Nor were they reasonable, in view of the geographical exigencies of military defence.
They were not the consequence of a political plan which had been well considered and carried out, but they were temporary frontiers established in virtue of a political struggle that had not been brought to a finish; and indeed, they were partly the chance result of circumstances."
In further elaboration of Nazi policy, Hitler does not merely denounce the Treaty of Versailles, he desires to see a Germany which is a world power with territory sufficient for a future German people, of a magnitutude which he does not define.
In the next quotation, from page 554, the first sentence reads, "For the future of the German nation the 1914 frontiers are of no significance."
And in the third paragraph the Court sees:
"We National Socialists must stick firmly to the aim that we have set for our foreign policy, namely, that the German people must be assured the territorial area which is necessary for it to exist on this earth.
And only for such action as is undertaken to secure those ends can it be lawful in the eyes of God and our German posterity to allow the blood of our people to be shed once again.
Before God, because we are sent into this world with the commission to struggle for our daily bread, as creatures to whom nothing is donated and who must be able to win and hold their position as lord of the earth only through their own intelligence and courage.
"And this justification must be established also before our German posterity, on the grounds that for each one who has shed his blood the life of a thousand others will be guaranteed to posterity.
The territory on which one day our German peasants will be able to bring forth and nourish their sturdy sons will justify the blood of the sons of the peasants that has to be shed today.
And the statesmen who will have decreed this sacrifice may be persecuted by their contemporaries, but posterity will absolve them from all guilt for having demanded this offering from their people."
Then, the next quotation. Hitler writes, at page 557:
"Germany will either become a world power or will not continue to exist at all.
But in order to become a world power, it needs that territorial magnitude which gives it the necessary importance today and assures the existence of its citizens."
And finally, he writes:
"We must take our stand on the principles already mentioned in regard to foreign policy, namely, the necessity of bringing our territorial area into just proportion with the number of our population.
From the past we can learn only one lesson, and that is that the aim which is to be pursued in our political conduct must be twofold, namely:
(1) the acquisition of territory as the objective of our foreign policy and (2) the establishment of a new and uniform foundation as the objective of our political activities at home, in accordance with our doctrine of nationhood."
Now, these passages from "Mein Kampf" raise the question, where did Hitler expect to find the increased territory beyond the 1941 boundaries of Germany?
To this Hitler's answer is sufficiently explicit.
Reviewing the history of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918, he wrote, in an early passage of "Mein Kampf," at page 132:
"Therefore, the only possibility which Germany had of carrying a sound territorial policy into effect was that of acquiring new territory in Europe itself.
Colonies cannot serve this purpose so long as they are not suited for settlement by Europeans on a large scale.
In the nineteenth century it was no longer possible to acquire such colonies by peaceful means.
Therefore, any attempt at such a colonial expansion would have meant an enormous military struggle.
Consequently it would have been more practical to undertake that military struggle for new territory in Europe, rather than to wage war for the acquisition of possessions abroad.
"Such a decision naturally demanded that the nation's undivided energies should be devoted to it.
A policy of that kind, which requires for its fulfilment every ounce of available energy on the part of everybody concerned, cannot be carried into effect by half measures or in a hesitant manner.
The political leadership of the German Empire should then have been directed exclusively to this goal. No political step should have been taken in response to other considerations than this task and the means of accomplishing it. Germany should have been alive to the fact that such a goal could have been reached only by war, and the prospect of war should have been faced with calm and collected determination.
"The whole system of alliances should have been envisaged and valued from that standpoint."
And then, this is the vital sentence:
"If new territory were to be acquired in Europe it must have been mainly at Russia's cost, and once again the new German Empire should have set out on its march along the same road as was formerly trodden by the Teutonic Knights, this time to acquire soil for the German plough by means of the German sword and thus provide the nation with its daily bread."
To this program of expansion in the East Hitler returned again, at the end of Mein Kampf. After discussing the insufficiency of Germany's pre-war frontiers, he again points the path to the East and declares that the Drang nach Osten, the drive to the East, must be resumed; and he writes:
"Therefore we National Socialists have purposely drawn a line through the line of conduct followed by pre-war Germany in foreign policy. We put an end to the perpetual Germanic march towards the South and West of Europe and turn our eyes towards the lands of the East. We finally put a stop to the colonial and trade policy of pre-war times and pass over to the territorial policy of the future.
"But when we speak of new territory in Europe today we must principally think of Russia and the border states subject to her."
Now, Hitler was shrewd enough to see that his aggressive designs in the East might be endangered by a defensive alliance between Russia, France and perhaps England. His foreign policy, as outlined in MEIN KAMPF, was to detach England and Italy from France and Russia and to change the attitude of Germany towards France from the defensive to the offensive.
And the final quotation from Mein Kampf comes from page 570:
"As long as the eternal conflict between France and Germany is waged only in the form of a German defence against the French attack, that conflict can never be decided, and from century to century Germany will lose one position after another. If we study the changes that have taken place, from the twelfth century up to our day, in the frontiers within which the German language is spoken, we can hardly hope for a successful issue to result from the acceptance and development of a line of conduct which has hitherto been so detrimental for us.
Only when the Germans have taken all this fully into account will they cease from allowing the national will-to-live to wear itself out in merely passive defence; but they will rally together for a last decisive contest with France. And in this contest the essential objective of the German nation will be fought for. Only then will it be possible to put an end to the eternal Franco-German conflict which has hitherto proved so sterile.
Of course it is here presumed that Germany sees in the suppression of France nothing more than a means which will make it possible for our people finally to expand in another quarter. Today there are eighty million Germans in Europe. And our foreign policy will be recognized as rightly conducted only when, after barely a hundred years, there will be 250 million Germans living on this Continent, not packed together as the coolies in the factories of another Continent but as tillers of the soil and workers whose labour will be a mutual assurance for their existence."
I submit, therefore, that quite apart from the evidence already submitted to the Tribunal, the evidence of MEIN KAMPF, taken in conjunction with the facts of Nazi Germany's subsequent behaviour towards other countries, goes to show that from the very first moment that they attained power, and indeed long before that time, Hitler and his confederates the defendants were engaged in planning and preparing aggressive war as is alleged against them in this Indictment.
Events have proved, in the blood and misery of millions of men, women, and children, that MEIN KAMPF was no mere literary exercise to be treated with easy indifference, as unfortunately it was treated before the war by these who were imperilled, but was the expression of a fanatical faith in force and fraud as the means to Nazi dominance in Europe, if not in the whole world. The Prosecution's submission is that, accepting and propagating the jungle philosophy of Mein Kampf, the Nazi confederates who are indicted here deliberately pushed our civilization over the precipice of war.
THE PRESIDENT:The Tribunal will now adjourn for ten minutes.
(A recess was taken from 1135 hours to 1150 hours.)
SIR DAVID MAXWELL FIFE:May it please the Tribunal, the next stage of the Prosecution is the presentation of the cases against the individual defendants under Counts 1 and 2 of the Indictment. Before that is begun the Chief Prosecutors for the United States and Great Britain wish, with the permission of the Tribunal, to make four points perfectly clear:
The object of this part of the case is to collect, for the benefit first of the members of the Tribunal, and secondly, of the Defense Counsel concerned, the evidence against each defendant under Counts 1 and 2 which has been presented by the British and American delegations. Otherwise it would be easy among the many documents already before the Court to miss relevant pieces of evidence which the Tribunal might wish to consider and to which the defendants may wish to make a reply.
This does not mean that the case against these defendants has in any way ended. Vital and important parts of the case remain concerning the actual atrocities, both war crimes and crimes against humanity. The evidence in regard to these will shortly be presented by the French Delegation and the Delegation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and when the massive documentation of these crimes is placed before the Court, the French and Soviet Delegations will have the opportunity of relating them to the individual defendants in the Dock.
It has been the desire of all the Chief Prosecutors to delimit as clearly as possible the evidence under the respective counts of the Indictment. The documents in evidence, however, were not written with a view to this trial, and therefore many of them inevitably deal with offenses under more than one count. It is by reason of this alone that some over-lapping and repetition necessarily exists.
Similarly, it may well occur that as the French and Soviet cases are developed, documents may come to light which bear on the common plan of conspiracy, or the initiation of wars of aggression or other material connected with Counts 1 and 2. The American and British Delegations will welcome any addition to the evidence on those parts of the case, which such documents may provide, and gladly receive such reinforcement from their French and Soviet colleagues.
With this explanation I am very grateful to the Tribunal for allowing me to make it, I call on my friend Mr. Albrecht to commence this part of the case.
