THE PRESIDENT:Colonel Storey, is it addressed to these various rank in the Leadership Corps?
COLONEL STOREY:Your Honor, I notice on the first page it is addressed -- I am not good in reading German -- but to the State Police, to the SD, and to some other SD officials.
THE PRESIDENT:What has that got to do with the Leadership Corps?
COLONEL STOREY:It has to do with directions to Party officials to take part in these demonstrations. In other words, through certain officials of the Leadership Corps this directive was dispatched and directed.
THE PRESIDENT:Are you sure that State Police and SD aren't any of these rank in the Reich leadership?
COLONEL STOREY:If your Honors will refer to this original chart, this big one, you will notice that the SA, the SS, and several other of the organizations are listed on the left-hand part of that big chart. I think it is in the folder there on your Honor's desk. In other words, a close examination of that directive will show that they were to contact different political leaders in connection with the carrying into effect of this demonstration of the 9th and 10th of November. That is the only purpose for which it is offered. It has been introduced in evidence, but the reason I mention it at this time -
THE PRESIDENT:I can't see that it shows it. It seems to me to be a letter from the Chief of the Security Police to all headquarters and stations of the State Police.
COLONEL STOREY:I don't have the English translation before me at this moment, your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT:Well, go on.
COLONEL STOREY:I now offer in evidence document 3063, U. S. Exhibit 332. This was a report from the Chief Party Judge Buck to the defendant Goering dated the 13th of February 1939 concerning actions taken by the Supreme Party Court for excesses in connection with the demonstrations of the 9th and 10th of November 1938.
I don't believe this, if your Honors please, is in the document book - 3063.
THE PRESIDENT:Yes, it is
COLOMEL STOREY:I beg your pardon. I did not remember whether it was in here. I quote just a brief portion of it:
"When all the synagogues are burned down in one night it must have been organized in some way, and can only have been organized by the Party."
It is a long document, and that is the only portion I quote I don't have the reference to it
THETRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What page is that?
COLONEL STOREY:I am sorry, sir, I don't have the reference book.
MR. BIDDLE:Will you see if you can get it?
THE PRESIDENT:On page one. Don't you have the document before you?
COLONEL STOREY: I gave the German text over there, sir.
"When all the synagogues are burned down in one night it must have been organized in some way, and can only have been organized by the Party." The first paragraph, page seven.
Now I turn to illustrate the crimes against the Allied airmen. The members of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in and share the responsibility for the murder, beating, and ill-treatment of Allied airmen who landed in German or German-controlled territory. Many Allied airmen who hailed out of disabled planes over Germany were not treated as prisoners of war, but were beaten and murdered by German civilians with the active comdonence, indeed at the instigation of some of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party. Such a course of conduct by the Leadership Corps represented a flagrant and deliberate violation by the German Government of its obligations under the Geneva Convention to protect prisoners of war against acts of violence and ill-treatment.
As shown by Document 2473-PS -- it is not necessary to turn to that -which is a list of the Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party appearing in the National Socialist Yearbook of 1943, and by Document 2903, which is this large chart, Heinrich Himmler was the Reichsleiter of the Nazi Party and thus a top official of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his positions as Reichsfuehrer of the SS and Delegate for German Folkdom. I now offer in evidence an original order signed by Himmler, Document R-1110, as U.S.A. E xhibit No. 333.
THE PRESIDENT:Do you mean 110?
COLONEL STOREY:R-110. It is right at the last of the document, if your Honor please.
THE PRESIDENT:Yes.
COLONEL STOREY:And that is an original signed by Himmler himself, and it is dated 10 August 1943, and I quote:
"It is not the task of the police to interfere in clashes between Germans and English and American terror fliers who have bailed out."
This order was transmitted in writing to all senior executive SS and police officers, and orally to the in subordinate offivers and to all Gauleiters.
As shown in Document 2473, and by the chart, Joseph Goebbels:.
THE PRESIDENT:I was only thinking that the police aren't part of the Leadership Corps, are they?
COLONEL STOREY:But Himmler, if your Honor please, combined the office himself of the Reichsfuhrer of the SA and leader of the German police. He was an officer of the state; he was on officer of the party; and he issued this to officials of the Leadership Corps.
MR. BIDDLE:Then you thought would be that this order of Himmler's would be proof against the 600,000 members that you have spoken of?
COLONEL STOREY:Not against the members, but against the organization as a criminal organization, because from the top they disseminated orders of this type through the channels of the Leadership Corps.
THE PRESIDENT:But that is what I was putting to you, that it was not through the channels of the Leadership Corps, but through the channels of the police.
COLONEL STOREY.But the police, if your Honor please, were connected with the leadership Corps, and Himmler stood at the top of both. It doesn't show on that chart, but it shows on the other big chart, if your Honor please, with reference to Goebbels, who was a top-flight official in the Leadership Corps, the Nazi Party, by virtue of his position as propaganda leader of the Party.
In the issue of the Voelkischer Beobachter, 29 May 1944, there appeared an article written by Goebbels, the Reichsleiter for Party propaganda, in which he openly invited the German civilian population to punish allied fliers shot down over Germany. I refer to Document 1676-PS. Document 1676-PS, which is the issue of the Voelkischer Beobnchter containing this article inciting the German people to the commission of war crimes. I now quote:
"It is only possible with the aid of arms to secure the lives of enemy pilats who were shot down during such attacks, for they would otherwise he killed by the sorely tried population.
Who is right here?
The murderers who, after their cowardly misdeeds, await a humane treatment on the part of their victims, the victims who wish to defend themselves according to the principle: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth? This question is not hard to answer."
Reichsleiter Goebbels then proceeds to answer his question in the following language, and still quoting:
"If seems to us hardly possible and tolerable to use German police and soldiers against the German people when it treats murderers of children as they deserve."
On the 30th of May 1944, the defendant Bormann, Reichsleiter and Chief of the Party Chancellory, issued a circular letter on the subject which furnishes indisputable proof that British and American fliers, who were shot down, were lynched by the German population.
I offer this circular letter of the Defendant Bormann into evidence, Document 057-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit____it is up towards the top. Have you got the original book. Document 057-PS.
After alleging that in recent weeks English and American fliers had repeatedly shot children, women, peasants, and vehicles when on the highway, Bormann then states as follows in the second paragraph of the English translation. I quote:
"Several instances have occurred where members of the crews of such aircraft, who have bailed out or who have made forced landings, were lynched on the spot immediately after capture by the populance, which was incensed to the highest degree. No police measures or criminal proceedings were invoked against the German civilians who participated in these incidents," The attention of the Tribunal is particularly invited to the fact that this letter of the Defendant Bormann is distributed through the chain of command of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, expressly mentioning on the distribution list Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, Kreisleiter, and leaders of the incorporated and affiliated organizations of the Party.
The defendant Bormann requested in the first paragraph of the second page, which is found in the English translation, that the local group leaders (Orts gruppenleiter) be informed of the contents of his circular letter orally only--by oral means.
The effect of Reichsleiter Bormann's circular letter may be seen in an order dated 25 February 1945, which I now offer in evidence, and it is Exhibit L-154, U.S.A. Exhibit. 325. It is an order from Albert Hoffman, an important member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Gauleiter and National Defense Commissioner of the Gau Westfalen-South. Document L-154. It is up near the first, and it is addressed to all Country Councillors, mayors, police officials, and to county leaders and country chiefs of the Volksaturm.
The order reads in part, and I quote:
"Fighter bomber pilots who are shot down are not to be protected against the fury of the people. I expect from all police officers that they will refuse to lend their protection to those gangster types. Authorities acting in contradiction to the popular sentiment will have to account to me. All police and gendarmerie officials are to be informed immediately of this, my attitude."
The obligations -
THE PRESIDENT:Who is Hoffman?
COLONEL STOREY:Albert Hoffman was a member of the Leadership Corps by virtue of his position as Gauleiter and National Defense Commissioner of the Gau Westfalen-South. In this connection, if your Honor please, I quote the provisions of the Geneva Convention, 27 July 1927, Article 2, which provides -and I simply ask the court to take judicial knowledge:
"Prisoners of war are in the power of the hostile power, but not of the individuals or corps who have captured them.
"They must at all times be humanely treated and protected, particularly against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity.
"Measures of reprisal against them are prohibited."
THE PRESIDENT:Is that the 1907-
COLONELSTOREY: 1929, the Geneva Convention dated 27 July 1929, and being Article 2, and it was also ratified by Germany and the United States, It is clear from the foregoing quoted provisions that the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention imposes upon its signatories the strictest obligations to protect its prisoners of war from violence. The evidence just presented shows that the German State violated this provision. The evidence also proves that members of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the conspiracy to incite the German civilian population to take part in these atrocities.
Now I next turn to some illustrative crimes against foreign labor.
On 13 September 1936, Reichsleiter of the Party Organization, Dr. Ley, addressed 20,000 people attending a session of the Party Congress. The official account of the Party Rally states that the Fuehrer was received with "enthusiastic shouts of exaltation" when he strode through the hall with his deputy, his constant retinue, and several Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. I am referring to Document 2283PS, and it is the Voelkisher Beobachter for 14 September 1936, page 11 which we offer. In his speech, Reichsleiter Ley states that he had been mystified when the Fuehrer ordered him in "mid-April 1933 to take over the trade unions..., since I could not see any connection between my task as Organizational Leader of the Party and my new task," Ley continues by stating that very soon it became clear to him why his responsibilities as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization and Leader of the German Labor Front made logical his selection by the Fuehrer as the man to direct the smashing and dissolution of the free trade unions in Germany; and I quote from the document:
"Very soon.....your decision, my Fuehrer, become clear to me and I recognized that the organizational measures of the Party could only come to full fruition when supplemented by the organization of the people; that is to say by the mobilization of the energies of the people and by their concentration and alignment.
.. My tasks as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization and as a Leader of the German Labor Front were a completely homogeneous task; in other words, in everything I did, I acted as Reichsleiter of the Party Organization.
...The German Labor Front was an institution of the Party and was led to it.
The German Labor Front had to be organized regionally.
..according to the same principles as the Party.
That is why trade union and employee associations had to be smashed unrelentingly, and the basis of construction was formed, as in the Party, by the cell and the local section.
.."
On 17 October 1944, Reichsleiter Rosenberg sent a letter to Reichsleiter Bormann which I introduce as Document 327-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit 338, informing the latter that he had sent a telegram to Gauleiter urging them not to interfere in the liquidation of certain listed companies and banks under his supervision. Rosenberg emphasizes to Bormann that any "delay of liquidation or..independent confiscation of the property by the Gauleiter would impair or destroy an organized plan" for the liquidation of a vast amount of property.
On 7 November 1943, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces delivered a lecture at Munich to the Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. I now refer to Document L-172, previously introduced in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 34. The Chief of Staff stated that his object was to give a review of the strategic position at the outset of the fifth year of war; and he stated that he realized that the Political Leaders in the Reich and Gau areas, in view of their burdensome tasks in supporting the German War Effort, were, in need of information he could give. He stated, in part, as follows:
"Reichsleiter Bormann has requested me to give you a review to day of the strategic position in the beginning of the fifth year of war.
No one - the Fuehrer has ordered - may know more or be told more than he needs for his immediate task, but I have no doubt at all in my mind, gentlemen, but that you need a great deal in order to be able to cope with your tasks.
It is in your Gau, after all,...that all the enemy propaganda, and the malicious rumors concentrate that try to find themselves a place among our people.
...Against this wave of enemy propaganda and cowardice you need to know the true situation, and, for this reason, I believe that I am justified in giving you a perfectly open and uncovered account of the state of affairs.
..."
Reichsleiter Bormann distributed to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and leaders of Party affiliated organizations, by an undated letter of transmittal which is Document 656-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit 339, on the National Socialist Party stationery, signed by Bormann, an order of the Supreme Command of the Wehrmacht, relating to self-defense by German guard personnel and German contractors and workers against prisoners of war. The order of the Wehrmacht referred to states that the question of treatment of prisoners of war is continually being discussed by Wehrmacht and Party bureaus. The order states that should prisoners of war refuse to obey orders to work, the guards have "in the case of the most pressing need and danger the right to force obedience with the weapon if he has no other means. He can use the weapon as much as is necessary to attain his goal On 18 April 1944, Reich Commissar Lohse, Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, in a letter to Reich Youth Leader Axmann, proposed that the Hitler Youth participate in and supervise the military education of the Estonian and Latvian Youth.
I now offer in evidence Document 347-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit 340. Lohse states in the above letter that "in the military education camps, the young Latvians are trained under Latvian leaders in the Latvian language not because this is our ideal, but because absolute military necessity demands this." Lohse further stated in the above letter that:
"...in contrast to the Germanic peoples of the West, military education is no longer to be carried out through voluntary enlistments but through legal conscription.
The camps in Estonia and Latvia.
..will have to be under German Leadership and, as military education camps of the Hitler Youth, they must be a symbol of our educational mission beyond Germany's borders.
..I consider the execution of the military education of the Estonian and Latvian youth not only a military necessity, but also a war mission of the Hitler Youth especially.
I would be thankful to you, Party member Axmann, if the Hitler Youth would put itself at our disposal with the same readiness with which they have so far supported our work in the Baltic area."
An order of the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, dated 22 October 1938, which is Document 1438-PS, of which I ask the Court to take judicial notice, provided as follows:
"The Reichsfuehrer SS and the Chief of the German Police...
can take the administrative measures necessary for the maintenance of security and order, even beyond the legal limits otherwise set on such measures."
The above order related to the administration of the SudetenGerman territory.
In a letter dated 23 June 1943, our document No. 407-PS VI, already in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit No. 209, Gauleiter and Plenipotentiary for the Direction of Labor, Fritz Sauckel, wrote to Hitler advising him of the success of the forced labor program as of that date and stating that, and I quote, as follows:
"You can be assured that the District of Thueringen (Gau) and I will serve you and our dear people with the employ ment of all strength.
.."
I now offer in evidence Document 630-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit 342. If your Honor please, I call attention that this is on the personal stationery of Adolph Hitler. It is dated 1 September 1939. It is addressed to Reichsleiter Bouhler and Doctor of Medicine Brandt, it looks like, and it is signed by Adolph Hitler, I quote:
"Reichsleiter Bouhler and Dr. Brandt, M.D., are charged with the responsibility of enlarging the authority of certain physicians to be designated by name in such a manner that persons who, according to human judgment, are incurable can, upon a most careful, diagnosis of their condition of sickness, be accorded a mercy death.
Signed. A. Hitler."
A handwritten note on the face of the document states:
"Given to me by Bouhler on 27 August 1940, signed:
Dr. Guertner."
In a memorandum recording an agreement between himself and Himmler, the Minister of Justice Thierack stated that, on the suggestion of Reichsleiter Bormann, an agreement had been reached between Himmler and himself with respect to "special treatment at the hands of the police in cases where judicial sentences are not severe enough."
I will offer Document 654-PS, U.S. Exhibit 218, which had been previously introduced, and I want to quote a portion of it:
"The Reich Minister for Justice will decide whether and when special treatment at the hands of the police is to be applied.
The Reich Fuehrer of SS will send the reports, which he sent hitherto to Reichsleiter Bormann, to the Reich Minister for Justice."
(Underlining supplied) If the views of the Reich Fuehrer of SS and the Reich Minister for Justice disagreed, "the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to bear on the case, and he will possibly inform the Fuehrer.
.."
If the views of the Reich Fuehrer of SS and the Reich Minister for Justice disagreed.
"the opinion of Reichsleiter Bormann will be brought to bear on the case, and he will possibly inform the Fuehrer."
In the above note it is further stated:
"The delivery of anti-social elements from execution of their sentence to the Reich Fuehrer of SS to be worked to death. Persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than three-year sentences, Czechs and Germans with more than eight-year stentences, according to the decision of the Reich Minister of Justice. First of all the worst anti-social elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed over. I shall inform the Fuehrer of this through Reichsleiter Bormann."
With respect to the "administration of justice by the people", the writer states:
"This is to be carried out step by step as soon as possible, I shall rouse the Party particularly to cooperate in this scheme by an article in the Hoheitstrager."
And Your Honors have already seen copies of that publication. I will now skip paragraphs 16 and 17.
A letter from RSHA, (Reich Security Main Office) to police chiefs, dated 5 November 1942, recites an agreement between the Reich Fuehrer SS and the Reich Minister of Justice, approved by Hitler -- I call attention of Your Honors to the red border around this original and then having the Party seal on it -- providing that ordinary criminal procedure was no long to be applied to Poles and members of the Eastern populations. The agreement provided that such people, including Jews and Gypsies, should henceforth be turned over to the police. The principles applicable to a determination of the punishment of German offenders, including appraisal of the motives of the offender, were not to be applied to Foreign offenders. I quote from page 2 of the document:
"The offense committed by a person of foreign extraction is not to be regarded from the view of legal retribution by way of justice, but from the point of view of preventing dangers through police action.
From this it follows that the criminal procedure against persons of foreign extraction must he transferred from Justice to the Police. The preceding statements serve for personal information. There are no objections if the Gauleiter are informed in the usual form should the need arise."
I now skip paragraphs 19 and 20 of the text. I next refer to document 1059-PS, previously introduced in evidence as U.S.A. Exhibit 147.
In a speech to a gathering of persons intimately concerned with the Eastern problem on 20 June 1941, Reichsleiter Rosenberg stated that the Southern Russian territories and the Northern Caucasus would have to provide food for the German people. I quote Rosenberg's words:
"We see absolutely no obligation on our part to feed also the Russian people with the products of that surplus territory. We know that this is a harsh necessity, bare of any feelings."
THE PRESIDENT:We've already had that read to us twice.
COLONELSTOREY; I'm sorry sir, I did'nt hear it. Strike it from the record.
I now refer to document R-114. I believe it's the last one in the book. U.S. Exhibit 314.
Gauleiter Wagner of the German-occupied Areas of Alsace, pre-
pared plans and took measures leading to the expulsion and deportation of certain groups within the Alsation civil population. His plans called for the forcible expulsion of certain categories of socalled undesirable persons, as a means of punishment and compulsory Germanization. The Gauleiter supervised deportation measures in Alsace from July to December, 1940, in the course of which 105,000 persons were either expelled, or prevented from returning. A memorandum dated 4. August 1942 of a meeting of high SS and police officials, convened to receive the reports and plans of the Gauleiter relating to the Alsation evacuations, states that the persons deported were mainly "Jews, Gypsies and other foreign racial elements, criminals, asocial and incurably insane persons, as well as Frenchmen and Francophiles." The memorandum further states the Gauleiter stated that the Fuehrer had given him permission "to cleanse Alsace of all foreign, sick, or unreliable elements"; and that the Gauleiter emphasized the political necessity for further deportations. The memorandum further records that the SS and police officials present at the above conference approve the Gauleiter's proposals for further evacuation.
I now skip over to the next paragraph 24 A memorandum by Reichsleiter Bormann of a conference called by Hitler at his headquarters, 16 July 1941, which I now offer in evidence as Document L-221, U.S.A. Exhibit No. 317.
I'm sorry. That one was quoted this morning. The only purpose in referring to it is in connection with the Reichleiter. I believe Mr. Harris quoted from that document this morning, and. I'll not read the quotation.
I call attention, however, that this conference was attended by Reichleiter Rosenberg, Reich Minister Lammers, Field Marshall Keitel, the Reich Marshall, and Bormann, and lasted about 20 hours. The memorandum states that the discussion occurred with respect to the annexation by Germany of various parts of conquered Europe. The memorandum also states that a long discussion took place with respect to the qualifications of other Gauleiter and commissioners for the administration of various areas of occupied Russia, Goering stated, according to the memorandum, that he intended to appoint Gauleiter Terboven for the "exploitation of the Kola Peninsula; the Fuehrer agrees."
I believe the next portion has been quoted, too. I now pass to the participation of Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party in subversion of the Christian Church and persecution of the clergy and cite some illustrative crimes.
The evidence relating to the systematic effort of the defendants and co-conspirators to eliminate the Christian churches in Germany has been previously introduced in U.S.A. Exhibit "H", which is a document book containing the proofs with respect to the Nazi efforts to eliminate the Christian church. The evidence now to be presented is limited to proving and pointing up the responsibility of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party and the members thereof for illegal activities against the Christian church and clergy.
The defendant Bormann, who was a Reichsleiter and Chief of the Nazi Party Chancellery, issued a secret decree addressed to all Gauleiter, entitled "Relationship of National Socialism and Christianity." and that's Document B-73, U.S.A. Exhibit 348. In this decree Reichletier Bormann flatly declares that National Socialism and Christianity are incompatible and that the influence of the churches in Germany must be eliminated. I quote from pertinent portions of this decree beginning with the first paragraph thereof, top of page 3, which reads as follows:
"National Socialist and Christian concepts are irreconcilable. Our National Socialist ideology is far loftier than the concepts of Christianity, which, in their essential points, have been taken over from Jewry. For this reason, also, we do not need Christianity. If, therefore, in the future, your youth learns nothing more of this Christianity, whose doctrines are far below ours, Christianity will disappear by itself.
It follows from the irreconcilability of National Socialist and Christian concepts that a strengthening of existing confessions and every demand of originating Christian confessions is to be rejected by us.
A differentiation between the various Christian confessions is not to be made here. For this reason, also, the thought of an erection of an Evangelical National Church by merger of the various Evangelical Church has been definitely given up, because the Evangelical Church is just as inimicable to us as the Catholic Church. Any strengthening of the Evangelical Church would merely react against us.
"For the first time in German History, the Fuehrer consciously and completely has the leadership of the people in his own hand. With the Party, its components, and attached units, the Fuehrer has created for himself, and thereby the German Reich Leadership, an instrument which makes him independent of the Church.
All influences which might impair or damage the leadership of the people exercised by the Fuehrer, with the help of the NSDAP, must be eliminated.
More and more the people must be separated from the churches and their organs, the pastors. Of course, the churches must and will, seen from their viewpoint, defend themselves against this loss of power. But never again must an influence on leadership of the people be yielded to the churches. This influence must be broken completely and finally.
"Only the Reich Government and, by its direction, the Party, its components and attached units have a right to leadership of the people. Just as the deleterious influences of astrologers, seers and other fakirs are eliminated an suppressed by the State, so must the possibility of Church influence also be totally removed. Not until this has happened, does the State leadership have influence on the individual citizens. Not until then are people and Reich secure in their existence for all the future."
I next offer in evidence document 070-PS, towards the beginning, USA Exhibit 349, which is a copy of a letter issued from Bormann's office, dated 23 April 1941, to the defendant Rosenberg, in his capacity as the Fuehrer's Representative for the supervision of the entire mental and ideological training and education of the NSDAP. In this letter Bormann's office states that measures have been taker leading to the progressive cancellation of morning prayers and other religious services and their substitution by Nazi mottos and slogans. I quote from the first paragraph of document 070-PS, which reads as follows:
"We are inducing schools more and more to reduce and abolish religious morning services.
Similarly the confessional and general prayers in several parts of the Reich have already been replaced by national socialist mottos.
I would be grateful to know your opinion on a future national socialist morning service instead of the present confessional morning services which are usually conducted once per week ....."In a letter from Reichsleiter Bormann to Reichsleiter Rosenberg dated 22 February 1940, Document 098-PS, USA Exhibit 350, which I offer in evidence, Bormann declares to Rosenberg that the Christian religion and National Socialism are incompatible.
Bormann cites, as examples of hostile divergence between Naziism and the churches, the attitude of the latter on the racial question, celibacy of the priests, monasteries and nunneries, etc. Bormann further declares that the churches could not be subjugated through compromise, but only through a new philosophy of life as prophesied in Rosenberg's writings. In the above letter, Bormann proposes the creation of a National Socialist Catechis in order to give that part of the German youth which declines to practice confessional religion, a moral foundation, and to lay a moral basis for National Socialist doctrines which are gradually to supplant the Christian religions. Bormann suggests that some of the Ten Commandments could be merged with the National Socialist Catechism and states that a few new Commandments should be added, such as: Thou shalt be courageous; Thou shalt not be cowardly; Thou shalt believe in God's presence in the living nature, animals, and plants; Thou shalt keep your blood pure; etc. Deputy of the Fuehrer Bormann concludes that he considers the problem so important that it should be discussed with the members of the Reich Directorate as soon as possible.
I quote from the 5th paragraph of the 1st page of the English translation of document 098-PS, which reads as follows:
"Christianity and National Socialism are phenomena which originated from entirely different basic causes.
Both differ fundamentally so strongly, that it will not be possible to construct a Christian teaching which would be, completely compatible with the point of view of the National Socialist ideology; just as the communications of Christian faith would never be able to stand by the ideology of National Socialism in its entirety.
..." And then I quote from the last paragraph on page 5 of that document:
"The Fuehrer's deputy finds it necessary that all these questions should be thoroughly discussed in the near future in the presence of the Reich leaders (Reichsleiter) who are especially effected by them.
...."
(End of quotation.)
I next offer in evidence Document 107-PS.
THE PRESIDENT:Do you suggest that the Blockleiters would have to be present for that discussion?
COLONEL STOREY:Your Honor, in connection with the policy directives, the security of the sect goes from the top to the bottom and if that policy is adopted, they may by directive start at the Blockleiter. He says to discuss it in connection with the Reichsleiters who are the Party Directors, and I assume that if the Party Directors establish it as a policy, then they were to issue appropriate directives to the other subordinate members. Mr. Lambert has suggested also that it wouldn't be possible to discuss this matter with all the leadership corps and therefore they discussed it with Party Directors.
MR. BIDDLE:Does that show that he discussed it with the Directors?
COLONEL STOREY:No, that doesn't follow, but it shows that it was a subject of discussion for the Board of Directors of the Nazi Party.
THE PRESIDENT:Yes, but the question is, who are the Directors?
COLONEL STOREY:Five or six of them sit here, a total of sixteen.
THE PRESIDENT:Yes, but I thought that you were asking us to declare the whole of the organization down to the Blockleiters as criminal.
COLONEL STOREY:That is true, your Honor, but this is one instance of criminality of the organization and we can't prove at each state that all of them knew about it. We are trying to select different offenses and different crimes that were committed within the Party.
I next offer in evidence document 107-PS, U.S.A. Exhibit 351, which is a circular letter, dated 17 June 1938, addressed by the defendant Bormann, as Reichsleiter and deputy of the Fuehrer, to all Reichsleiter and Gauleiter. Bormann's letter encloses a copy of rules, prepared by Reichleiter Hierl, setting forth certain restrictive regulations with respect to participation of the Reich Labor Service in religious celebrations. I quote pertinent portions of the directions issued by Reichsleiter Hierl, beginning with the first paragraph in Hierl's list of directions set forth on page one of the English translation of document 107-PS, which read as follows: