The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.4). International Military Tribunal

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СКАЧАТЬ represent the Party within their sector. The Hoheitsträger supervise all Party offices within their jurisdiction and are responsible for the maintenance of discipline.”

      If Your Honors please, that is Page 9 of the English translation, if you find it, of 1893.

      THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

      COL. STOREY: “The directors of offices, et cetera, and of the affiliated organizations are responsible to their respective Hoheitsträger . . . as regards their special missions. The Hoheitsträger are superior to all political leaders, managers, and so forth, within their sector. As regards personal consideration, Hoheitsträger are endowed with special rights . . . .

      “The Hoheitsträger of the Party are not to be administrative officials . . . but are to move in a continuous vital contact with the political leaders of the population within their sector. The Hoheitsträger are responsible for the proper and good supervision of all members of the nation within their sector . . . .

      “The Party intends to achieve a state of affairs in which the individual German will find his way to the Party . . . .”

      The distinctive character of the Politische Leiter constituting the Hoheitsträger and their existence and operation as an identifiable group are indicated by the publication of a magazine entitled Der Hoheitsträger whose distribution was limited by regulation of the Reich Organization Leader to the Hoheitsträger and certain other designated Politische Leiter. I now refer to Document 2660-PS, which I offer in evidence; and I would like to digress from the published manuscript and call Number 2660-PS Exhibit Number USA-325. I would like to exhibit this book to Your Honors. This is the book itself and it is for the Hoheitsträger, with a very limited distribution, and I quote from the inside cover of this magazine which reads as follows—it is right in the beginning:

      “Der Hoheitsträger, the contents of which is to be handled confidentially, serves only for the orientation of the competent leaders. It may not be loaned out to other persons.”

      Then follows a list of the Hoheitsträger and other political leaders authorized to receive the magazine. The magazine states, in addition, that the following are entitled to receive it—I would like to emphasize the ones to receive it:

      “Commandants, unit commanders, and ‘Ordensburg’ members; The Reich, Shock Troop, and Gau speakers of the NSDAP; the Obergruppenführer and Gruppenführer of the SA, the SS, the NSFK”—which is the Flying Corps—“and the NSKK”—the Party Motor Corps—“Obergebietsführer and Gebietsführer of the HJ”—that is the Hitler Jugend.

      The fact that this magazine existed, that it derived its name from the commanding officers of the Leadership Corps, that it was distributed to the elite of the Leadership Corps, in other words, that a house bulletin was circulated down the command channels of the Leadership Corps is probative of the fact that the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party was a group or an organization within the meaning of Article 9 of the Charter.

      An examination of the contents of the magazine Der Hoheitsträger reveals a continuing concern by the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party in measures and doctrines which were employed throughout the course of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment. I shall not trouble the Tribunal nor encumber the record by offering in evidence exhaustive enumeration of these matters; but it may serve to clarify the plans and policies of the inner elite of the Leadership Corps by indicating that a random sampling of articles published and policies advocated in the various issues of the magazine from February 1937 to October 1938 included the following:

      Slanderous anti-Semitic articles, attacks on Catholicism and the Christian religion and the clergy; the need for motorized armament; the urgent need for expanded Lebensraum and colonies; persistent attacks on the League of Nations; the use of the block and cell in achieving favorable Party votes, the intimate association between the Wehrmacht and the political leadership; the racial doctrines of Fascism, the cult of leadership; the role of the Gaue, Ortsgruppen, and Zellen in the expansion of Germany; and related matters all of which constituted elements and doctrinal techniques in the carrying out of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment.

      The political leaders were organized according to the leadership principle. I quote from the fourth paragraph of Page 2 of Document 1893-PS, at the bottom of the page, and top of Page 3:

      “The basis of the Party organization is the Führer idea. The public is unable to rule itself either directly or indirectly . . . . All political leaders stand as appointed by the Führer and are responsible to him. They possess full authority toward the lower echelons. . . . Only a man who has gone through the school of subordinate functions within the Party has a claim to the higher Führer offices. We can only use ‘Führer’ who have served from the ground up. Any political leader who does not conform to these principles is to be dismissed or to be sent back to the lower offices, as Blockleiter, Zellenleiter, for further training. The political leader is not an office worker but the political deputy of the Führer . . . . With the political leader we are building the political leadership of the State . . . . The type of the political leader is not characterized by the office which he represents. There is no such thing as a political leader of the NSBO, et cetera, but there is only the political leader of the NSDAP.”

      Each political leader was sworn in yearly. According to the Party manual the wording of the oath was as follows; and I quote from the second paragraph on Page 3, Document 1893-PS:

      “I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler; I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the Führer appointed by him.”

      The Organization Book of the NSDAP also provides, and I quote from Page 3, Paragraph 4, of the same document:

      “The political leader is inseparably tied to the ideology and the organization of the NSDAP. His oath only ends with his death or with his expulsion from the National Socialist community.”

      Appointment of political leaders:

      With respect to the appointment of the political leaders constituting the Leadership Corps of the Party, I quote from Page 4 of the Organization Book, which is Document 1893-PS:

      “1. The Führer appoints the following political leaders:

      “a) Reichsleiter and all political leaders within the Reichsleitung”—Reich Party Directorate—“including women’s leaders; b) Gauleiter, including the political leaders holding offices in the Gauleitung”—Gau Party Directorate—“including Gau women’s leaders; c) Kreisleiter. . . .

      “2. The Gauleiter appoints:

      “a) The political leaders and women’s leaders within the Gau Party Directorate . . . b) the political leaders and the directors of women’s leagues in the Kreis Party Directorate; c) Ortsgruppenleiter.

      “3. The Kreisleiter appoints the political leaders and the directors of the women’s leagues of the Ortsgruppen including the block and cell leaders . . . .”

      The power of Hoheitsträger to call upon other Party formations:

      The Hoheitsträger among the Leadership Corps were entitled to call upon and utilize the various Party formations as necessary for the execution of the Nazi Party policies.

      The Party manual provides, with respect to the power and authority of the Hoheitsträger to requisition the services of the SA—and I quote from Page 11 of this same Document 1893-PS:

      “The Hoheitsträger is responsible for the entire political appearance of the Movement within this zone. The SA leader of that zone is tied to the directives of the Hoheitsträger СКАЧАТЬ