Chapter XX: Book 1: , Mr. President (8)

Today the General Secretary’s office sent me two affidavits. One comes from the former commander of the Defense District of Scheveningen. His name is Erwin Tschoppe. He is submitting an affidavit dealing with the attitude and conduct of the defendant with respect to the evacuation of the coastal area. Because of the short time at my disposal, I have not yet been able to hand this document and the following one to the Prosecution, but I have already informed the Prosecution that these two documents exist. The second document is also...

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Steinbauer, these documents, I apprehend, have not been shown to the Prosecution?

DR. STEINBAUER: No.

THE PRESIDENT: Wait a minute; they have not been approved by the Tribunal and one question that arises is: Are they very long? Because I find that the Translation Division is being overloaded with very long documents.

DR. STEINBAUER: No, it is a short document, but it appears to me to be important, because it shows how the defendant acted during that difficult situation and how he took care of the Dutch population.

THE PRESIDENT: If it is short and if you will submit it to the Prosecution, then it can be translated and admitted subject to any objection.

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, Sir. The same applies to the following document which I also received today. It is an affidavit of Adalbert Joppich. He was President of the German Supreme Court in the Netherlands, and he makes a very brief statement about the position and the attitude of the defendant with regard to legal questions affecting the Dutch civilian population. I beg that this document should also be admitted in evidence and that I may use the same procedure of submitting a copy of the translation to the Prosecution.

THE PRESIDENT: What number did you give?

DR. STEINBAUER: The Tschoppe document will be Document Number Seyss-Inquart-112 and the Adalbert Joppich document will be Document Number Seyss-Inquart-113. Documents allowed by the Tribunal and still outstanding are affidavits by Bolle, Dr. Reuter, Völkers, and Lindhorst-Homan. The General Secretariat and I are trying to obtain these affidavits. So far it has only been possible to ascertain Bolle’s address. Finally, I request that two applications which I have made in writing should be granted; one concerns the obtaining of the defendant’s NSDAP membership card which was impounded when he was arrested, and which must be among his personal documents in the custody of the Tribunal. A few months ago I made a request to that effect, but both sides apparently lost sight of the matter.

THE PRESIDENT: Of course, you do not mean that it is in the custody of the Tribunal; you may mean that it is in the custody of the military authorities.

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes. I meant the prison administration.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, no doubt, they can reproduce it. What was the other document?

DR. STEINBAUER: Well, Mr. President, then in the cross-examination...

COL. PHILLIMORE: My Lord, I do not want to take up Your Lordship’s time, but that membership card, that could have been applied for months ago. It is on the same footing as these documents which counsel has been putting in. We have not seen them. I do not know what this card is going to prove, but it is going to be a great deal of trouble to get it here, just as these documents are giving a great deal of work to the Translation Division.

THE PRESIDENT: What is the importance of the membership card? Presumably he knows when he became a member. What relevance does the card have to this?

DR. STEINBAUER: It is of importance because according to the war crime law which has now been published in Austria, all members having a membership number above 6,500,000 will not be regarded as so-called “old fighters” or illegals. Seyss-Inquart has stated in the witness box...

THE PRESIDENT: That has nothing to do with the Tribunal. It may be relevant in some other proceeding and before some other court but not before this Court.

DR. STEINBAUER: Only insofar as the Prosecution had alleged that he had been a member of the NSDAP since 1931. But, of course, I am not trying to make difficulties. I only thought that the membership card might be among the belongings which were taken away from the prisoner and that one could have a look at it.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. But did he deny that he was a member since 1931?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, oh, yes. He states that he did not become a member until 13 March 1938—formally.

THE PRESIDENT: Oh, yes, formally; I remember, yes. But he had been a member of the Austrian Nazi Party very much longer, if I remember rightly.

MR. DODD: We will agree here and now, Mr. President, that that card would show that he became a member, as far as the card is concerned, on that date. I am sure that is what it will show and if it will help the doctor, we will be glad to agree to that.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

DR. STEINBAUER: The last document for which I am applying is the following: During cross-examination a document was submitted in which an 18 year-old female police clerk named Hildegard Kunze confirms that my client caused Dutch Jews to be sterilized. Seyss-Inquart maintains that he has never written to the Police directly, but that in three personal letters addressed directly to Himmler, he did object to the treatment of Jews, and that in one of his letters he mentioned sterilization. This, presumably, was the reason why the witness mentioned it and probably she gained knowledge of these facts because Himmler sent the original or copy of the letters to the Main Security Office. In connection with this important matter my client has requested me to make an attempt to have these letters which he wrote to Himmler produced in order to disprove the incriminating statement made by the witness Hildegard Kunze. I do not conceal the fact that it will probably be difficult to find these letters among the very many documents of the Main Security Office.

THE PRESIDENT: Have you made your application in writing about this?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, I have made a written application.

THE PRESIDENT: Giving the dates when the letters were written?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, everything I could ascertain regarding the dates and the addresses is contained in my application.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the Tribunal will consider that, but you understand that the work involved in this sort of thing is very great indeed.

DR. STEINBAUER: Mr. President, far be it from me to underestimate the difficulties which are connected with my application. Apart from this, I have no further application to make.

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.

[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will not sit in open session Saturday next, nor will it sit in open session on any Saturday in the future unless it gives notice that it is going to do so.

Yes, Dr. Thoma?

