing with the confiscation of cultural property in the East. I quote merely the last two paragraphs of the English translation of Document 072-PS, which reads as follows:

“The Führer emphasized that in the Balkans the use of your
experts”—I parenthetically insert that that is the experts of
the Einsatzstab Rosenberg organization, the plundering
organization—“the use of your experts would not be necessary,
since there were no art objects to be confiscated. In Belgrade,
only the collection of Prince Paul existed, which would be
returned to him completely. The remaining material of the
lodges, _et cetera_, would be seized by the men of SS
Gruppenführer Heydrich.

“The libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in
the Reich were to remain for the time being in these
monasteries, insofar as the Gauleiter had not determined
otherwise. After the war, a careful examination of the stock
could be undertaken. Under no circumstances, however, should a
centralization of all the libraries be undertaken
. . . .”—Signed—“Bormann.”

I now offer in evidence Document 061-PS, Exhibit USA-692. This is a secret letter from Bormann, dated 11 January 1944, in which Bormann discloses—and we stress this, very important as it seems to us—the existence of large-scale operations to drain off commodities from German-occupied Europe for delivery to the bombed-out population in Germany. The Tribunal knows that the Hague Regulations and the laws of war permit the requisitioning of goods and services only for the use of the Army of Occupation and for the needs of the administration of the area. This proposal and this action represent the requisitioning of materials in occupied areas for the use of the folk at home—of the home front.

I now quote the first two paragraphs of the English translation—Bormann’s letter of 11 January 1944, set forth in the English translation of our Document 061-PS, which reads as follows:

“Since the supply of textiles and household goods for the bombed
population is becoming increasingly difficult, the proposition
was made repeatedly to effect purchases in the occupied
territories in greater proportions. Various Gauleiter proposed
to let these purchases be handled by suitable private merchants
who know these districts and have corresponding connections.

“I have brought these proposals to the attention of the Reich
Minister of Economics and am quoting his reply of 16 December
1943 on account of its fundamental importance:

“‘I consider it an especially important task to make use of the
economic power of the occupied territories for the Reich. You
are aware of the fact that, since the occupation of the Western
territories, the buying out of these countries has been effected
to the greatest extent possible. Raw materials, semi-finished
products, and stocks in finished goods have been rolling into
Germany for months; valuable machines were sent to our armaments
industry. Everything was done at that time to increase our
armament potentialities. Later on, the shipments of these
important economic goods were replaced by the so-called transfer
of orders from industry to industry.’”

I shall end the quotation there. The rest is not material to the point.

In the course of the war—and this is of utmost importance in the view of the Prosecution. . .

THE PRESIDENT: Is it clear that that was confiscation?

LT. LAMBERT: It was not suggested, Sir, that this was confiscation. Our point was that the Hague regulations allow requisitions in return for payment only for the needs of the army of occupation and for the needs of administration of the occupied area. This represents, as it seems to us, a requisitioning program for the needs of the home front. It is on that point that we offer it.

We come now to what the Prosecution considers a most important point against the Defendant Bormann. In the course of the war Bormann issued a series of orders establishing Party jurisdiction over the treatment of prisoners of war, especially when employed as forced labor.

The Tribunal knows that, under the Geneva Convention of 1929 relating to prisoners of war, prisoners of war are the captives, not of the troops who take them or even of the army which captures them, but of the capturing power; and it is the capturing power which has jurisdiction over and responsibility for them.

By the series of decrees now to be put in, Bormann asserts and establishes Nazi Party jurisdiction over Allied prisoners of war. In the exercise of that Party jurisdiction he called for excessively harsh and brutal treatment of Allied prisoners of war.

I now offer in evidence Document 232-PS as Exhibit USA-693. This is a decree of the Defendant Bormann, dated 13 September 1944, addressed—will the Tribunal please note—to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and Kreisleiter, and leaders of the Nazi affiliated organizations—numerous levels, that is, of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party—a decree establishing Nazi Party jurisdiction over the use of prisoners of war for forced labor.

I quote the first three paragraphs of Bormann’s order, set forth on Page 1 of the English translation of Document 232-PS, which reads as follows:

“The regulations valid until now on the treatment of prisoners
of war and the tasks of the guard units are no longer justified
in view of the demands of the total war effort.”

The Prosecution would intrude to ask the question: Since when do the exigencies of the war effort repeal or modify the provisions of international law?

