Twenty-First Day: Monday, 17th December, 1945
(Part 8 of 16)
[Page 22]
COLONEL STOREY: Your Honour will notice that we have
substituted an enlarged chart for the photostatic copy that
was introduced in evidence this morning. Another thing I
would like to call your Honour's attention to is the fact
that the other chart, the big one, was dated 1945 and
therefore did not show the defendant Hess, because of his
flight to England in 1941, and it will be recalled that the
defendant Hess occupied the position before Bormann directly
under the Fuehrer in the Party organisation.
We now take up the Hoheitstraeger. The Hoheitstraeger,
turning from the text, is shown on this chart very well, and
all of those shown in the black block constitute the
Hoheitstraeger, beginning with the Fuehrer and going down
the vertical column clear down to the black line.
[Page 23]
Within the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party certain of the
Political Leaders possessed a higher degree of
responsibility than others, were vested with special
prerogatives, and constituted a distinctive and elite group
within the Party hierarchy. Those were the so-called
"Hoheitstraeger" (Bearers of Sovereignty) who represented
the Party within their areas of jurisdiction which are
sections of Germany, the so-called Hoheitsgebiet. I now
quote from Page 9 of the English translation of Document
1893-PS:--
"Among the political leaders, the Hoheitstraeger assume
a special position. Contrary to the other Political
Leaders who have departmental missions, the
Hoheitstraeger themselves are in charge of a
geographical sector known as the Hoheitsgebiet (Sectors
of Sovereignty).
"Hoheitstraeger" are:
The "Fuehrer"
The "Gauleiter"
The "Kreisleiter"
The "Ortsgruppenleiter"
The "Zellenleiter"
The "Blockleiter"
"Hoheitsgebiete" are:
The "Reich"
The "Gau"
The "Kreis"
The "Ortsgruppe"
The "Zelle"
The "Block"
Within their sector of sovereignty the Hoheitstraeger
have sovereign political rights. They represent the
Party within their sector. The Hoheitstraeger supervise
all Party officers within their jurisdiction and are
responsible for the maintenance of discipline. The
directors of offices, etc., and of the affiliated
organisations are responsible to their respective
Hoheitstraeger as regards their special missions. The
Hoheitstraeger are superior to all political leaders,
managers, etc., within their sector.
The Hoheitstraeger 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 Hoheitstraeger
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 Hoheitstraeger and their existence and
operation as an identifiable group are indicated by the
publication of a magazine entitled `Der Hoheitstraeger'
whose distribution was limited by regulation of the Reich
Organisation Leader to the Hoheitstraeger and certain other
designated Politische Leiter. I now refer to Document 2660-
PS, which I offer in evidence as Exhibit USA 235, and I
quote from the inside cover of this magazine which reads as
follows:--
"'Der Hoheitstraeger, 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."
[Page 24]
Then follows a list of the Hoheitstraeger and other
Political Leaders authorised to receive the magazine.
The magazine states, in addition, that the following are
entitled to receive it -- I would like to emphasise who
these were,
"Commandants, Unit Commanders, and Candidates of Order
Castles; The Reich Speakers, Shock Troop Speakers and
Gau Speakers of the N.S.D.A.P.; the Lieutenant Generals
and Major Generals of S.A., S.S., N.S.F.K. -- which is
the Flying Corps -- and N.S.K.K. -- the Motor Corps --
Lieutenant Generals and Major Generals of the H.J. --
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 organisation within the meaning of
Article 9 of the Charter.
An examination of the contents of the magazine, `Der
Hoheitstraeger,' 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 clergy; the need
for motorised 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
favourable 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 organised 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 organisation is the Fuehrer
thought. The public is unable to rule itself either
directly or indirectly. All Political Leaders stand
as appointed by the Fuehrer and are responsible to him.
They possess full authority toward the lower echelons.
Only a man who has absorbed through the school of
subordinate functions within the Party has a claim to
the higher Fuehrer offices. We can only use Fuehrer who
have risen from the ranks. 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
or Zellenleiter, for further training. The Political
Leader is not an office worker but the Political Deputy
of the Fuehrer. Within the Political Leadership of
the State we are building the leadership of the Party.
The type of the Political Leader is not characterised
by the office which he represents. There is no such
thing as a Political
[Page 25]
Leader of the N.S.B.O., etc., but there is only the
Political Leader of the N.S.D.A.P."
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 Fuehrers
appointed by him."
The Organisation Book of the N.S.D.A.P. 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 organisation of the N.S.D.A.P. 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 Organisation Book, which is Document 1893-PS:--
"The Fuehrer appoints the following Political Leaders:--
(a) All Reichsleiter and all Political Leaders within
the Reichsleitung (Reich Party Directorate) including
women's leaders.
(b) All Gauleiter, including the Political Leaders
holding offices in the Gauleitung (Gau Party
Directorate) including Gau women's leaders.
(c) All Kreisleiter.
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) All Ortsgruppenleiter.
The Kreisleiter appoints the Political Leaders and the
Directors of the Women's Leagues of the Ortsgruppen,
including the Block and Cell Leaders...."
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