DR. THOMA: Mr. President, yesterday I mentioned an affidavit of Dr. Heinz Oeppert, Reichshauptstellenleiter. I have now received this affidavit, and I have also already conferred with Mr. Dodd about it.

I now beg the permission of the High Tribunal to submit this affidavit. Mr. Dodd has no objections to the submission of this affidavit.

May I read a very brief passage from this affidavit, Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Can you tell us what the affidavit is about?

DR. THOMA: Yes, Mr. President. This Dr. Oeppert had the Office of Ideological Enlightenment in the office of the Führer’s deputy for the supervision of the entire ideological and intellectual framing of the Party. Concerning this activity and this office he testified that it involved almost exclusively a reporting and registration of events in this sphere.

Any active interference in the church policy of the State or the Party would not have been possible even if they had wished it, for this office had no executive facilities of any kind. There were constantly very intense differences with the State and Party organizations which participated in this sphere of activity, that is, between the Propaganda Ministry and the Church and the SD and Party Chancellery. The suppression of certain ideological groups and sects as well as the measures taken against individual clergymen, as far as I know, were taken by the SD or the Gestapo without the knowledge or authority of this office.

I am asking the High Tribunal to take judicial notice of this document.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

DR. THOMA: Exhibit Number Rosenberg-51.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Fritz. On behalf of Fritzsche—is anyone representing Dr. Fritz?

DR. ALFRED SCHILF (Counsel for Defendant Fritzsche): Dr. Schilf for Dr. Fritz, who is absent, representing the Defendant Fritzsche.

Mr. President, Dr. Fritz applied in writing last Monday concerning two affidavits which are still outstanding, one an affidavit by the journalist—the English journalist, Clifton Delmar—and the other an affidavit by His Excellency Feldscher, then Minister of the protective power in Berlin, now in Berne. Neither of these affidavits has arrived yet, and we are asking the High Tribunal if we may submit and be allowed these documents later.

I have no further comments. No other applications have been made.

THE PRESIDENT: Have you—I did not hear the name of the second one. Was it Feldscher?

DR. SCHILF: Excellency Feldscher, Minister of the protective power. He is now at Berne in Switzerland.

THE PRESIDENT: Have these affidavits been placed before the Prosecution?

DR. SCHILF: No, Mr. President, they are not yet available. They have not arrived yet.

THE PRESIDENT: I see. Are they affidavits or interrogatories?

DR. SCHILF: They are two interrogatories, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Interrogatories, I see. Well then, when the interrogatories come back answered, they can be shown to the Prosecution if they want to put in cross-interrogatories; and then they can be translated and submitted to the Tribunal.

Dr. Schilf, there was an application—I am not sure whether it was in writing or whether it was only oral—with reference to Schörner and Voss, and one other man, whose statements were used in cross-examination by the Prosecution. I think they were affidavits, I am not sure; and there was an oral application, I think, to cross-examine those persons. Do you want that to be done, or have you withdrawn that?

DR. SCHILF: Mr. President, that application has not been withdrawn, but it was put in only as an auxiliary application, to have effect only if the interrogation notes submitted by the Russian Prosecution—it seems to me that these interrogation notes cannot be considered as affidavits, but only interrogation records of a police character.

And Dr. Fritz made application to the effect that if these three documents were to be used as documents of evidence, we cannot waive the cross-examination. These three documents were used in the examination of the Defendant Fritzsche only in part, and only short passages were submitted to the defendant in his examination. Every detail there he has...

THE PRESIDENT: What you were saying is that in case the Prosecution do not want to use the whole of these documents, but only the parts which were put to the Defendant Fritzsche in the course of cross-examination, then you do not need to have those persons, Voss and Schörner, called for cross-examination; but if the Prosecution wish to put in the whole document, then you want to cross-examine them. Is that right?

DR. SCHILF: Mr. President, that is correct.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you meaning that you are asking the Tribunal to strike out the passages in the Defendant Fritzsche’s evidence which deal with these statements or are you merely meaning that if the Prosecution wish to use, not only the parts which they have put to the defendant in cross-examination but other parts of the document, that in that event you would like to cross-examine the deponents Voss and Schörner?

DR. SCHILF: Mr. President, we only want the cross-examination to take place in case the Court should regard the three interrogation records, as a whole, as documentary evidence.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, then you do mean what I first of all put to you.

Well, perhaps the Prosecution, General Rudenko, would tell us whether he is wanting to put in the whole document or whether he has put enough of it in.

GEN. RUDENKO: Mr. President, as I have already stated to the Tribunal, when these written statements were submitted, the records of the interrogations were written down in agreement with the rules of procedure which is in existence in the Soviet Union. The Prosecution will only use those parts which were read here before the Tribunal and on which the Defendant Fritzsche was cross-examined.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well, then it is not necessary to have those witnesses brought here for cross-examination. Very well.

DR. SCHILF: Yes, indeed, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Then that brings the Tribunal to the end of the evidence for the Defense, with the exception of two witnesses who are to be—who are here and to be called on behalf of the Defendant Bormann.

DR. FLÄCHSNER: Mr. President, on behalf of the Defendant Speer may I submit in addition a document which has already been translated and is known to the Prosecution. This is the Führer protocol of 3 January 1943. This shall have the Document Number Speer-35. I had already listed it as Exhibit Number 35 in the index of the documents submitted by me which I gave the Court. Only at that time it had not yet been translated. I should like to submit it now.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly.

What I wanted to say was that that concludes the whole of the evidence on behalf of the defendants with the exception of interrogatories which have already been granted, the answers to which have not yet been received. Of course, those interrogatories, subject to their being admissible, will be admitted when the answers are received and that applies also to anything in the shape of an affidavit which has been allowed by the Tribunal; but otherwise the evidence for the defendants is now closed with the exception of Dr. Bergold.

DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, I have another question regarding the appearance for testimony of the witness Walkenhorst. In case he is not called as a witness, I have an affidavit at my disposal, which I have received; and I assume that I may submit this in case this witness is not examined here before the Court. It deals with a very brief question, namely, the telephone conversation which Sauckel had regarding the evacuation of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Walkenhorst happened to be the man at the other end of the wire. I have an affidavit on this one question.

Of course, if the witness is being questioned here in Court I shall ask him; but in case he is not examined I request that this be held open.

THE PRESIDENT: You are speaking of Walkenhorst?

DR. SERVATIUS: Yes, the witness Walkenhorst.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, he is just going to be examined now.

DR. SERVATIUS: I hope so, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: But—I believe he is here.

I have before me a list of supplementary applications but I think that they have all been dealt with in the discussion which we have had during the last 2 days. And if there is any other matter which the defendants’ counsel wish to raise they should raise it now.

Well then, I take it then, that as I said, the evidence for the Defense is now concluded, subject to the reception of documents which I may describe as outstanding, either interrogatories or affidavits.

DR. MARX: Mr. President, may I be permitted, please, to introduce three more documents with the permission of the Tribunal. They concern the following questions:

When considering what influence the paper published by Streicher exercised on the German population, it is of decisive importance to know how the circulation of this paper developed and to what circumstances the fact is to be attributed that, within a certain period of time, there was a marked increase in its circulation.

I set myself the task of determining from the mastheads of the weekly paper, _Der Stürmer_, how its circulation developed.

THE PRESIDENT: But—we have already dealt with this application. We have had the application before us and we have considered it and we have refused it.

DR. MARX: Yes, I beg your pardon, Mr. President; it concerns the following:

Quite by accident, when looking at various issues of this newspaper, I ascertained that in the year 1935 a marked jump in circulation took place and the Defense would like to prove that this increase is not to be traced to an increased demand by the German people but rather to the fact that high Party offices exercised their influence and, together with a new publishing management, brought about a threefold increase. Naturally, it is of essential significance whether a threefold increase results from a demand by the people or whether, as in this case, the German Labor Front intervened in the person of Dr. Ley, and a special publicity number was published, which was then circulated by Dr. Ley’s efforts and by using the huge machinery of the German Labor Front.

That is something I want to prove and I am of the opinion that it is of importance to the Defense.

I have three documents along these lines, Mr. President; and with the permission of the Tribunal I shall read a directive, and I ask that I be allowed to introduce it as evidence. From this it appears that Dr. Ley as the leader of the German Labor Front, gave the order to all the offices of the German Labor Front to circulate this special edition and to see to it that it was widely circulated in the factories, and so forth. For, indeed, it is one of the essential points of the Indictment that the German people were influenced against the Jews by _Der Stürmer_ and by the Defendant Streicher, and thereby later made ripe to support the measures in the East, even to the extent of mass extermination.

Therefore, I ask that this evidence be admitted and that it be declared relevant.

THE PRESIDENT: You said you have got three documents. The first one is a directive from Ley?

DR. MARX: Yes, Mr. President.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes. What are the other two?

DR. MARX: One is an excerpt from the newspaper _Der Stürmer_ in May 1935, Number 18, which reads as follows:

“Bernhardt, who fled from Berlin to France, writes in the
_Pariser Tageblatt_ (Paris, 29 March 1935) under the heading,
_‘Stürmer_ Circulation Increases Threefold,’ as follows:

“‘The support which the pornographer Streicher received from the
highest offices of the Reich in circulating his _Stürmer_ helped
him to triple his circulation within less than a year...’”

THE PRESIDENT: Wait. You have already told us that the circulation of the Stürmer went up threefold. It is not necessary to repeat it all again. We only want to know what the documents are. The first one is a directive of Ley. The second one is an issue of _Der Stürmer_. What is the third one?

DR. MARX: And the third—the third is a summary of the circulation from January 1935 until the middle of October 1935; and from this it appears that, within the period of 1 year, the circulation increased from 113,800 to 486,000. Anybody will probably...

THE PRESIDENT: Well, that is quite sufficient. We do not want to know any more about it.

DR. MARX: Very well, Mr. President. Then, may I be permitted...

COL. PHILLIMORE: My Lord, I—it is entirely in the hands of the Tribunal, but we should see no objection from the Prosecution’s point of view to admitting these documents. The first would appear to directly link the Defendant Streicher with another of the conspirators. It would be a most important document.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well, Dr. Marx. Then the three documents will be admitted.

DR. MARX: I should like to submit the documents under Exhibit Numbers 19, 20, and 21.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

DR. MARX: I beg your pardon, Mr. President. May I make one more remark? Why the matter came about now and was so delayed is that I personally did not know anything about it before. It was only by accident that I learned this from _Der Stürmer’s_ masthead. It was previously unknown to me, and I considered it—considered it from my point of view as pertinent evidence. I ask to be excused for not submitting it before now.