“Therefore, the OKW, on my suggestion issued the regulation, a
copy of which is enclosed.

“The following observations are made on its contents:

“1. The understanding exists between the Chief of the Supreme
Command of the Armed Forces and myself that the co-operation of
the Party in the commitment of prisoners of war is inevitable.
Therefore, the officers assigned to the prisoner-of-war
organization have been instructed to co-operate most closely
with the Hoheitsträger. The commandants of the prisoner-of-war
camps have immediately to detail liaison officers to the
Kreisleiter.

“Thus the opportunity will be afforded the Hoheitsträger to
alleviate existing difficulties locally, to exercise influence
on the behavior of guards units”—and this is the point we
underline—“and better to assimilate the commitment of prisoners
of war to the political and economic demands.”

Will the Tribunal permit me to observe that on the face of this order, addressed to Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and Kreisleiter, and so to the officials of the Leadership Corps, in the terms of the order itself Hoheitsträger are referred to as co-operating media in this scheme.

The Tribunal has graciously given me an opportunity to observe that this decree is addressed to Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, and to the leaders of the affiliated and controlled Nazi organizations. As the Tribunal knows, within the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party the Kreisleiter is a pretty low level. That is a county leader. On the face of the decree itself the co-operation of the Hoheitsträger is directed—and the Tribunal knows, under the evidence presented against the Leadership Corps, that Hoheitsträger range all the way from the Reichsleiter on the top—down to and including the 500,000 or so Blockleiter implicated.

I next offer in evidence Document D-163 as Exhibit USA-694. This is a letter of the Defendant Bormann, dated 5 November 1941, addressed—the Tribunal will please note—to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and Kreisleiter (the last just mere county leaders), transmitting to these officials of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party the instructions of the Reich Minister of the Interior prohibiting decent burials with religious ceremonies for Russian prisoners of war. I quote the pertinent portions of these instructions, beginning with the next to the last sentence of Page 1 of the English translation of D-163, which reads as follows:

“To save costs, service departments of the Army will generally
be contacted regarding transport of corpses (furnishing of
vehicles) whenever possible. No coffins will be indented for the
transfer and burial. The body will be completely enveloped with
strong paper (if possible, oil, tar, asphalt paper) or other
suitable material. Transfer and burial is to be carried out
unobtrusively. If a number of corpses have to be disposed of,
the burial will be carried out in a communal grave. In this
case, the bodies will be buried side by side (not on top of each
other) and in accordance with the local custom regarding depth
of graves. Where a graveyard is the place of burial a distant
part will be chosen.

“No”—we repeat—“No burial ceremony or decoration of graves
will be allowed.”

I now offer in evidence Document 228-PS, Exhibit USA-695. This is a Bormann circular, dated 25 November 1943, issued from the headquarters of the Führer, demanding harsher treatment of prisoners of war and the increased exploitation of their manpower. I now quote the Bormann circular which is set forth on Page 1 of the English translation of Document 228-PS, which reads as follows:

“Individual Gau administrations often refer in reports to a too
indulgent treatment of prisoners of war on the part of the guard
personnel. In many places, according to these reports, the
guarding authorities have even developed into protectors and
caretakers of the prisoners of war.

“I informed the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces of these
reports, with the comment that the productive German working
population absolutely cannot understand it if, in a time when
the German people is fighting for existence or nonexistence,
prisoners of war—hence our enemies—are leading a better life
than the German working man and that it is an urgent duty of
every German who has to do with prisoners of war, to bring about
a complete utilization of their manpower.

“The chief of prisoner-of-war affairs in the Supreme Command of
the Armed Forces has now given the unequivocal order, attached
hereto in copy form, to the commanders of prisoners of war in
the military districts. I request that this order be brought
orally to the attention of all Party office holders in the
appropriate manner.

“In case that in the future, complaints about unsuitable
treatment of prisoners of war still come to light, they are to
be immediately communicated to the commanders of the prisoners
of war with a reference to the attached order.”

The Tribunal will note, of course, that on the face of the decree Bormann instructs that these orders be communicated orally to all Party officials and that surely must include the members of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.

THE PRESIDENT: Speaking for myself, I don’t see anything particularly wrong in that communication.