DR.THOMA (Counsel for Rosenberg): Colonel Wheeler in his prosecution speech talked about churches and the persecution in the Eastern Provinces, and the Reichminister for the Occupied Countries, the defendant Rosenberg, was mentioned and made responsible. I have neither from the speech of the Prosecutor nor from the documents seen proof that, as to the affairs administered by Rosenberg, the persecutions in the charges actually took place I ask to direct the attention of the Tribunal to Document 1517, in which there is an official notice signed by Rosenberg covering a conversation dealing with the Eastern question, and this document contains a statement by Rosenberg that the Fuehrer agrees with the tolerant edict of Rosenberg,
THE PRESIDENT:Do I understand that you are making a motion at this stage?
DR. THOMA:I have a request as to the Prosecution: Perhaps the effect of the accusation against Rosenberg has been to validate and substantiate it subsequently.
THE PRESIDENT: Is your point that this Document 1517-PS has not yet been in, or what is your point?
DR. THOMA:To my knowledge this document has been submitted in connection with the opinion by Hitler that the Crimea was to be cleaned up completely; but in my present request I am concerned with the fact the Prosecution affirmed that in the General Government of Poland, in the Corridor, and in the Eastern countries, and in the areas administered by Rosenberg church persecution actually took place. The Prosecution had its proof for the first three points, but as far as the last point is concerned, I have no proof either in the document book or in the personal speeches made by the prosecution.
THE PRESIDENT:Well, you must understand that the Tribunal are not at this stage accepting everything that has been said by the Prosecution. You will have full opportunity when you present the case on behalf of the defendant Rosenberg to present any documents which may be relevant, and to comment upon any documents which have been cited by the Prosecution, and to make any argument that you think right; but this is not the appropriate time to make any such argument. We are still considering the case for the Prosecution, and you mil have full opportunity hereafter. Do you understand?
DR. THOMA:I ask the High Tribunal to consider my present statement as nothing but a statement.
THE PRESIDENT:We will do so, but it is not convenient for counsel for the defense to intervene with statements of this sort; otherwise they might be doing it all the time, each one of the defendants counsel. We must ask you therefore to withhold such statements until your time comes to answer the case for the Prosecution.
MR. ALBRECHT: May it please the Tribunal, I have been charged by the Chief of Counsel for the United States with the duty of pointing out, on the basis of evidence already admitted and of additional evidence that will be offered, the individual responsibility of these defendants for the crimes specified in counts I and II of the Indictment.
When these defendants chose to abandon everything that had been recognized as good in German life, and affirmatively participated in the work of achieving the objectives of the arty, we submit that they well knew what National Socialism stood for. They knew of the Program announced by the Nazi Party and they also had knowledge of Nazi methods. The official NSDAP program with its 25 points was open and notorious. Announced and published to the world in 1920, it was published and republished and adverted to throughout the years. The Nazis made no secret of their intentions to make the Party program the fundamental law of the German State. The Nazis made no secret of their intentions generally. For all to road, there was "Mein Kampf", the product of the warped brain of the Fuehrer, and there were the prolific writings and utterances of many other leaders who rose to prominence, some of whom are now sitting in the defendants' box. And Hitler himself had announced that the Nazis would use force if necessary to achieve their purposes.
Among these conspirators there were those who, like the defendants Hess, Rosenberg and Goering, were associated with Hitler since the very inception of the conspiracy. These men were among the original planners. They were the men who subsequently set the pace and cast the mold for the future. But there were also other conspirators, (the balance of the defendants in the dock fit into this category), who voluntarily - joined the conspiracy later.
While these men may be characterized perhaps as callous, cruel or inhuman, they certainly may not be called dull or stupid. They knew, and had had the opportunity to observe, the manifestations of Nazi violence and Nazi methods as the pattern of the Swastika developed. They knew the nature of what they were getting into. Therefore they must be presumed to have had the desire to participate (and participate they did) voluntarily, and so we submit that it may not validly be inferred that they did not join the stream of the conspiracy with their eyes open, with scienter, as the conspiracy gathered momentum and developed into a rushing torrent.
Much evidence already has been admitted by the Tribunal of the overt acts of these defendants, as well as of their fellow conspirators. We shall make no effort at this time to present an exhaustive recital of all crimes. Planned or initiated by these defendants, for which they must bear full responsibility beyond peradventure of doubt. The world already knows more of the evil deeds of these men and of their coconspirators than the prosecution possibly could hope to establish within the reasonable limits of time and of men's patience. At this point we shall attempt to focus attention merely to illustrative criminal conduct of the individual conspirators.