DR. SAUTER: Mr. President, I naturally do not wish to submit any further evidence; but I should like to ask you to clarify a question, a question of law.

At this time interrogations are going on constantly in the commissions in order to gather evidence with regard to the organizations. Witnesses are being interrogated there whom we here do not know, and documents are being submitted which we have not yet seen. It will be several weeks before we know the results of this evidence about the organizations.

Now we defense attorneys, who are working here, are thinking of the following case: It could happen, for instance, that one of these defendants could be incriminated by some new testimony about the organizations, or that documents might be submitted which we, as Defense Counsel for these defendants, would absolutely have to take into consideration in our pleas, or to which we would have to offer evidence in rebuttal.

Now we are agreed that the evidence here should be concluded, but we would naturally like to reserve the right in such cases to learn the results of the hearings for the organizations.

THE PRESIDENT: I think you will find, when you look carefully at the order which the Tribunal made, that this matter was provided for and that, if there is any matter in the course of the hearing of the case against the organizations which in any way materially or directly affects any of the individual defendants, the Tribunal, of course, has discretion to hear counsel for that defendant upon the matter; and I think that is specifically dealt with in the order that we have made.

DR. SAUTER: This order is known to us, of course, Mr. President; but we just wanted to be clear on this point, that this order will still remain in force, even if the presentation of evidence here is concluded.

THE PRESIDENT: Certainly.

Do the Prosecution wish to make any application to the Tribunal?

COL. PHILLIMORE: I have eight documents to put in. My Lord, they are documents which it is intended to refer to in the final speech; and accordingly I would not propose to do more than just to indicate their nature to the Tribunal and put them in very quickly. I have a list of them which I will hand up first.

THE PRESIDENT: Are they documents which have not yet been offered in evidence? It may be convenient to see their nature.

COL. PHILLIMORE: Yes, My Lord; I am offering them in rebuttal.

THE PRESIDENT: You have a list here?

COL. PHILLIMORE: Yes, My Lord, the first document is...

THE PRESIDENT: Have they been communicated to the defendants’ counsel?

COL. PHILLIMORE: No, My Lord; I have copies here.

The first document, 1519-PS, contains orders for the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war. My Lord, that is not strictly offered in rebuttal; but the Tribunal has had before it a document, EC-338, which was put in as Exhibit USSR-356. That document consisted of a commentary by Admiral Canaris on these orders, and Your Lordship may remember the document. Defendant Keitel had made certain notes on it on which he was cross-examined, the reference in the shorthand notes being Pages 7219 to 7223 (Volume X, Pages 622-625). My Lord, it seems appropriate that the actual orders should be before the Court and not merely the commentary.

My Lord, that will be GB-525, and the Tribunal will see it consists of a covering letter from the Defendant Bormann to Gauleiter and Kreisleiter covering the OKW letter signed by General Reinecke, the head of the Prisoners of War Organization; and then there follow the actual regulations.

THE PRESIDENT: Has not this been in before?

COL. PHILLIMORE: My Lord, I am told not. What was put in was the commentary on this document, which was by Admiral Canaris. It was included—this document was included in the Keitel document book, but it was not formally put in.

THE PRESIDENT: I see. You mean it will be GB...

COL. PHILLIMORE: 525, My Lord.

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

COL. PHILLIMORE: My Lord, the second document, D-912, will be GB-526. This is a series of broadcasts from German stations between 6 September and 22 October 1939, monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation and dealing with the _Athenia_.

My Lord, I offer that document in view of the Defendant Raeder’s evidence. The Tribunal will remember that, according to him, the article on the 23 October in the _Völkischer Beobachter_ came as a complete surprise. The reference in the shorthand notes is 9832, Page 9832 (Volume XIV, Page 80).

My Lord, it also arises out of the question, I think, put to the Tribunal—put by the Tribunal to the Defendant Fritzsche; and it confirms his evidence that broadcasts blaming Mr. Winston Churchill for being responsible for the sinking of the _Athenia_ started at the early part of September and went right on through the month. Actually, these broadcasts, the Tribunal will see—the first on 6 September. I might read perhaps one sentence in the second line:

“The German press refutes the accusations of the British press
that the German submarine had sunk the _Athenia_. Churchill, as
one of his first actions, ordered the _Athenia_ to be sunk in
order to stir up anti-German feeling in the U.S.A.”

Well, then there are similar broadcasts from other stations on that day, again on the 7th, the 11th, the 25th. I have not got the one on the 27th, put in by General Rudenko; but there is one by the Defendant Fritzsche on 1 October, and so on, culminating with a broadcast by Goebbels on the 22d, the day before the article appeared. My Lord, that will be GB-526.

The next document, 3881-PS, is an extract from the proceedings before the Peoples’ Court on 7 and 8 August 1944, when seven defendants were tried for the attempt on Hitler’s life. My Lord, I am only putting in a translated extract, but the photostat is in fact complete. I should have said that what is before the Tribunal is only a translation of certain extracts, but the exhibit contains the complete record of the proceedings. My Lord, I...

THE PRESIDENT: Unless we have it translated, we shall not be able to have it in evidence.

COL. PHILLIMORE: My Lord, we do not intend to refer to more than the translated extracts.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

COL. PHILLIMORE: I only said that for the benefit of Defense Counsel, who may wish to look elsewhere.

