Transcript for NMT 8: RuSHA Case

15. Hampering Reproduction of Enemy Nationals. To further weaken enemy nations, both restrictive and prohibitive measures were taken to discourage marriages slid reproduction of enemy nationals. The ultimate aim and natural result of these measures was to impede procreation among nationals of Eastern countries. The defendants Greifelt, Creutz, Meyer-Hetling, Schwarzenberger, Hofmann, Hildebrandt, Schwalm, Huebner, Lorenz and Brueckner are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

16. Forced Evacuation and Resettlement of Populations. In occupied territories enemy populations wereforcibly evacuated from their homes and transferred either to other occupied territories, particularly to the Government General, or to Germany for slave labor, The were replaced by Germans and "ethnic Germans". The latter were systematically collected in foreign countries, either occupied or under German domination, brought to damps and then transferred to occupied areas from which the native population had been removed.

Before resettlers were transferred to their final destination they were racially and politically examined by the Staff of the Immigration Center at Lodz (Einwandererzentrale Lodz). "O" Cases, i.e., those who were found "racially valuable" and politically reliable were transfrred to Eastern areas. "A" Cases, i.e., those who were found less reliable but "racially valuable" were brought to Germany proper. "S" Cases, i.e., those found not "racially valuable" were either sent to the Government General or returned to their native countries. In addition, special actions were undertaken in France and Belgium to transfer citizens allegedly of German descent from those countries either to Germany or to Alsace-Lorraine, depending on their political reliability. Those found "racially valuable" were given German citizenship and settled either in Germany or in the Eastern occupied territories; men of military age were inducted into the. Armed Forces or Waffen-SS; those found not "racially valuable" were brought to parts of France other than Alsace-Lorraine or placed in concentration camps. At the same time the populations of non-German descent in Alsace-Lorraine, Luxembourg, Eupen, Malmedy and Moresnet were evacuated. The defendants GREIFELT, CREUTZ, MEYER*HETLING, SCHWARZESNBERGER, HUEBNER, LORENZ, BRUECKNER, HOFMANN, HILDEBRANDT and SCHWALM are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

Mr. Schiller: Mr. Schwenk of the prosecution will now take over.

17. FORCED GERMANIZATION OF ENEMY NATIONALS. After the outbreak of the war, large numbers of nationals of other countries who were considered to be "ethnic Germans" or of German descent were classified and registered in the four DVL (German Peoples' List) Groups. These four DVL Groups may be broadly characterized as follows: Group I--"ethnic Germans" actively pro-German before the occupation; Group II--"ethnic Germans" who had been known as such before the occupation; Group III--persons allegedly of German descent who could easily be Germanized, and members of minority Slavic groups which were considered to have Germanic affiliations; and Group IV-persons allegedly of soma German descent who were actively anti-German.

Persons in Groups I and II were given full German citizenship while persons in Groups III and IV received German citizenship subject to revocation. One of the main purposes of this procedure was to procure men for induction into the Armed Forces, the Waffen-SS, the Police; and similar organizations, and, thus, to force them to fight against the countries to which they owed allegiance. Members of these groups who deserted were executed. Persons classified in DVL Groups III and IV were subjected to extraordinary limitations of their economic and civil rights. Individuals who refused to file application for Germanization under this procedure were placed in concentration camps, their children taken away, and their property confiscated. The defendants GREIFELT, CREUTZ, MEYER*HETLING, SCHWARZENBERGER, HUEBNER, LORENZ, BRUECKNER, HOFMANN, HILDEBRANDT and SCHWALM are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

18. Slave Labor. In addition to the DVL program, selected foreign nationals without any German ancestry were sent to Germany as slave labor and for possible future Germanization. Most of them were employed in agriculture, industry and as domestic help. Those who refused to submit to slave labor or Germanization were placed in concentration camps. The defendants GREIFELT, CREUTZ, MEYER*HETLING, SCHWARZENBERGER, HUEBNER, LORENZ, BRUECKNER, HOFMANN, HILDEBRANDT and SCHWALM are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

19. Conscription of Non -Germans. Nationals of occupied or dominated countries who were not of German descent were compelled to join the Armed Forces, Waffen-SS, Police and similar organizations. This conscription was done by VOMI in close cooperation with the SS Central Office (SS-Hauptant) and through associations such as the Association of Germans Abroad (Verein fur Deutschtum im Ausland, commonly known as the "VDA"). The defendants LORENZ and BRUECKNER are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