LT. LAMBERT: On that point, Sir, we submit that if you take a document which says, “We wish to utilize all the labor power of prisoners of war in our control possible and to get this result by suitable means,” probably it tends to appear unexceptional. But viewing this document in relation to the other evidence in, and to be presented, which show a concerted and settled policy by Bormann and his co-conspirators to. . .

THE PRESIDENT: Well, it isn’t necessary to argue it.

LT. LAMBERT: Yes, Sir. Thank you, Sir.

The attention of the Tribunal is invited to Document 656-PS, previously put in as Exhibit USA-339. The Tribunal will recall that this is a secret Bormann circular transmitting instructions of the Nazi High Command of 29 January 1943, providing for the enforcement of labor demands on Allied prisoners of war through the use of weapons and corporal punishment. I quote a brief excerpt from these instructions, beginning with the third sentence of the third numbered paragraph of Page 2 of the English translation of Document 656-PS, which reads as follows; and I quote:

“Should the prisoner of war not fulfill his order, then he
has”—that is the guard unit, the guard personnel—“then he has,
in the case of very exceptional need and extreme danger, the
right to force obedience with weapons, if he has no other means.
He may use the weapon insofar as this is necessary to attain his
goal. If the assistant guard is not armed, then he is authorized
in forcing obedience by other appropriate means.”

The Tribunal knows that, under the Geneva Prisoners-of-War Convention of 1929, when prisoners of war prove derelict and refuse to carry out proper orders of the captive power or its forces, such prisoners of war are subject to court-martial and military proceedings as if they were serving under their own forces. Here is a decree which, on its face, authorizes or attempts to authorize guard personnel to use the rifle or other suitable means of violence; and of course Your Lordship will understand it was this type of document we had in mind when we suggested that the decree of Bormann should be considered in the light of his other orders relating to the treatment of prisoners of war.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn now.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

LT. LAMBERT: The Tribunal will recall that at the close of the morning session I had been putting in a series of decrees of the Defendant Bormann in which he called for increasingly harsh and severe treatment of Allied prisoners of war. These instructions issued by the Defendant Bormann culminated in his decree of 30 September 1944. The attention of the Tribunal is invited to Document 058-PS, previously put in as Exhibit Number USA-456. The Tribunal will recall that this decree of the Defendant Bormann removed jurisdiction over all prisoners of war from the Nazi High Command and transferred it to Himmler. The decree also provided that all PW camp commanders should be under the orders of the local SS commanders. By virtue of this order of the Defendant Bormann, Hitler was enabled to proceed with his program of inhuman treatment and even extermination of Allied prisoners of war.

We now proceed to put in what the Prosecution conceive to be extremely important and extremely incriminating evidence against Bormann and the co-conspirators, that is, the responsibility of the Defendant Bormann for the organized lynching of Allied airmen. I offer in evidence Document 062-PS, Exhibit Number USA-696; and I very respectfully request the Tribunal to turn to this document. On its face it is an order dated 13 March 1940 from the Defendant Hess addressed to Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and other Nazi officials and organizations. In this order these Party officials are instructed by the Defendant Hess to instruct the German civil population to arrest or liquidate all bailed-out Allied fliers. I call the attention of the Tribunal to the third paragraph on the first page of the English translation of Document 062-PS. In the third paragraph Hess directs that these instructions, which I shall soon read, are to be passed out only orally to all—will the Tribunal please mark that—district leaders or Kreisleiter, Ortsgruppenleiter, cell leaders, and even the block leaders; that is to say, this order must be passed out by all the officials of the Leadership Corps to the Hoheitsträger, ranging from Reichsleiter down to, and including, the Blockleiter.

Now turn to Document 062-PS, and the Tribunal will find the instructions which Hess demanded be disseminated by the Leadership Corps orally: The lynching of Allied fliers. These directions are headed: “About behavior in case of landings of enemy planes or parachutists.” The first three instructions I omit as not material to the basic point now being made. Instruction 4 reads, and I quote: “Likewise enemy parachutists are immediately to be arrested or liquidated.”

It speaks for itself and requires no further comment from the Prosecution.

Now, in order to insure the success of this scheme ordered by the Defendant Hess, Bormann issued a secret letter, dated 30 May 1944, to the officials, if the Tribunal will please mark, of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, prohibiting any police measures or criminal proceedings against German civilians who had lynched or murdered Allied airmen. This document, our 057-PS, has been previously put in and received by the Tribunal in connection with the Prosecution’s case against the alleged criminal organization, the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party.