My Lord, I put that in in view of the Defendant Jodl’s evidence that it was only because British generals obeyed orders that the German generals were now being tried. That is Page 11043 of the shorthand notes (Volume XV, Page 383). And the passages—the nature of the passages is that the president of the Peoples’ Court is refusing to accept the defense of superior orders put forward by the defendants. My Lord, that will be GB-527.

My Lord, the next document is D-181, which I offer as Exhibit GB-528. It is a letter by a Gauleiter to Gauamtsleiter, Gauinspektor, and Kreisleiter on the subject of the law of hereditary health and sterilization on the ground of imbecility. It is an important document in connection with the Defendant Frick, and I put it in in view of the statements made on his behalf by his counsel at Page 8296 (Volume XII, Page 162) of the shorthand notes, My Lord, when he said in effect that Frick had no control over the political police and that Himmler’s subordination to him was purely nominal.

My Lord, there are a number of references in the letter to the fact that the decree—and indeed its administration—was the responsibility of the Defendant Frick.

My Lord, the next document is of a similar nature, and I attribute it to the same page of the shorthand notes. It is Document M-151, and I offer it as Exhibit GB-529. It consists of three letters on the subject of the murder of mental patients in institutions. The first is dated the 6th of September and addressed by the supervisor of a sanatorium at Stetten to the Reich Minister of Justice. It sets out the feeling of insecurity in the neighborhood of the sanatorium administered by its inspector, in view of the number of deaths which are occurring.

The second, dated the 10th, is a letter from the Minister of Justice acknowledging the complaint and saying that it has been passed to the Defendant Frick.

And the third, of the same date, is the Minister’s letter to his colleague passing the complaint to him.

My Lord, the next document is again on the same subject. It is Document M-152, and I offer it as Exhibit GB-530. It consists of four letters.

The first, dated the 19th of July 1940, is addressed to the Defendant Frick as Reich Minister of the Interior, by Bishop Wurm, the Provincial Bishop of the Württemberg Evangelical Provincial Church. My Lord, it again sets out the mass of complaints he is receiving and then goes on to deal with the wickedness of the practice which is apparently going on.

The second letter, dated the 23d of August, is a letter to the Minister of Justice referring to the letter sent to the Defendant Frick.

The third, of the 5th of September, is a letter to the Defendant Frick reminding him of the previous letter of the 19th of July to which no reply had been received.

And, on the 6th of September, the next letter is a parallel communication again to the Minister of Justice.

Finally, on the 11th of September, the last page of the document, there is a memorandum on the Minister of Justice’s file indicating that an official of the Ministry had informed the Bishop’s dean, presumably Dean Keppler, that the matter was entirely one for the Defendant Frick.

My Lord, the next document, D-455, which I offer as Exhibit GB-531, is a pamphlet prepared by the German. Military Government authorities in Belgium. It comes from the files of the German War Office, the OKW, and it is entitled, _Belgium’s Contributions to Germany’s War Economy_, and is dated the 1st of March 1942.

My Lord, I offer it in view of the general evidence that German occupation was benevolent, and that—the Tribunal has heard, again and again, the suggestion that they did a great deal of good to the countries they occupied. This document is a very graphic illustration of the falsity of that evidence out of the mouths of the Defense.

My Lord, if I might take the Tribunal very quickly through it, at Page 3 is a chart of the population figures in terms of employees, and it shows that more than half the working population was working for Germany. Of the 1,800,000 workers and employees in Belgium, 901,280 were employed with the German Armed Forces and in the German interests.

My Lord, at Page 4 is a comparison between Belgium, Holland, and France in terms of percentage of workers employed as slave labor.

My Lord, at Page 5 is a statement of the production figures for the Belgian contribution to Germany, in—I think it is the seventh line, it is summed up: “Output to the value of 1,200 million Reichsmark.”

Page 6—there is a comparison between the coal taken from Belgium and the same amount produced in the year in the Ruhr.

At Page 8 there is comparison of iron, with the total amount of iron used in the West Wall.

Page 9, cement; Page 10, textiles; Page 11, metals. There is a statement there which contains a sentence about the summing up of what had been taken out: “It was possible to achieve these results only by exhausting the last reserves of the country.”

At Page 12 there is a chart of how the metal collection has affected individuals. It is a comparison between Belgium, Holland, and France.

At Page 13 there is a statement about the contribution to traffic; and a chart on Page 14.

At Page 15 it appears that the contributions in money exceeded the total earning—earned income of the Belgian workers for the last year.

At Page 16 there are figures with regard to the quantity of gold taken for safekeeping in the Reichsbank.

Page 18 deals with shares, a comparison with the total share capital of I. G. Farben, the comparison being 700 million Reichsmark as against the share capital of I. G. Farben of 800 millions.

Then there is a statement with regard to rations, showing that Germany had imported food into Belgium but that, despite that, the rationing was the lowest of all western countries.

And finally, on the last page, there is an indication of the change in the Belgian rations by comparison between 1938 and under the benevolent rule of the German Military Government in 1941. My Lord, it speaks for itself.

My Lord, I—My Lord, the last document, D-524, is a similar pamphlet referring to France. It comes from the same source, and I offer it as Exhibit GB-532.

My Lord, owing to a breakdown in electric power, I have not been able to finish photostating the English copies, but I will hand them in, if I may, subsequently and for the moment I hand up German photostats.

My Lord, I offer it in view of the Defendant Sauckel’s evidence, at Page 10617 of the shorthand notes (Volume XV, Page 52), where he said that the total slave labor figure was not more than 5 millions. My Lord, at Pages 8 and 9 of this document, the Tribunal will see the slave labor position of Germany at the end of 1943, so that to this must be added slave labor drawn in during 1944. My Lord, it amounts to just under 7 millions, of which 1,462,000 were prisoners of war, so that the figure of slave labor at the date was slightly over 5 millions; that is, slave labor excluding prisoners of war was slightly over 5 millions, and to that, as I say, one must add the increase during 1944.

My Lord, on Page 8 are the figures and comparisons: Men, civilians, 3,631,000; prisoners of war, 1,462,000; women, 1,714,000. And then it is set out how that is divided by countries. And on Page 9 is merely an illustration in color.

My Lord, the rest of the pamphlet merely gives figures illustrative of what was taken from France, very similar to those in the case of Belgium. And I would not propose to take the Tribunal through it unless it is desired that I should do so.

My Lord, I think I gave that a number, Exhibit GB-532.

My Lord, that is all the documents that I have to offer. I understand my friend, Mr. Dodd, has some.

MR. JUSTICE ROBERT H. JACKSON (Chief of Counsel for the United States): May it please the Tribunal, at the time of the cross-examination of the Defendant Hermann Göring we confronted him with a document, numbered 3787-PS, It was received as Exhibit USA-782. It was the report of the second meeting of the Reich Defense Council. Göring acknowledged the authenticity of the minutes as presented to him in the German text. But the document at that time had not been translated, and consequently it was not possible to read into the record the many parts of that document which we considered important as bearing upon his credibility and testimony, and as bearing upon the denials of many other of the defendants that they knew of the planning of the war and that they knew—participated in it.

I would now like to read from the record part of this which we consider extremely important as rebuttal testimony received from several of the defendants.

On the face of it, it is a letter of transmittal dated the 10th day of July 1939, from the supreme command of the Armed Forces, on the subject, “Second Meeting of the Reich Defense Council.”

One hundred copies were prepared, and our copy is the 84th. It is labeled “most secret” and merely transmits in the name of the chief of the supreme command of the Armed Forces the enclosed document to following parties, among others. I shall name only the ones to which we have attached some importance: To the Party, the Führer’s Deputy, the first copy; to the Chief of the Reich Chancellery; to Ministerpräsident, Field Marshal Göring, the Reich Minister and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force; to the Foreign Office; to the Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration are nine copies, including copies for the Minister of the Interior, the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Education, the Minister for Church Affairs, and the Reich Office for Planning; also to the Plenipotentiary General for Economy, including copies for the Minister of Economy, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the Ministry of Labor, the Chief Forester, and the Commissioner for Price Control; to the Minister of Finance; the Minister of Transport, Motor Transport, and Roads; and the Minister of Railways; the Post Minister; the Minister of Enlightenment and Propaganda; the Reichsbank Directorate; the General Inspector of German Roads; the Armed Forces, including nine copies for the OKH, five copies for the OKM, the Reich Minister for Air and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force; the supreme command of the Armed Forces; a series of other copies being enclosed.

The enclosure is a report of the second meeting of the Reich Defense Council, held on a date to which we attach importance, the 6th day—the 23d day of June 1939.

“Place: Large conference room of the Reich Air Ministry.

“Commencement: 1110; termination: 1355.

“President: Ministerpräsident, General Field Marshal Göring.

“Persons present...”

I shall name only those to which we attach some importance, because the list is very long:

The Führer’s Deputy; the Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; Reichsministerpräsident General Field Marshal Göring’s staff, Secretary of State Körner, Secretary of State Naumann, Councillor Bergbohm, and several others; Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration, Reichsminister Frick, Reichsführer SS Himmler and uniformed police, Daluege; Plenipotentiary General for the Economy, Reichsminister Funk; the Reichsminister of Finance Von Krosigk; Minister of Transport; General Inspector of German Roads, Dr. Todt; supreme command of the Armed Forces, Generaloberst Keitel, Warlimont, and Generalmajor Thomas; supreme command of the Army, by—from the General Staff, General of Artillery Halder; supreme command of the Navy, General Admiral—Grossadmiral Raeder; Reich Minister for Air Force, Milch and Bodenschatz, both of whom were witnesses here.

The contents, summarized, I will not read.

The minutes of the meeting:

“Ministerpräsident, General Field Marshal Göring emphasized in a
preamble that according to the Führer’s wishes the Reich Defense
Council was the determining body in the Reich for all questions
of preparation for war. It is to discuss only the most important
questions of Reich defense. They will be worked out by the Reich
Defense Committee.

“Meetings of the Reich Defense Council are to be convened only
for these decisions which are unavoidable. It is urged that the
departmental chiefs themselves be present.

“Distribution of labor.

“I. The President announced the following directives to govern
the distribution and employment of the population in wartime.

“1. The total strength of the Armed Forces is determined by the
Führer. It includes only half of the number of those fit and
liable for military service. Nevertheless, their disposition
will involve difficulties for economy, the administration, and
the whole of the civil sphere.

“2. When a schedule of manpower is made out, the basis on which
the question is to be judged is how the remaining number, after
those required for the Armed Forces have been withdrawn, can be
most suitably employed.

“3. Of equal importance to the requirements of the Armed Forces
are those of the armament industry. It, above all, must be
organized in peacetime as regards material and personnel in such
a way that its production does not decrease but increases
immediately with the outbreak of war.

“4. The direction of labor to the vital war armament industry
and to other civilian requirements is the main task of the
Plenipotentiary General for Economy.

“a. War armament covers not only the works producing war
materials, but also those producing synthetic rubber (Buna),
armament production tools, hydrogenation works, coal mining, _et
cetera_.

“b. (1) As a rule, no essential and irreplaceable specialists
may be taken away from ‘war decisive’ factories, on whose
production depends the course of the war, unless they can be
replaced.

“Coal mining is the most urgent work. Every worker who is
essential to coal mining is ‘indispensable.’

“Note: Coal mining has even now become the key point of the
whole armament industry, of communications, and of export. If
the necessary labor is not made available for it now, the most
important part of the export trade, the export of coal, will
cease. The purchase of coal in Poland will stop. The correct
distribution of labor is determinative. In order to be able to
man these key points with the right people, severe demands will
shortly be submitted to the Führer which, even in the current
mobilization year, will under certain circumstances lead to an
exceptional war economy, for instance, to the immobilization of
lorries and to the closing down of unessential factories owing
to lack of coal.

“In addition, there is the supplying of Italy and other
countries such as Scandinavia with coal (to maintain the German
supplies of iron).”

I shall omit certain parts of the document which do not seem particularly important to our argument and pass to Item 2, Page 9 of the English translation:

“(2) A second category of workers liable for military service
will be called up during the war after their replacements have
been trained. A decisive role is played by the extensive
preliminary training and retraining of workers.

“(3) Preparations must be made for replacing the mass of other
workers liable for military service, even by drawing on an
increased number of women. There are also disabled servicemen.

“(4) Compulsory work for women is of decisive importance in
wartime. It is important to proceed to a great extent with the
training of women in important war work, as replacements and to
augment the number of male workers.

“(d) In order to avoid confusion when mobilization takes place,
persons working in important war branches, that is,
administration, communications, police, food, will not be
removed at first. It is essential to establish the degrees of
urgency and importance.

“In the interests of the auxiliary civilian service, provided by
every European people to gain and maintain the lead in the
decisive initial weeks of a war, efforts must in this way be
made to insure by an efficient organization that every German in
wartime not only possesses his mobilization orders but has also
been thoroughly prepared for his wartime activity. The works
must also be adapted to receive the replacements and additional
workers.”

I shall skip to the bottom of Page 10, Item 6:

“The Plenipotentiary General for Economy is given the task of
settling what work is to be given to prisoners of war, to those
in prison concentration camps and penitentiaries.

“According to a statement by the Reichsführer SS, greater use
will be made of the concentration camps in wartime. The 20,000
inmates will be employed mainly in workshops inside the
concentration camps.

“IV. Secretary of State Dr. Syrup, of the Reich Ministry of
Labor, made a report on the allocation of labor in the event of
mobilization and the schedule of manpower for the war.”

This seems a little detailed; but it is, I think, very important, showing the totality of the mobilization planned months before the war started and indicating, as we shall argue, preparations for a war more extensive than the mere brush with Poland.

“The figures for the schedule of manpower, drawn up
experimentally, could only be of a preparatory character and
merely give certain guiding principles. The basis of a
population of 79 millions was taken. Of these, 56.5 millions are
between the ages of 14 and 65. It is also possible to draw upon
men over the age of 65 and upon minors of between 13 and 14. The
disabled and the infirm must be deducted from the 56.5 millions.
Most prisoners are already employed in industry. The greatest
deduction is that of 11 million mothers with children under 14.
After deduction of these groups, there remains an employable
population of 43.5 millions: 26.2 million men—after deducting 7
million members of the Armed Forces, 19.2; 17.3 million
women—after deducting 250,000 nurses _et cetera_, 17.1 for the
whole of Germany’s economic and civil life. The President does
not consider women over the age of 60 as employable.

“8. The number of workers at present employed and of employees
(two-thirds of the wage workers) distributed over 20 large
branches of industry amounts roughly to the following: 24
million men (excluding 2 million service men), 14 million women.

“9. No information was then available regarding the number which
the Armed Forces will take from the individual branches of
industry. Therefore an estimate was made of the numbers
remaining in the individual branches of industry after 5 million
servicemen had been called up.

“The President’s demand that the exact number liable to military
service be established, is being complied with. These inquiries
are not secret apart from figures given and formations.”

I shall skip the next paragraph, 10, as of no importance.

“11. Apart from the 13.8 million women at present employed, a
further 3.5 million unemployed women, who are listed on the card
index of the population, can be employed.

“2 million women would have to be redirected; that is, a
transfer can be made to agriculture and to the metal and
chemical industry, from the textile, clothing, and ceramic
industries, from small trading, insurance and banking
businesses, and from the number of women in domestic service.

“12. The lack of workers in agriculture, from which about 25
percent of the physically fit male workers will be withdrawn,
must be made up by women (2 in the place of 1 man) and prisoners
of war. No foreign workers can be counted on. The Armed Forces
are requested to release to a great extent owners and
specialists such as milkers, tractor drivers, 35 percent of whom
are still liable for call-up.

“13. The President emphasized that factory managers, police, and
the Armed Forces must make preparations for the employment of
prisoners of war.

“14. In the agricultural sphere preparations must also be made
to relieve bottlenecks by help from neighboring farms,
systematic use of all machines and laying in stocks of spare
parts.

“15. The President announced that in wartime hundreds of
thousands of workers from nonwar industries in the Protectorate
are to be employed under supervision in Germany, particularly in
agriculture. They are to be housed in barracks. General Field
Marshal Göring will obtain a decision from the Führer on this
matter.”

I shall omit 16.

If I may say as I offer this, it seems rather detailed as showing the extent of preparation already accomplished at the time, in June of 1939:

“17. a. The result of the procedure of establishing
indispensable and guaranteed workers is at present as follows:
Of 1,172,000 applications for indispensability, 727,000 have
been approved and 233,000 rejected.”

I shall pass to “c” near the bottom of the page:

“The orders to supplementary personnel to report for duty are
ready and tied up in bundles at the labor offices.”

The meeting proceeds to consider production premiums in connection with wages, and I pass to 21, a detail which I offer as indicating that a long war was in anticipation.

“When labor is being regrouped, it is important—and with
specialists even essential—that the workers are retrained for
their work in the new factory, in order to avoid setbacks in the
initial months of the war. After a few months have passed even
the replacement of most of the specialists must be possible.”

I pass to the Point V:

“The Plenipotentiary General for Economy, Reich Minister of
Economy Funk, stated his opinion on the fluctuations of the
schedule of manpower, from the viewpoint of the carrying on of
industry.

“24. a. In accordance with the verbal agreements made with the
OKW, the regulations regarding indispensable personnel have been
laid down and the certificates of indispensability issued.”

I shall pass to Point Number 25 on Page 15:

“In reply to the request by the speaker that when withdrawing
workers for the naval dockyards, more consideration should be
shown for the important sections of industry, particularly
export and newspaper concerns, the President pointed out the
necessity of carrying out the naval building program as ordered
by the Führer in full.”

I pass to the large heading VI:

“The Plenipotentiary General for Administration, Reich Minister
of the Interior, Dr. Frick, dealt with the saving of labor in
the public administration.

“27. The task is primarily a problem of organization. As can be
seen from the surveys, which were submitted to those attending
the conference, showing how the authorities, economic and social
services are organized, there are approximately 50 different
kinds of officials in the district administration, each quite
independent of the other—an impossible state of affairs.
Formerly there were in the State two main divisions, the state
civil service and the Wehrmacht. After the seizure of power, the
Party and the permanent organizations (Reichsnährstand, _et
cetera_) were added to these, with all their machinery from top
to bottom. In this way the number of public posts and officials
was increased many times over. This makes public service more
difficult.

“28. Since the war tasks have increased enormously.”—The
context makes it clear that that is the preceding war.—“The
organizing of total war naturally requires much more labor, even
in the public administration, than in 1914. But it is an
impossibility that this system should have increased its numbers
20 to 40 fold in the lowest grade alone. For this reason, the
Reich Ministry of the Interior is striving for uniformity of
administration.”

A small conference—small commission was created. I offer Number 29 in connection with Göring’s testimony that they ceased to function:

“Instead of further discussions before the whole assembly, the
forming of a small commission which will make definite proposals
is recommended. Extensive preparatory work has been undertaken.”

And a note by the committee that the committee had been functioning.

Point 30:

“The President requested that the commission’s proposals be
submitted. It was an important section for the preparation for
war.”

I shall pass to the large subdivision C which relates to increasing the efficiency of the communications service, starting with the receipt of a report from the Army General Staff.

“31. Eighteen months ago the result of the examination of the
plan for strategic concentration showed that the transport
service could not meet all the demands made on it by the Armed
Forces. The Minister of Transport confirmed this statement. The
1938 part of the Four Year Plan will presumably be completed in
August 1939.

“32. Shortly after this program was drawn up demands were made
on the Wehrmacht which had changed completely compared with the
traditional use of the Wehrmacht at the beginning of a war.
Troops had to be brought to the frontier, in the shortest
possible time, in numbers which had until then been completely
unforeseen. The Wehrmacht was able to fulfill these demands by
means of organizational measures but transport could not.

“33. In the field of transportation Germany is at the moment not
yet ready for war.”

I offer the detail which follows, in contradiction of the statements repeatedly made by a number of witnesses that the movements of the Wehrmacht in the Rhineland, the Anschluss, and all the rest of it, even Czechoslovakia, were surprise movements.

“a. In the case of the three operations in 1938/1939 there was
no question of an actual strategic concentration. The troops
were transported a long time beforehand near to the area of
strategic concentration by means of camouflaged measures.

“b. This stop-gap is of no use whatever when the time limit
cannot be fixed or is not known a long time beforehand, but when
an unexpected and almost immediate military decision is
required. According to the present situation transport is not in
a position, despite all preparations, to bring up the troops.”

“a” is unimportant for my purposes, “a” on Page 18. “b” and “c” represent steps to be taken to meet the deficiency. On Page 19 I shall not bother to read the statements on 38, showing the preparation of highways from east to west and from north to south.

I read Number 39, if I may:

“The President remarked that even in peacetime certain vital
supply stores of industry and the Armed Forces are to be
transferred to the war industrial centers to economize in
transport later on.”

I shall pass to Point Number 41 on Page 20:

“To sum up, the President affirmed that all essential points had
been cleared up at this meeting.”

The American branch of the Prosecution has some additional documents which Mr. Dodd will submit, if it is agreeable to the Tribunal.

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.