There is an advantage in proceeding, we submit, as we propose to do, with the permission of the Tribunal, to show in outline the extent to which these defendants have become implicated in the serious charges against them. In the case of many of these conspirators, a recital of all their crimes will relate to several of the categories of crimes described in Counts I and II of the Indictment. We shall draw these various threads together and show, as I have said, the outline of the completed proof, as it were, within Counts I of the Indictment, against the individual conspirators.
Thus, on behalf of the United States I shall commence to show how some of these defendants fit into the broad, stream of the common plan or conspiracy to wage aggressive war, and the extent of their individual responsibility for their acts in pursuance of that conspiracy.
First of all, we mention the late ROBERT LEY who, by recourse to self destruction, has escaped all punishment for his participation in the conspiracy.
Next we mention GUSTAV KRUPP von BOHLEN und HALBACH, the action against whom has been severed from this proceeding.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that documentary proof has been offered and will be offered in support of the allegations of the Indict ment that implicate both Ley and Krupp as co-conspirators for whose crimes the remaining defendants also must accept responsibility.
We next consider the defendant FRITZ SAUCKEL. The case against Sauckel has been completely stated and supported by a wealth of damning evidence, by my learned colleague Mr. Dodd, in his presentation of the case on slave labor.
We submit that it is unnecessary to add anything further to the case against Sauckel to demonstrate how completely he filled his place in the stream of the conspiracy.
The next defendant to be considered is ALBERT SPEER. Like his fellow conspirator Sauckel, Speer is deeply implicated as a member of the con spiracy and much of the case against him has been presented by Mr. Dodd in his presentation of the case on slave labor.
But unlike Sauckel, Speer's criminal activity went substantially beyond the realm of slave labor.
His was one of the master minds in the plan for the systematic robbery and despoliation of the lands overrun by the German war machine.
Documentary proof of Speer's participation in the spoliation practices in the countries of Western Europe, as well as in the Eastern territories occupied by them, will be presented subsequently by our learned colleagues, the Chief Prosecutor representing the Soviet Union and by the Chief French Prosecutor, under the remaining counts of the Indictment.
That is essentially the case that proves Speer to have been a member of the conspiracy.
There is, however, one additional exhibit that I would like to offer into evidence at this time.
It was received only a few days ago from the Ministerial Document Center at Kassel, and, it is the dossier maintained on the defendant Speer in the office of the Reichsfuehrer SS.
I offer this file as USA Exhibit 575.
It is our document 3568, and I shall read from the dossier.
THE PRESIDENT: 3568-PS?
MR. ALBRECHT:Yes, sir, if your Honor please.
THETRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What book is it in?
MR. ALBRECHT:Volume three, your Honor. It is volume three, if it may please the Court, of Document Books DD.
THE PRESIDENT:Yes.
MR. ALBRECHT:I shall read from the letter dated the 25th of July 1942, from the second paragraph:
"Reich Minister Speer was enrolled as an SS man on the personal staff of the Reich Fuehrer SS under SS No. 46104, with effect from the 20th of July 1942, by order of the Reich Fuehrer SS" and I think that is all I need to read from that letter.
But I should like to call the Tribunal's attention to the annexed document, which is a questionnaire, and right at the beginning of the sae it is related that Albert Speer was in the SS since the Autumn of 1932. He was in the SA from March 1, 1931, until autumn 1932, and that his membership number in the Party was 47481.
I next mention the Defendant Ernst Kaltenbrunner, whose case has been completely presented in connection with the presentation on the Gestapo and the SD as criminal organizations. We submit that further proof is not needed to prove how completely this enemy of his own fatherland, Austria, had been carried along in the stream of the conspiracy.
We pass then to the case of, perhaps, the most important conspirator on trial before this Tribunal the number two Nazi - the Nazi who stood next to the Fuhrer himself; the Nazi who was in some respects even more dangerous than the Fuhrer and other leading Party leaders.
We say that he was more dangerous because unlike many leading Nazis, including Hitler, - who were morally and socially on the fringes of society before the Nazi Party rode to success in 1933, - this conspirator was known to come of substantial family which had furnished officers to the army and important civil servants to the country in the past. Moreover he was possessed of substantial appearance, an ingratiating manner, a certain affability. But all of these facets of character were but deceptions, because they helped to conceal the man's core of steel, his vindictiveness, his cruelty, his lust for self-adornment, self-glorification and power.