Now, may it please the Tribunal, that such lynchings, organized, authorized, and consented to by Defendant Bormann, actually took place has since been fully and indisputably demonstrated by trials by American military commissions which have resulted in the conviction of German civilians for the murder of Allied fliers. I request the Tribunal to take judicial notice of Military Commission Order Number 2, Headquarters 15th U. S. Army, dated 23 June 1945. This order is our Document 2559-PS. This order imposed the sentence of death upon a German civilian for violation of the laws and usages of war in murdering an American airman who had bailed out and landed without any means of defense.

The Tribunal will note from that order of the American Military Commission the 15th of August 1944 as date of crime; Bormann’s order was dated May 1944.

I request the Tribunal to notice judicially Military Commission Order Number 5, Headquarters 3rd U. S. Army and Eastern Military District, dated 18 October 1945. This order is set forth in Document 2560-PS. This order imposed a sentence of death upon a German national for violating the laws and usages of war by murdering, on or about 12 December 1944, an American airman who landed in German territory.

We could cite further orders of American and other Allied military commissions sentencing German civilians to death for the lynching and murdering of Allied airmen who had bailed out and landed without means of defense on German territory. We think our point is made by taking the time of the Tribunal to cite those two orders.

As previously mentioned in the trial address, on 20 October 1944, when Nazi defeat in the war had become certain, Bormann assumed political and organizational command of the newly-formed Volkssturm, the people’s army. By virtue of ordering the continued resistance by the Volkssturm, Bormann bears some responsibility for the resistance which prolonged the aggressive war for months.

I come now, if it please the Tribunal, to present the proofs showing that Bormann authorized, directed, and participated in a wide variety of Crimes against Humanity in aid of the conspiracy. Bormann played an important role in the administration of the forced labor program. I offer in evidence Document D-226, Exhibit Number USA-697. This is a Speer circular, a circular of the Defendant Speer of 10 November 1944, transmitting Himmler’s instructions that the Party and the Gestapo should co-operate in securing a larger productivity from the millions of impressed foreign workers in Germany. I quote the second numbered paragraph of Page 2 of the English translation of Document D-226, which reads as follows. I quote:

“All men and women of the NSDAP, its subsidiaries and affiliated
bodies in the works”—meaning of course factories—“will, in
accordance with instructions from their Kreisleiter, be warned
by their local group leaders”—we intrude to say that means
Ortsgruppenleiter—“and be put under obligation to play their
part in keeping foreigners under the most careful observation.
They will report the least suspicion to the works foreman, which
he will pass on to the defense deputy or, where such a deputy
has not been appointed, to the police department concerned,
while at the same time reporting to the works manager and the
local group leader”—the Ortsgruppenleiter—“to exert untiringly
and continuously their influence on foreigners, both in word and
deed, in regard to the certainty of German victory and the
German will to resist, thus producing a further increase of
output in the works.

“Party members, both men and women, and members of Party
organizations and affiliated bodies must be expected more than
ever before to conduct themselves in an exemplary manner.”

Now, in a word, the significance of that decree: It is true it is a circular of Speer’s reciting an arrangement between himself and Himmler, but the effect of the arrangement is to impose the onus and the continuous task of supplying foreign workers on Party members, a Party which, as the Tribunal knows, Bormann headed as executive chief.

Under the decree of 24 January 1942 no such directive could have been issued without the participation of Bormann, both in its preparation and its enactment.

I now offer in evidence Document 025-PS as Exhibit Number USA-698. This is a conference report dated 4 September 1942 which states that the recruitment, importation, mobilization, and processing of 500,000 female domestic workers from the east would be handled exclusively by the Defendant Sauckel, Himmler, and the Defendant Bormann. I quote the first two sentences of the third paragraph of the English translation of Document 025-PS, which reads as follows:

“The Führer has ordered the immediate importation of 400,000 to
500,000 female domestic eastern workers from the Ukraine between
the ages of 15 and 35 and has charged the Plenipotentiary for
Allocation of Labor with the execution of this action which is
to end in about 3 months. In connection with this—this is also
approved by Reichsleiter Bormann—the illegal bringing of female
housekeepers into the Reich by members of the Armed Forces, or
various other agencies is to be allowed subsequently and,
furthermore, irrespective of the official recruiting, is not to
be prevented.”

And I now quote from the first sentence of the last paragraph on Page 4 of the English translation of Document Number 025-PS, and this is the part that hooks in the Defendant Bormann with the scheme:

“Generally one gathered from this conference that the questions
concerning the recruitment and mobilization, as well as the
treatment of female domestic workers from the east, are being
handled by the Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor, the
Reichsführer SS, and the Chief of the German Police and the
Party Chancellery, and that the Reich Ministry for the Occupied
Eastern Territories is in these questions considered as having
no, or only limited, competence.”

The Party Chancellery is here mentioned in terms, and Bormann was the leader of the Party Chancellery, as the Tribunal knows.

Now the defendant imposed his will on the administration of the German-occupied areas and insisted on the ruthless exploitation of the inhabitants of the occupied East. The attention of the Tribunal is respectfully invited to Document R-36, previously put in as Exhibit Number USA-344. The Tribunal is well acquainted with this document, for it has been referred to several times in these proceedings, and knows that this is an official memorandum of the Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories, dated 19 August 1942, which states that the repressive views of the Defendant Bormann with respect to the inhabitants of the Eastern areas actually determined German occupational policies in the East. The Tribunal recalls the now almost notorious quotation from this Document R-36, which purports to paraphrase and constitute the essence of Bormann’s views with respect to German occupational policy in the East. So often has it been quoted that I shall resist the temptation to repeat it, but in essence it comes to this. Bormann in effect says:

“The Slavs are to work for us. In so far as we don’t need them,
they may die. They should not receive the benefits of the German
public health system. We do not care about their fertility. They
may practice abortion and use contraceptives; the more the
better. We don’t want them educated; it is enough if they can
count up to 100. Such stooges will be the more useful to us.
Religion we leave to them as a diversion. As to food, they will
not get any more than is absolutely necessary. We are the
masters; we come first.”

We respectfully submit this as an accurate paraphrase and summary of the text of that document, Document R-36.

The attention of the Tribunal is next respectfully invited to Document 654-PS, previously put in as Exhibit Number USA-218. The Tribunal will recall that this is a conference report, dated 18 November 1942, embodying an agreement between the Minister of Justice and Himmler entered into by Bormann’s suggestion under which all inhabitants of the Eastern occupied areas are subjected to a brutal police regime in the place of an ordinary judicial system. And the agreement refers all disputes between the Party, Reich Minister for Justice, and Himmler to Bormann for settlement.

Now, because Bormann issued these and related orders, we submit that he bears a large share of the responsibility for the discriminatory treatment and the extermination of great numbers of persons in German-occupied areas of the East.

With the indulgence of the Tribunal, I put the substance of what I have been privileged to present in a few words. We have shown that Bormann, only 45 years old at the time of Germany’s defeat, contributed his entire adult life to the furtherance of the conspiracy. His crucial contribution to the conspiracy lay in his direction of the vast powers of the Nazi Party in advancing the multiple objectives of the conspiracy. First, as Chief of Staff to the Defendant Hess and then, as leader, in his own name, of the Party Chancellery, subject only to Hitler’s supreme authority, he applied and directed the total power of the Party and its agencies to carry into execution the plans of the conspirators. He used his great powers to persecute the Christian Church and clergy and was an unrepentant foe of the fundamentals of the Christianity with which he warred.

He actively authorized and participated in measures designed to persecute the Jews, and his was a strong hand in pressing down the crown of thorns of misery on the brow of the Jewish people, both in Germany and in German-occupied Europe.

As Chief of the Party Chancellery and secretary to the Führer, Bormann authorized, directed, and participated in a wide variety of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, including, without limitation, the lynching of Allied airmen, the enslavement and inhuman treatment of the inhabitants of German-occupied Europe, the cruelty of impressed labor, the breaking up of homes contrary to the clear provisions of the Hague regulations, and the planned persecution and extermination of the civil population of Eastern Europe.

May it please this Tribunal, every schoolboy knows that Hitler was an evil man. The point we respectfully emphasize is that without chieftains like Bormann, Hitler would never have been able to seize and consolidate total power in Germany, but he would have been left to walk the wilderness alone.

He was, in truth, an evil archangel to the Lucifer of Hitler; and, although he may remain a fugitive from the justice of this Tribunal, with an empty chair in the dock, Bormann cannot escape responsibility for his illegal conduct.

And we close with what seems to us an extremely important point. Bormann may not be here, but under the last sentence of Article VI of the Charter every defendant in this dock shown in our evidence to have been a leader, an organizer, an inciter, and an accomplice of this conspiracy is responsible for the acts of all persons in furtherance of the general scope of the conspiracy. And resting squarely on this proposition we submit, even though Bormann is not here, that every man in the dock shares responsibility for his criminal acts. And with this we close. The name of Bormann is not “written in water,” but will be remembered as long as the Record of Your Honors’ Tribunal is preserved.

I now have the privilege of introducing Lieutenant Henry Atherton, who will present the case for the Prosecution against the individual Defendant Seyss-Inquart.

LIEUTENANT HENRY K. ATHERTON (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United States): May it please the Tribunal, the Prosecution has prepared a trial brief for the convenience of the Tribunal showing the individual responsibility of the Defendant Seyss-Inquart. Copies of this brief are now being handed to the Tribunal. At the same time the document books which bear the letters “KK” and which contain translations of the evidence referred to in the brief, or to be introduced in evidence at this time, are also being handed to the Tribunal. At the outset I wish to make clear my intention to deal at this time only with the individual responsibility of Seyss-Inquart for the crimes charged in Counts One and Two of the Indictment. Evidence to show his guilt as charged under Counts Three and Four of the Indictment, that is, evidence specifically directed thereunto, is to be introduced later by the prosecutors of the French Republic and the Soviet Union.

Seyss-Inquart has agreed that he held the following positions in State and Party, and I am referring now to Document 2910-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-17. He was State Councillor of Austria from May 1937 to 12 February 1938. He was Minister of [the] Interior and Security of Austria from 16 February 1938 to 11 March 1938; Chancellor of Austria from 11 March to 15 March 1938; Reich Governor of Austria from 15 March 1938 to 1 May 1939; Reich Minister without Portfolio from 1 May 1939 until September of that year; member of the Reich Cabinet from 1 May 1939 until the end of the war; Chief of the Civil Administration of South Poland from the early part of September 1939 until 12 October 1939; Deputy Governor General of Poland under the Defendant Frank from 12 October 1939 until May 1940; and, finally, Reich Commissioner of the Occupied Territories of the Netherlands from 29 May 1940 until the end of the war. He has also agreed that he became a member of the National Socialist Party on 13 March 1938 and that he was appointed a general in the SS 2 days later.

Now this list of positions which Seyss-Inquart has agreed that he held, if the Tribunal please, shows the place which he held in the Nazi Common Plan or Conspiracy. It shows his steady rise to greater influence and power, and especially it emphasizes his particular talent, his skill in effecting the enslavement of the smaller nations surrounding Germany for the benefit of what he called the Greater German Reich.

Now the Defendant Seyss-Inquart first became a member of the Nazi conspiracy in connection with the Nazi assault on Austria. Mr. Alderman has shown how the Nazis implemented their diplomatic and military preparations for this event by intensive political preparations within Austria.

The ultimate purpose of these preparations was to secure the appointment of Nazis, or persons known to be sympathetic to them, to key positions in the Austrian Government, particularly that of Minister of the Interior and Security, which controlled the police, thus permitting quick suppression of all opposition to the Nazis when the time came.

For this purpose Seyss-Inquart was a most effective tool, the first of the so-called Quislings or traitors used by the Nazis to further their aggressions and to fasten their hold on their victims. Seyss-Inquart has admitted his membership in the Party only from 13 March 1938, but I want to show that he was closely affiliated with them at a much earlier time. For this purpose I now offer in evidence Document 3271-PS as Exhibit Number USA-700.

Reading from Page 9 of the translation, he says in this letter, which is a letter to Himmler, dated 19 August 1939:

“As far as my membership in the Party is concerned, I state that
I was never asked to join the Party but had asked Dr. Kier in
December 1931 to clarify my relationship with the Party, since I
regarded the Party as the basis for the solution of the Austrian
problem . . . I paid my membership fees and, as I believe,
directly to the Gau Vienna. These contributions also took place
after the period of suppression. Later on I had direct contact
with the Ortsgruppe in Dornbach. My wife paid these fees, but
the Blockwart”—and I believe that is another word for
Blockleiter—“was never in doubt, considering that this amount,
40 shillings per month, was a share for my wife and myself, and
I was in every respect treated as a Party member.”

Seyss-Inquart, in the last sentence of the paragraph says:

“In every way, therefore, I felt as a Party member, considered
myself a Party member, thus, as stated, as far back as December
1931.”

Now, if the Tribunal please, and before I leave this letter, I want just to refer to one or two sentences which the Tribunal will find in the third paragraph on Page 7 of the translation. Referring to a meeting which he had had with Hitler, Seyss-Inquart says:

“I left this discussion a very upright man with the unspeakably
happy feeling of being permitted to be a tool of the Führer.”

The truth of the matter is that Seyss-Inquart was an active supporter of the Nazis at all times after 1931. But after the Nazi Party in Austria was declared illegal in July 1934, he avoided too notorious a connection with the Nazi organization, in order to safeguard what the Nazis called his good legal position. By this device he was better able to use his connections with Catholics and others in his work of infiltration for his Nazi superiors.

The Tribunal will remember, as Document 2219-PS, Exhibit Number USA-62, a letter from Seyss-Inquart to Göring of 14 July 1939, in which Seyss-Inquart makes this clear. It was in this letter also that he said:

“Yet, I know that I cling with unconquerable tenacity to the
goal in which I believe; that is Greater Germany and the
Führer.”

The evidence which Mr. Alderman introduced told in detail the manner in which the Nazi conspirators carried out their assault on Austria. I do not intend to attempt to review any part of this evidence. I merely wish to refer the Tribunal to two documents which are particularly important in showing the part played by this defendant. I refer to the Rainer report to Gauleiter Bürckel, dated 6 July 1939, which relates the part played by the Austrian Nazi Party, the Defendant Seyss-Inquart and others between July 1934 and March 1938; and the astonishing record of telephone calls between the Defendant Göring or his agents in Berlin and Seyss-Inquart and others in Vienna on 11 March 1938. The Rainer report is Document 812-PS, Exhibit Number USA-61, and was read into the Record beginning at Page 502 (Volume II, Page 370) of the English version and continuing for a number of pages thereafter. The transcript of the telephone calls is Document 2949-PS, Exhibit Number USA-76, and was introduced first at Page 566 (Volume II, Page 414) of the English Record.

Now, in order to supplement this and further to show that part played by Seyss-Inquart, I wish now to introduce in evidence the voluntary statement which Seyss-Inquart signed with advice of his counsel on 10 December 1945. This is Document 3425-PS, and I offer it as Exhibit Number USA-701.

In this statement Seyss-Inquart explains, from his point of view, his part in bringing about the Anschluss. I want to read first just a few sentences from the second paragraph on the first page. It states, and I quote:

“In 1918 I became interested in the Anschluss of Austria with
Germany. From that year on I worked, planned, and collaborated
with others of a like mind to bring about a union of Austria
with Germany. It was my desire to effect this union of the two
countries in an evolutionary manner, and by legal means.”

Skipping just a sentence or two:

“I supported also the National Socialist Party as long as it was
legal, because it declared itself with particular determination
in favor of the Anschluss. From 1932 onwards I made financial
contributions to this Party, but I discontinued financial
support when it was declared illegal in 1934.”

Then skipping down another couple of sentences:

“From July 1936 onwards I endeavored to help the National
Socialists to regain their legal status and, finally, to
participate in the Austrian Government. During this time,
particularly after the Party was forbidden in July 1934, I knew
that the radical element of the Party was engaged in terroristic
activities, such as attacks on railroads, bridges, telephone
communications, et cetera. I knew that the governments of both
Chancellors, Dollfuss and Schuschnigg, although they held in
principle the same total German viewpoint were opposed to the
Anschluss then because of the National Socialist regime in the
Reich. I was sympathetic towards the efforts of the Austrian
Nazi Party to gain political power and corresponding influence,
because they were in favor of the Anschluss.”

Now, briefly summarizing, the Tribunal will note that the defendant tells how his appointment as State Councillor, in May 1937, was the result of an agreement between Austria and Germany in July 1936, and that was the agreement which Rainer agreed Seyss-Inquart had helped to bring about; that his appointment as Minister of the Interior and Security was one of the results of the agreement between Schuschnigg and Hitler at Berchtesgaden, 12 February 1938. And he admits that after the appointment and the agreement the Austrian National Socialists engaged in more and more widespread demonstrations. He tells how immediately after this appointment as Minister of the Interior and Security he went directly to Berlin and talked with Himmler and Hitler; and then, finally, he describes the events of that day, of the 11th of March 1938, when with the full support of German military power he became Chancellor.

I don’t want to quote at length from that description, because the Tribunal knows already what happened. Reading from the middle of Page 3, he says:

“At 10 o’clock in the morning Glaise-Horstenau and I went to the
office of the Bundeskanzler and conferred for about 2 hours with
Dr. Schuschnigg. We frankly told him all that we knew,
particularly about the possibility of disturbances and of
preparations by the Reich.

“The Chancellor said that he would give his decision by 1400
hours. While I was with Glaise-Horstenau and Dr. Schuschnigg, I
was repeatedly called to the telephone to speak to Göring.”

THE PRESIDENT: Has this been read already?

LT. ATHERTON: No, Sir; this document has not been in before.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

LT. ATHERTON: “He informed . . . me that the agreement of 12
February had been cancelled and demanded Dr. Schuschnigg’s
resignation and my appointment as Chancellor.”

The Tribunal has heard the other side of that story, the actual telephone conversations. And then, finally, the next two paragraphs, he tells how Keppler repeatedly urged him to send a telegram calling on Germany to send troops, and that at first he refused but finally acquiesced, and I now read from the next to the last paragraph:

“As I am able to gather from the records available, I was
requested about 10 p. m. to give my sanction to another somewhat
altered telegram about which I informed President Miklas and Dr.
Schuschnigg. Finally President Miklas appointed me Chancellor,
and a little while later he approved my list of proposed
ministers.”

If the Tribunal will recall, the telegram in question called on Hitler, on behalf of the Provisional Austrian Government, to send German troops as soon as possible in order to support it in its task and help it to prevent bloodshed. The text of the telegram, as printed in Volume 6 of the _Dokumente der Deutschen Politik_, appears as Document 2463-PS of the document book. It is interesting to note that the text of this telegram is substantially identical with that dictated by Göring over the phone to Keppler on the evening of the 11th of March, which appears on Page 575 (Volume II, Page 420) of the Record.

Now, on the next morning, again referring to the statement of the defendant, he admits that he telephoned Hitler. . .

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Are you reading?

LT. ATHERTON: No, Sir; I am summarizing.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): If you don’t read it it is not in evidence.

LT. ATHERTON: In that event I will read a little further. I read now the last paragraph on Page 3:

“During the morning of the 12th of March I had a telephone
conversation with Hitler in which I suggested that, while German
troops were entering Austria, Austrian troops, as a symbol,
should march into the Reich. Hitler agreed to this suggestion
and we agreed to meet in Linz, Upper Austria, later on that same
day. I then flew to Linz with Himmler, who had arrived in Vienna
from Berlin. I greeted Hitler on the balcony of the City Hall
and said that Article 88 of the Treaty of St. Germain was now
inoperative.”

I have referred to the slavish manner in which, as the evidence has shown, Seyss-Inquart carried out orders conveyed to him by telephone from Göring on 11 March 1938 in his negotiations with Chancellor Schuschnigg and President Miklas. This relationship had in fact existed for some time. Early in January 1938, Seyss-Inquart, although he then held an important position in the Austrian Government, had already considered himself as holding a mandate from the Nazi conspirators in Berlin in his negotiations with his own Government. As evidence of the way in which this happened, I offer Document 3473-PS as Exhibit Number USA-581. This is a letter from Keppler to Göring, dated 6 January 1938, in which he states, and I quote:

“My dear Colonel General:

“Councillor of State, Dr. Seyss-Inquart, has sent a courier to
me with the report that his negotiations with the Federal
Chancellor, Dr. Schuschnigg, have run aground, so that he feels
compelled to return the mandate entrusted to him. Dr.
Seyss-Inquart desires to have a discussion with me regarding
this before he acts accordingly.

“May I ask your advice, whether at this moment such a step,
entailing automatically also the resignation of the Federal
Minister Glaise von Horstenau, appears indicated or whether I
should put forth efforts to postpone such an action.”

The letter is signed by Keppler. On top of the original is a brief note apparently attached by the secretary of the Defendant Göring and dated Karinhall, 6 January 1938, reading as follows:

“Keppler should be told by telephone:

“1) He should do everything to avoid the resignation of
Councillor of State Dr. Seyss-Inquart and State Minister Glaise
von Horstenau. If some difficulties should arise, Seyss-Inquart
should come to him first of all.”