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

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СКАЧАТЬ next turn to the responsibility of the Leadership Corps for the destruction of free trade unions and the imposition of the conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation.

      The evidence relating to the responsibility of the Nazi conspirators for the destruction of the independent trade unions has been previously introduced in evidence in the U.S. Exhibit G, which was the document book containing the evidentiary materials relating to the destruction of the trade unions. The brief evidence which I shall now present is offered to prove the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party for the smashing of the independent unions and the imposition of conspiratorial control over the productive labor capacity of the German nation.

      Soon after the seizure of power, prominent members of the Leadership Corps participated in the smashing and dissolution of the independent trade unions of Germany. The Defendant Robert Ley, precisely by virtue of his office as Reich Organization Leader and Reichsleiter in the Leadership Corps, was directed by Hitler, in mid-April 1939, to smash the independent unions.

      I will pass on now to Document 392-PS, Exhibit Number USA-326; and I quote, beginning at the top of Page 1 of the English translation:

      “On Tuesday, 2 May 1933 . . . the co-ordination action against the free trade unions begins. . . .

      “The essential part of the action is to be directed against the General German Trade Union League (ADGB) and the General Independent Employees’ Federation (AFA-Bund). Anything beyond that which is dependent upon the free trade unions is left to the Gauleiter’s judgment.

      “The Gauleiter are responsible for the execution of the co-ordination action in their individual areas. The action will be carried out by the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization. . . .

      “The Gauleiter is to proceed with his measures on the basis of the closest agreement with competent Gau or regional factory cell directors. . . .

      “In the Reich, the following will be occupied:

      “The headquarters of the unions. . . .”

      Then it lists a number of offices, and I previously quoted who was to be taken into protective custody.

      The next provision:

      “Exceptions are granted only with the permission of the Gauleiter. . . .

      “It is understood that this action is to proceed in a strongly disciplined fashion. The Gauleiter are responsible for holding the direction of the action firmly in hand. Heil Hitler!”—signed—“Dr. Robert Ley.”

      The Defendant Ley’s order for the dissolution of the independent trade unions was carried out as planned and directed. Trade union premises all over Germany were occupied by the SA and the unions dissolved. On the 2d of May 1933 the official NSDAP press service reported that the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization (NSBO) had “eliminated the old leadership of free trade unions” and taken over their leadership.

      I now offer in evidence Document 2224-PS, Exhibit Number USA-364, which is Pages 1 and 2 of the 2d of May 1933 issues of the National Socialist Party Press Agency. I quote from Paragraph 5 of Page 1 of the English translation:

      “National Socialism, which today has assumed leadership of German labor, can no longer bear the responsibility for leaving the men and women of the German working class, the members of the largest trade organization in the world, the German trade union movement, in the hands of people who do not know a fatherland called Germany. Because of that, the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization has taken over the leadership of the trade unions. The NSBO has eliminated the former leadership of the free trade unions of the General German Trade Unions League, and of the General Independent Employees’ Federation. . . .

      “On 2 May 1933 the NSBO took over the leadership of all trade unions; all trade-union buildings were occupied and most stringent control of financial and personnel matters of the organizations has been set up.”

      As shown by this evidence, the assault on the independent unions was directed by the Defendant Ley, in his capacity as Reichsleiter in charge of Party organization, assisted by the Gauleiter and Party formations, and included the seizure of trade-union funds and property. In this connection I offer in evidence Document 1678-PS, Exhibit Number USA-365. This document is a report of a speech by Reichsleiter Ley on the 11th of September 1937 to the fifth annual session of the German Labor Front. In this speech Ley shamelessly corroborates the confiscation of the trade-union funds. I quote from Paragraph 4 of Page 1 of the English translation:

      “Once I said to the Führer: ‘My Führer, actually I am standing with one foot in jail, for today I am still the trustee of the comrades Leipart and Imbusch; and should they some day ask me to return their money, then it will be found that I have put it into buildings or otherwise spent it. But they shall never again find their property in the condition in which they handed it over to me. Therefore I should have to be convicted.’

      “The Führer laughed then and remarked that apparently I felt extremely well in this condition.

      “It was very difficult for us all. Today we laugh about it . . .”

      The plan of the Nazi conspirators to eliminate the free trade unions was advanced by the enactment, on 19th May 1933, of a law which abolished collective bargaining between workers and employers and replaced it with a regulation of working conditions by labor trustees appointed by Hitler. I refer to Document 405-PS, which is the text of the law, 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 285. After providing in Section 1 for the appointment by Hitler of trustees of labor, this law provides, and I quote from Section 2 of the English translation of Document 405-PS:

      “Until a new revision of the social constitution, the labor trustees are to regulate the conditions for the conclusion of labor contracts. This practice is to be legally binding for all persons and replaces the system founded on combinations of workers, of individual employers, or of combinations of employers. . . .”

      Having destroyed the independent unions and collective bargaining, the next step of the Nazi conspirators was to secure the Nazification in the field of industrial relations. I refer to Document Number 1861-PS, which is the text of the law of 20 January 1934, 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt I, Page 45. This law was entitled the “Law Regulating National Labor”; and it imposed the leadership principle upon industrial enterprisers and provided, in Section I, Paragraph 1, that the enterpriser should be the leader of the plant and the workers would constitute his followers. I now quote from Section I, Paragraph 2, of the first page of Document Number 1861-PS:

      “The leader of the plant has full authority over the employees in all matters concerning the enterprise, as far as they are covered by this law.

      “He is responsible for the well-being of the employees. The employees owe him loyalty in keeping with the principles of factory solidarity.”

      The trade unions having been dissolved and the leadership principle superimposed upon the relationship of management and labor, the members of the Leadership Corps joined in and directed measures designed to replace the independent unions by the German Labor Front, the DAF, an affiliated Party organization. On the very day the Nazi conspirators seized and dissolved the free trade unions, the 2d of May 1933, they publicly proclaimed that a “United Front of German Workers” would be formed with Hitler as honorary patron at a workers’ congress on the 10th of May 1933. I quote from the next to the last paragraph of Page 2 of Document 2224-PS, which was a release of the Nazi Party Press Agency:

      “The National Socialist СКАЧАТЬ