20. Plunder. The plunder of private and public property, both in Germany and in the occupied territories, formed a large part of the activities carried on by the defendants name herein. Great amounts of private property were confiscated for use of resettlers or for other purposes. Church property and cultural goods were seized for the same purpose. The value of landed property confiscated from Poles and Jews in Poland alone was estimated by the defendant GREIFELT at seven hundred million to eight hundred million marks. Personal effects confiscated from concentration camp inmates were distributed among resettlers. Lebensborn took over Jewish and Polish hospitals and Jewish apartments and goods. Concentration camp enterprises were founded by the WVHA (the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office) in agreement with the Main Staff Office and the proceeds placed in special accounts. The Main Staff Office was thus a partner in the exploitation of the slave labor of the Jews and other inmates of concentration camps and in the taking over of Jewish property in the Government General. The defendants GREIFELT, CREUTZ, MEYER-HETLING, SCHWARZENBERGER, HUEBNER, LORENZ, BRUECKNER, HOFMANN, HILDEBRANDT, SCHWALM, SOLLMAN, EBNER, TESCH and VIERMETZ are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

21. Persecution and Extermination of Jews. The EKFDV Main Staff Office was responsible for the evacuation of large numbers of Jews from the occupied and incorporated territories. RuSHA also participated extensively in the persecution and extermination of Jews. The Genealogy Office (Ahnentafelamt) of RuSHA prepared and retained in its files the names of all Jewish families in the Reich and persons having any Jewish ancestry. This office also participated in preparing similar files in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark, Danzig, and France where it worked together with the RSHA (Reich Main Security Office). These files were used for enforcing discriminatory measures against Jews and preparing transport lists of Jews to be taken from Germany and the occupied countries to the extermination camps in the East.

The defendants GREIFELT, GREUTZ, MEYER-HETLING, SCHWARZENBERGER, HOFMANN, HILDEBRANDT, SCHWALM and HUEBNER are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

22. The defendant HILDEBRANDT is charged with special responsibility for and participation in the extermination of thousands of German nationals pursuant to the so-called "euthanasia program" of the Third Reich, from September 1939 to February, 1940.

23. The acts and conduct of the defendants set forth in this Count were committed unlawfully, wilfully, and knowingly and constitute violations of internation conventions, particularly of Articles 4, 5, 6, 7, 23, 43, 45, 46, 47, 52 and 56 of the Hague Regulations, 1907, and of articles 2, 3, 4, 9 and 31 of the Prisoner of War Convention (Geneva, 1929), of the laws and customs of war, of the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, of the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed, and of Article II of Control Council Law No. 10.

24. Between September 1939 and April 1945, all the defendants herein committed War Crimes, as defined by Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, were connected with plans and enterprises involving, and were members of organizations or groups connected with: atrocities and offenses against persons and property constituting violations of the laws or customs of war, including but not limited to plunder of public and private property, murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, and ill-treatment of and other inhumane acts against thousands of persons. These crimes embraced, but were not limited to, the particulars set out in Paragraphs 11 to 21, inclusive, of this Indictment, which are incorporated herein by reference, and were Committed against prisoners of war and civilian populations of countries and territories under the belligerent occupation of, or otherwise controlled by, Germany.

25. The acts and conduct of the defendants set forth in this Count were committed unlawfully, wilfully, and knowingly and constitute violations of international conventions, including the Articles of the Hague Regulations, 1907, and of the Prisoner of War Convention (Geneva, 1929), enumerated in Paragraph 23 of this Indictment, of the laws and customs of war, of the general principles of criminal law as derived from the criminal laws of all civilized nations, of the internal penal laws of the countries in which such crimes were committed, and of Article II of Control Council Law No. 10. COUNT THREE --- MEMBERSHIP IN CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION 26.

All of the defendants herein except defendant VIERMETZ, are charged with membership, subsequent to September 1, 1939, in the Schutzstaffeln der Nationalsozialistischen Deutschen Arbeiterpartei (commonly known as the "SS"), declared to be criminal by the International Military Tribunal and Paragraph 1 (d) of Article II of Control Council Law No. 10.

Wherefore, this Indictment is filed with Secretary General of the Military Tribunals and the charges herein made against the above named defendants are hereby presented to the Military Tribunals.

/s/ Telford Taylor TELFORD TAYLOR Brigadier General U.S. Army Chief of Counsel for War Crimes Acting on Behalf of the United States of America Nurnberg 1 July 1947

THE PRESIDENT:The defendants will now be called upon to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges against then. Each defendant, as his name is called, will stand and speak clearly into the mircophone. At this time there will be no arguments, speeches or discussions of any kind. Each defendant will simply answer the question put to him and then plead Guilty or Not Guilty of the offense with which he is charged in the indictment.

THE SECRETARY GENERAL: ULRICH GREIFELT.

PRESIDENT:Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?

ERICH GREIFELT:Yes.

PRESIDENT:Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least 30 days ago?

ULRICH GREIFELT:Yes.

PRESIDENT:Have you read the indictment?

ULRICH GREIFELT:Yes.

PRESIDENT:How do you plead to this indictment, Guilty or Not Guilty?

ULRICH GREIFELT:I am innocent.

PRESIDENT:Be seated.

SECRETARY GENERAL: RUDOLPH CREUTZ:

PRESIDENT:Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?

RUDOLPH CREUTZ:Yes.

PRESIDENT:Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least 30 days ago?

RUDOLPH CREUTZ:Yes.

PRESIDENT:Have you read the indictment?

RUDOLPH CREUTZ:Yes.

PRESIDENT:How do you plead to this indictment, Guilty or Not Guilty?

RUDOLPH CREUTZ:Not guilty.

PRESIDENT:Be seated.

SECRETARY GENERAL: KONRAD MEYER-HETLING:

PRESIDENT:Judge Crawford will now propound the questions,

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Are you now represented by counsel before this Tribunal?

DEFENDANTMEYER-HETLING: Yes.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least 30 days ago?

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Have you read the indictment

JUDGE CRAWFORD:How do you plead to this indictment, Guilty or Not Guilty?

DEFENDANTMEYER-HETLING: I am innocent.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Be seated.

SECRETARY GENERAL: OTTO SCHWARZENBERGER.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Are you represented by counsel before the Tribunal?

DEFENDANT SCHWARZENBERGER:Yes.

DEFENDANT SCHWARZENBERGER:I am not guilty.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:You may be seated.

SECRETARY GENERAL: HERBERT HUEBNER.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?

DEFENDANT HUEBNER:Yes.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Have you read the indictment?

DEFENDANT HUEBNER:Not guilty.

SECRETARY GENERAL: WERNER LORENZ.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?

DEFENDANT LORENZ:Yes.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Have you read the indictment?

DEFENDANT LORENZ:Not guilty.

SECRETARY GENERAL: HEINZ BRUECKNER.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Are you represented by counsel?

DEFENDANT BRUECKNER:Yes.

JUDGE CRAWFORD:Have you read the indictment:

JUDGE CRAWFORD:How do you plead, Guilty or Not Guilty?

DEFENDANT BRUECKNER:Not guilty.

Judge O'Connell will now propound the questions.

SECRETARY GENERAL: OTTO HOFMANN.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?

DEFENDANT HOFMANN:Yes.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: Was the indictment in the German language served upon you at least 30 days ago?

DEFENDANT HOFMANN:Yes.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: Have you read the indictment?

DEFENDANT HOFMANN:Yes

JUDGEO'CONNELL: How do you plead to this indictment, Guilty or Not Guilty?

DEFENDANT HOFMANN:Not Guilty.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: You may be seated.

SECRETARY GENERAL: RICHARD HILDEBRANDT.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: Are you represented by counsel before this tribunal?

DEFENDANT HILDEBRANDT:Yes.

DEFENDANT HILDEBRANDT:Not Guilty.

SECRETARY GENERAL: FRITZ SCHWALM.

JUDGEO'CONNEL: Are you represented by counsel before this Tribunal?

DEFENDANT SCHWALM:Yes.

DEFENDANT SCHWALM:I have.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: How do you plead to indictment, Guilty or Not Guilty?

DEFENDANT SCHWALM:Not guilty.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: you may be seated.

SECRETARY GENERAL: MAX SOLLMANN

DEFENDANT SOLLMANN:Yes.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: Was the indictment in the German served upon you at least 30 days ago?

DEFENDANT SOLLMANN:Not guilty.

SECRETARY GENERAL: GREGOR EBNER:

DEFENDANT EBNER:Yes.

DEFENDANT EBNER:Yes. I have.

DEFENDANT EBNER:Not guilty.

SECRETARY-GENERAL: Guenther Tesch.

DEFENDANT TESCH:Yes.

DEFENDANT TESCH:Yes, it was.

DEFENDANT TESCH:I have.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: How do you plead the indictment, Guilty or Not Guilty?

DEFENDANT TESCH:Not Guilty.

SECRETARY GENERAL:Inge Viermetz.

DEFENDANT VIERMETZ:Yes.

JUDGEO'CONNELL: Have you read the indictment.

DEFENDANT VIERMETZ:Not Guilty.

THE PRESIDENT:For the benefit of counsel both for the prosecution and the defense, the Tribunal desires to make certain announcements.

On account of the time required for the translation of documents and final pleas, it appears to be necessary that they filed at some date in advance of the conclusion of the trial of the case. For that reason, after the case begins, a date will be fixed, of which you will have due notice, after which no documents or final pleas will be received.

For that reason it becomes necessary that you get your documents and your final picas in order and ready to be presented early in the trial of the case. After this deadline date had been fixed, of which you will be notified,--that is, somethime after the beginning of the trial,-after that date, no documents or final pleas will be received.

There will be no recess after the conclusion of the presentation of the evidence on the part of the prosecution. We will move immediately after the prosecution had finished, into the hearing of the evidence on behalf of the defendants.

The Tribunal is of the opinion that reading excerpts from documents introduced in evidence will not be helpful to the Court. You will simply indentify your documents,-both for the prosecution and defense,-introduce them in evidence, and then in your briefs, call the attention of the Court to those portions of the documents you considered to be material.

The Trial will begin on the 20th of this month so that the Court will now be recess until 10 o'clock on the 20th of October.

THE MARSHAL:The Tribunal will be in recess until Monday, the 20th of October, 1947.

(Court in recess until 10 o'clock, Monday Morning, October 20, 1947)

Official Transcript of the American Military Tribunal No. I, in the matter of the United States of America against ULRICH GREIFELT et al, defendants sitting at Nurnberg, Germany, on 20 October 1947, Justice WYATT, Presiding.

THE MARSHAL:The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal I Military Tribunal I is now in session.

God save the united States of America and this Honorable Tribunal.

There will be order in the court.

THE PRESIDENT:Military Tribunal I will come to order. Mr. Marshal, have you ascertained that all the defendants are present in the court?

THE MARSHAL:May it please Your Honors, all the defendants are present in the courtroom.

THE PRESIDENT:The record will so indicate.

The Prosecution will proceed with the opening statement.

MR. MCHANEY:May it please the Tribunal, the crimes of these defendants, thirteen men and one woman for which they stand here accused, are the result of a vast and premeditated plan to destroy national groups in countries occupied by Germany. This program of genocide was part of the Nazi doctrine of total warfare, war waged against populations rather than against states and armed forces. Hitler once said that:

"The French complained after the war that there were twenty Germans too many. We accept the criticism. We favor the planned control of population movements. But our friends will have to excuse us if we subtract the twenty millions elsewhere. After all these centuries of whining about the protection of the poor and lowly, it is about time we decided to protect the strong against the inferior. It will be one of the chief tasks of German statesmanship for all time to prevent, by every means in our poser, the further increase of the Slav races. Natural instincts bid all living beings not merely to conquer their enemies, but also destroy them." 1/ -----------------1/ Rauschning, The voice of Destruction, 1940, P.G. Putnam's A.. of these defendants played an active and leading role in carrying out this broad program which had the two-fold objective of weakening and eventually destroying other nations while at the same time strengthening Germany at their expense, territorially and biologically, in order to secure German domination first of Europe and finally of the world.

This program was based primarily upon the two Nazi concepts of Race and Lebensraum. Belief in German racial supremacy is not new in German thought. At the end of the 19th century it became crystallized in the theory of Aryan supremacy. The "Aryan" had long been used to denote that family of languages to which ancient Norse, Greek, and Sanskrit belonged. Now the term Aryan was applied to a mythical race which was creator of all the culture existing in the world.

As Hitler himself said in Mein Kampf:

"All the Human culture, all the results of art, science, and technology that we see before us today, are almost exclusively the creative product of the Aryan". 1/

This theory of race played a prominent role in the rise to power of the Nazis. It convinced the German masses of Aryan supremacy and taught them that the Germans were more entirely Aryan than any other race. They were the "Nordic Germanic race", the Master Race. Thus, the German people, by purifying themselves, casting out Jews, Slavs, and other non-Aryans, were to become the foremost race on earth. Himmler, in a speech to high-ranking Army officers in 1935, said:

"I am a convinced supporter of the ieda that what matters in the world ultimately is only good blood... I have approached my task from this angle. It means that actually the only good blood, according to our reading of history, is the leading creative element in every state, and in particular, the blood engaged in military activity, and, above all, Nordic blood." ----------------1/ Mein Kampf, 1943 Edition, Haughton, Miflin &bCo. p. 290.

This reconstituted Aryan people was to be the strongest race in the world. Therefore, in accordance with nature's law of survival of the fittest, the Aryan race would conquer the world, enslave all other races, and everywhere spread Aryan culture (for Aryans only, of course) in a new Pax Germanica.

Inside Germany this racial theory coordinated everything in public and private life according to the tenets of Nazism. In foreign affairs, it became the slogan for the unification of all Germans, holding out to them a glittering vision of world mastery as both a possibility and a right.

This theory of race matched with the theory behind Lebensraum. The Nazis made much of Germany's over-population with respect to its area. But they were not really concerned with over-population. In fact, the Nazis constantly proclaimed the duty of all food Germans to have an many children as possible. Lebensraum was not, as many think it, a cry of an under-privileged people for the possibility of existence. It was a demand for more and more land, in fact, for more land that the German People could use at the time. The Nazis felt that only by expansion into a great State territorially could Germany proceed to become mistress of the world. In short, Lebensraum was a slogan for an aggressive drive by the German people under the Nazi leadership to expand its borders regardless of economic need. This culminated in wars of aggression to gain territory and populations at the expense of neighboring countries.

In the course of the war, as the Nazis overran Poland and most of the rest of Europe, they gained the opportunity to put these theories of Race and Lebensraum, this crime of genocide, into practice. The main drive for expansion was in the East. Himmler, in 1942 explained it as follows:

"It is not our task to Germanize the East in the old sense, that is, to teach the people there the German language and German law, but to see to it that only people of purely Germanic blood lived in the Ease."

In November 1939, the Office for Racial Policy of the Nazi Party put forth a treatise with the weighty title of, "The Problem of the Manner of Dealing with the Population of the formerly Polish Territories on the Basis of Racial-Political Aspects". In this treatise, which formed in part the basis of actions taken by these defendants, it stated:

"The aim of the German policy in the new Reich territory in the East must be the creation of a racial and therefore intellectual-psychical as well as national-political uniform German population. This results in the ruthless elimination of all elements not suitable for Germanization.

"This aim consists of three interwoven tasks.

"First, the comp]etc and final Germanization of the population which Seems to be suitable for it.

"Second, deportation of all foreign groups which are not suitable for Germanization, and "Third, the re-settlement by Germans."

It must be realized that under the Nazi theory of race, non-Aryans simply did not matter. Hitler stated this clearly in Mein-Kampf when he said, "All who are not of good race in this world are chaff". 1/ This is again clearly brought out in the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal, whore it is stated:

"When the witness Bach-Zelewski was asked how Ohlendorf could admit the murder of 90,000 people, he replied:

'I am of the opinion that when, for years, for decades, the doctrine is preached that the Slav race is an inferior race, and Jews not even human, than such an outcome is inevitable'." 2/

It may seem somewhat inconsistent for the Nazis to prate of race and purity of blood on the one hand and on the other to take Poles, Czechs, and nationals of many other countries and decide, upon the basis of physical characteristics such as blue eyes and blond hair, that these -----------------1/ Mein Kampf, 1943 Edition, Haughton, Miflin, & Co. p. 296. 2/ Trial of who Major War Criminals, Vol. 1, p. 248.

people can be Germanized. This was a measure to which the Germans were forced because they found that their own population was not sufficient to fulfil the Nazi schemes of expansion. This taking of non-Germans and calling them Germans was also justified on the ground that Germany was thereby taking the best blood from the other nations and thus weakening them as well as strengthening itself.

The seemingly insurmountable theoretical barrier of race was avoided very neatly. It was obvious, they said, that for a thousand years and more, Germanic peoples had gone forth over the map of Europe. Thus, when a Polish family showed no signs of any German ancestry for hundreds of years, if the physical characteristics were compatible with these of the mythical super race, it meant that sometime in the dim past Nordic blood had forgotten its heritage and become Polonized. Nevertheless, they said, this blood was still valuable blood and could be reclaimed and this Polish family could be Germanized. There was to be a gradual sifting of the peoples in the East Until finally all the Aryan blood had been reclaimed. Himmler, in a report distributed to Hitler and the defendants Greifelt, Creutz, MeyerHetling, and Hildebrandt among others, and entitled "Reflections on the Treatment of Peoples of Alien Races in the East", was quite clear about the means and aims of this process. He said:

"---- There must be no centralization towards the top, because only by dissolving this whole conglomeration of peoples of the General Government amounting to fif teen millions and of the eight millions of the Eastern provinces, will it be possible for us to carry out the racial sifting which must be the basis for our consid erations; namely, selecting out of this conglomeration the racially valuable and bringing them to Germany and assimilating them there.

"Within a very few years - I should think about four to five years, the name of the Cashubes, f.i. must be un known, because at that time there won't be a Cashubian people any more (this also goes especially for the West Prussians)....What has been said for these fragments of peoples is also meant on a correspondingly larger scale for the Poles."

"A basic issue in the solution of these problems is the question of schooling and thus the question of sifting and selecting the young.

For the non-German population of the East there must be no higher school than the four grade elementary school.

The sole goal of this school is to be:

Simple arithmetics up to 500 at the most; writing of one's name; the doctrine that it is a divine law to obey the Germans and to be honest, industrious and good.

I don't think that reading should be required.

Apart from this school there are to be no schools at all in the East.

Parents, who from the beginning want to give their children better schooling in the elementary school as well as later on in a higher school, must take an appli cation to the Higher SS and Police leaders.

The first consideration in dealing with this application will be whether the child is racially perfect and conforming to our conditions.

If we acknowledge such a child to be as of our blood, the parents will be notified that the child will be sent to school in Germany and that it will per manently remain in Germany.

Cruel and tragic as every individual case may be, this method is still the mildest and best one if, out of inner conviction, one rejects as un-German and impossible the Bolshevist method of physi cal extermination of a people.

The parents of such children of good blood will be given the choice to either give away their child; they will then probably produc no more children so that the danger of this subhuman people of the East obtaining a class of leaders which, since it would be equal to us, would also be dangerous for us, will disappear - or else the parents pledge themselves to go to Germany and to become loyal citizens there.

The love towards their child, whose fu ture and education depends upon the loyalty of the parents will be a strong weapon in dealing with them."

In 1942 the defendant Meyer-Hetling drew up a broad plan for the ethnic reconstruction of Eastern Europe which was entitled the "General Plan East". According to this plan the regions around Leningrad, the Crimea and Cherson in Russia, and Memel and Narew in Lithuania were tobecome German colonies, and within 25 year to be resettled with a large German population. This plan was forwarded by the defendant Greifelt to Himmler who gave his wholehearted approval to it, and asked the defendant Meyer-Hetling to draft also a plan embracing the incorporated Polish territories, Bohemia and Moravia in Czechoslovakia, Alsace and Lorraine in France, and Upper Carniola and South Styria in Yugoslavia. This was to be a 20-year plan, so Himmler said, and was to bring about a thorough Germanization of Esthonia and Latvia, as well as of the General Government in Poland.

This then was the program of genocide. It was a coordinated plan aimed at the destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups.

This destruction can be and was accomplished with the help of these defendants by a number of different means, which may be broadly classified as physical, political, biological, and cultural. They sought the "disintegration of the political and social institutions of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups,"1 In another courtroom of this same building, 23 leaders of the notorious Einsatzgruppen of Security Police and SD are being tried for the mass annihilation of Jews and Russians.

While a number of the defendants in this dock also participated in those very same crimes and others of similar nature, their main efforts were devoted to the destruction of national groups by other methods. The technique of these defendants was the mass deportation of oppressed peoples, the deprivation of their means of livelihood by the wholesale confiscation of property, the forced Germanization of citizens of occupied countries, and the destruction of their national culture, folkways and educational facilities, the creation of conditions which increased the mortality rate and prevented increase of the population, and the kidnapping of children.

These techniques of genocide, while neither so quick nor perhaps so simple as outright mass extermination, are by the very nature of things far more cruel and equally effective. If crimes such as these are allowed to go unpunished, the future of humanity is in far more danger than if an occasional murderer goes free. It is the enormity and farreaching effects of these crimes that give this case its significance.

THE RISE TO POWER OF THE SS These ruthless aims needed ruthless executioners.

Hitler found them in Heinrich Himmler and his SS. In this dock are four Lieutenant 1 Lemkin, Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (1944), p. 79.

Transcript for NMT 8: RuSHA Case

Defendants