This man was most dangerous, furthermore, because the outward characteristics to which I have called attention and which he has to some extent demonstated here in the presence of the Tribunal, were useful in deceiving the representatives of foreign states who, in their concern, sought to learn from him the true intentions of the Nazi State which, by its repeated flouting of its international commitments, had so seriously disturbed the tranquility of the world since 1933.
And I think that the record should show how, throughout the earlier stages of this trial, that is, before the nature of the documentary evidence offered by the prosecution became too grim and almost implausible, much of the benevolence of this conspirator, his ever-ready smile end ingratiating manner, were daily in evidence in this chamber.
His ready affirmation, by a pleasant nod for all to see, of the correctness of statements made or the contents of documents offered by counsel, his chiding shake of the head when he disagreed with such facts, were commonplace.
THE PRESIDENT:I don't think the Tribunal is interested in this.
MR. ALBRECHT:I shall pass on, then, with the presentation, with the permission of the Tribunal, and I shall give an account of certain facts already established by the documents in evidence; and with the permission of the Tribunal I shall not, unless it is so wished, refer to the exhibit numbers or citations of most of the old evidence that I shall allude to.
Against the background of this factual account, into which we have drawn the main threads of the case already presented that show the complicity of the defendant Goering, we shall offer certain additional documentary evidence which we believe necessary to demonstrate Goering's connection with and responsibility for certain phases of the conspiracy.
I should have said before, if your Honors please, that there has been distributed and is now before you three volumes of document books bearing the heading "DD," which contain substantially all the documents, new as well as old, bearing on the individual responsibility of this defendant.
THE PRESIDENT:Did you say they ought to be marked "DD"?
MR. ALBRECHT:I said, "It is so understood", if your Honors please.
THE PRESIDENT:Very well.
MR. ALBRECHT:We shall first deal with the individual responsibility of this conspirator for crimes against peace. These crimes include Goering's participation in the acquisition and consolidation of power in Germany, the economic and military preparations for war and the waging of aggressive war.
For more than two decides Goering's activities extended over nearly every phase of the conspiracy. He was one of the conspirators associated with Hitler from the very beginning. A member of the Party since 1922, he participated in the Munich Putsch of November 1923 at the head of the SA, a Nazi organization shown to have been committed to the use of violence.
Goering fled the country after the Putsch in order to escape arrest. After his return, be became more than a commander of street fighters, was designated Hitler's first political assistant. A measure of the man may be gleaned from an exhibit already in evidence, namely, Gritzbach's official biography of Goering, in which are recorded his dealings with the Bruening Government, his attempts to break down the barrier around President von Hindenburg, and his coup as Reichstag President in September 1932 in procuring a vote of no confidence against the von Papen government just before the Reichstag was dissolved.
Goering's writings show him not to be backward in taking credit for for his efforts to advance the cause of the Party.
Full credit has also been accorded him by Hitler, and Goering has boasted that no title and no decoration could make him so proud as the designation given to him by the German people and I quote "the most faithful paladin of our Fuehrer". That short quotation, may it please the Court, comes from our U.S.A. Exhibit 233, our Document 3251 PS.
With the advent of the Nazis to power in January 1933 Goering became Acting Minister of the Interior and Prime Minister of Prussia.
In these capacities he proceeded promptly to establish a regime of terror in Prussia designed to suppress all opposition to the Nazi program.
His chief tool in that connection was the Prussian Police which remained under his jurisdiction until 1936.
As early as February 1933 he directed the entire police force to render unqualified assistance to the para military organizations supporting the new Government, such as the SA and the SS, and to crush all political opponents with firearms, if necessary, and regardless of the consequences.
The Tribunal will take judicial notice of the Directives of 10 and 17 February 1933, which are cited on page seven of our brief and which appear in that collection of decrees known as Ministerialblatt Preussische Innere Verwaltung of 1933.
Goering has frequently and proudly acknowledged his personal respons ibility for the crimes committed pursuant to orders of this character, and I recall his words which he uttered before thousands of his fellow Germans:
"....each bullet which leaves the barrel of a police pistol now is my bullet.
If one calls this murder, then I have murdered; I ordered all this, I back it up.
I assume the responsibility, and I am not afraid to do so".That quotation, may it please the Tribunal, comes from our Exhibit U.S.A. 233, already in evidence.
Soon after he became Prime Minister of Prussia, in pursuance of the conspiracy, Goering began to develop the Gestapo or Secret State Police, the details of which organization of terror were presented to the Court by my learned colleague, Colonel Storey.
As early as 26 April 1933 he signed the first law officially establishing the Gestapo in Prussia; and pursuant to a decree which he signed, he named himself as Prime Minister, Chief of the Prussian Secret State Police.
Goering was undoubtedly an efficient conspirator. He was impatient to consolidate the power of the Party at home. Already in Spring 1933 the concentration camps were established in Prussia. Men and women so-called "Marxists", and other political opponents, taken into custody by the Gestapo, were thrown into concentration camps without trial. Goering said, "Against the enemies of the State we must proceed ruthlessly." That statement appears our document 2344-PS, which is already in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 233.
The range of political terrorism under his leadership was almost limitless. A glance at a few of his police directives in those early days will indicate the extent and thoroughness with which every dissident voice was silenced.
I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of some of these decrees in the same collection I mentioned a short while ago, entitled Ministerialblatt Preussische Innere Verwaltung, and we have cited these decrees on pages 9 and 10 of our brief.
These include:
(a) Directive of 22 June 1933, which required all officials to watch the statements of civil servants and to denounce to the Defendant Goering those who made critical remarks.
The failure to make such reports was to be regarded as proof of hostile attitude.
Then there was the directive of 23 June 1933, which suppressed all activities of the Social Democratic Party, including meetings and the Party Press, and ordered the confiscation of its property.
There was the directive of 30 June 1933, which directed the Gestapo authorities to report to the Labor Trustees on the political attitude of the workers.
There was the directive of January 1934, which ordered the Gestapo and the frontier police to keep track of emigres, particularly political emigres and Jews residing in neighbouring countries, and to arrest them and put them in concentration camps if they returned to Germany.
The essential ruthlessness of Goering is further illustrated by a well-known bloody episode.
After the elimination of forces of the opposition, the Nazis felt it necessary to dispose of nonconformists within their own ranks.
This they accomplished in what has become known as the Roehm purge of 30 June, 1934.
The Defendant Frick, a chief conspirator in his own right, stated in that connection, in an affidavit, that many people were murdered who had nothing to do with the internal SA revolt, but who were "just not liked very well."
Goering's role in this sordid affair was related less than two weeks after the event by Hitler in a speech to the Reichstag, and I would like to offer in evidence as USA Exhibit 576 our document 3442-PS, in which is contained the speech of Hitler, made on the 13th of July, 1934 in the Reichstag.
It is published in "Das Archiv," Vol. 4-6, at page 505. I quote.
"Meanwhile Minister-President Goering had already received my instructions that in case of a purge he was to take analagous measures at once in Berlin and in Prussia. With an iron fist he beat down the attack on the National Socialist State before it could develop."
With the accession of the Nazis to power, Goering at once assumed a number of the highest and most influential positions also in the Reich. The proof already presented on the composition and functions of the Reich Cabinet, and of the offices held by Goering, shows him to have been, in fact, the most important executive of the Nazi State.
A member of the Reichstag since 1928, and its President since 1932, he was a member of the Cabinet from the beginning as Reich Minister without portfolio. Shortly thereafter, he received the portfolio as Reich Minister for Air. When, in an early meetings the Cabinet discussed the pending Enabling Act, which gave the Cabinet plenary powers of legislation, he offered the suggestion that the required two-thirds majority might be obtained simply by refusing admittance to Social Democratic delegates. I offer in evidence, as USA Exhibit 578, our document 2962-PS, which contains the minutes of that meeting. If your Honors will note, that meeting was held on the 15th of March, 1933, and there were present, besides the Defendant Goering, the Defendants von Papen, von Neurath, Frick and Funk. I read from page 6 of that document.
"Reich Minister Goering expressed his conviction that the Enabling Act would be passed with the necessary two-thirds majority.
Possibly a majority could be obtained by banishing several Social Democrats from the hall.
Possibly the Social Democrats would even refrain from voting on the Enabling Act."
In 1935, with the unmasking of a secret Luftwaffe, Goering became its Commander-in-Chief. He sat as a member and the Fuehrer's Deputy on the Reich Defense Council, established by the secret law of the 21st of May, 1933. The purpose of that Council was, as stated by the Defendant Frick, in an affidavit that is in evidence--and I quote:
"To plan preparations and decrees in case of war which later on were published by the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich."