Military Tribunal, in the matter of: The
CAPTAIN SPRECHER: May It please the Tribunal, it is my responsibility and my privilege to present today the case on the individual responsibility of the Defendant Hans Fritsche for crimes against the peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity as they relate directly to the common plan or conspiracy. ation in three principal divisions: Fritsche in the Nazi State.
Second, a discussion of Fritsche's conspiratorial activities within the Propaganda Ministry from 1933 through the attack on the Soviet Union.
Third, a discussion of Fritsche's connection, as a Nazi propagandist, to the atrocities and the ruthless occupation policy which formed a part of the common plan and conspiracy.
In listing Fritsche's positions, it is not intended at first to describe the functions of these positions. Later on, in describing some of Fritsche's conspiratorial acts, I shall take up the discussion of some of these positions which he held.
Fritsche's party membership and his various positions in the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi State are shown by two affidavits by Fritsche himself, Document No.2976-PS, which is already in evidence as US Exhibit 20; and Document No.3469-PS, which I offer in evidence as US Exhibit 721. Both of these affidavits have been put into the four working languages of this Tribunal. he continued to be a member until the collapse in 1945. Fritsche began his services with the staff of the Reich Ministry for People's Enlightenment and Propaganda -- hereinafter referred to as the Propaganda Ministry -- on the 1st of May, 1933, and he remained within the Propaganda Ministry until the Nazi downfall.
September 1932, Fritsche was head of the Wireless News Service, Drahtloser Dienst, an agency of the Reich Government at that time under the government of the Defendant von Papen. After the Wireless News Service was incorporated into the Propaganda Ministry of Dr. Goebbels in May 1933, Fritsche continued as its head until the year 1938. Upon entering the Propaganda Ministry in May 1933, Fritsche also became head of the news section of the Press Division of the Propaganda Ministry. He continued in this position until 1937. In the summer of 1938, Fritsche was appointed deputy to one Alfred Ingemar Berndt, who was then head of the German Press Division. Division. Since "German Press Division" seems to be a more literal translation, we have called it the German Press Division throughout this presentation. It is sometimes otherwise known as the Domestic Press Division. Press Division of the Reich Cabinet. German Press Division. Between 1938 and November 1942, Fritsche was promoted three times. He advanced in title from Superior Government Counsel to Ministerial Counsel, then to Ministerialdirigent, and finally to Ministerialdirektor. the German Press Division by Dr. Goebbels, and accepted, from Dr. Goebbels, a newly created position in the Propaganda Ministry, that of Plenipotentiary for the Political Organization of the Greater German Radio. At the same time he also became head of the Radio Division of the Propaganda Ministry. He held both these positions in radio until the Nazi downfall.
There are two allegations of the Indictment concerning Fritsche's position for which we are unable to offer proof. These allegations appear at page 34 of the English translation.
The first unsupported allegation states that Fritsche was "Editor-inChief of the official German News Agency, Deutsche Nachrichten Buero."
The second unsupported allegation states that Fritsche was "head of the Radio Division of the Propaganda Department of the Nazi Party." and therefore these two allegations must fall for want of proof. state my appreciation for the assistance of Mr. Norbert Halpern, Mr. Alfred Booth, and Lieutenant Niebergall, who sits at my right, for their assistance in research, analysis, and translation. It has been marked as Document Book MM. It contains only 32 pages, which have been numbered consecutively, I believe, in red pencil for your convenience. The shortness of the documentation on this particular case is possible only because of a long affidavit made by the Defendent Fritsche, which was signed by him on the 7th of January 1946. proceeding. It is before Your Honors as Document No.3469-PS, beginning at Document Book, page 19. this proceeding. interrogations of Fritsche, and many materials which Fritsche volunteered to give himself, upon request made by me, through his defense counsel, Dr. Fritz. Some of the portions of the final affidavit were originally typed or handwritten by the Defendant Fritsche himself during this trial or during the holiday recess. All these materials were finally incorporated into one single affidavit.
Now, this affidavit contains Fritsche's account of the events which led to his entering the Propaganda Ministry and his account of his later connections with that Ministry. Before Fritsche made some of the statements in the affidavit concerning the role of propaganda in relation to important foreign political events, he was shown illustrative headlines and articles from the German press at that time, so that he could refresh his recollection and make more accurate statements.
of this affidavit, independent of this presentation, along with the proof on the conspirators' use of propaganda as a principal weapon in the conspiracy. Some of this proof, you will recall, was submitted by Major Wallis in the first days of this trial in connection with Brief E, entitled "Propaganda, Censorship and Supervision of the Cultural Activities", and the corresponding document book, to which I call the Tribunal's attention. I would say were in the nature of self-serving declarations. With respect to these, the Prosecution requests only that the Tribunal consider them in the light of the whole conspiracy and the indisputable facts which appear throughout the record. The Prosecution did not feel, either as a matter of expediency or of fairness, that it should request Fritsche, through his defense lawyer, Dr. Fritz, to remove some of these self-serving declarations at this time and submit them later in connection with his defense. presentation, perhaps the members of the Tribunal will wish to place a special marker in their document book. note that Fritsche first became a successful journalist in the service of the Hugenberg Press, the most important chain of newspaper enterprises in pre-Nazi Germany.
The Hugenberg concern owned papers of its own, but primarily it was important because it served newspapers which principally supported the so-called "national" parties of the Reich, including the NSDAP. 1932, when the Defendant von Papen was Reich Chancellor, he was made head of the Wireless News Service, replacing someone who was politically unbearable to the Papen regime. The Wireless News Service, I might say, was a government agency for spreading news by radio. great success, a success which Goebbels recognized and was later to exploit very efficiently on behalf of these Nazi conspirators.
Now, the Nazis seized power on the 30th of January 1933. From paragraph 10 of the Fritsche affidavit we find that that very evening, the 30th of January 1933, two emissaries from Goebbels visited Fritsche. One of them was Dressler-Andrees, head of the Radio Division of the NSDAP; the other was an assistant of Dressler-Andees named Sadila-Mantau. These two emissaries notified Fritsche that although Goebbels was angry with Fritsche for writing a critical article concerning Hitler, still Goebbels recognized Fritsche's public success on the radio since the previous fall. They stated further that Goebbels desired to retain Fritsche as head of the Wireless News Service on certain conditions: (1) That Fritsche discharge all Jews; (2) that he discharge all other personnel who would not join the NSDAP; (3) that he employ with the Wireless News Service the second Goebbel's emissary, Sadila-Mantau. Mantau. This was one of the first ostensible comrpomises after the seizure of power which Fritsche made on his road to the Nazi camp. he supported the national National Socialist coalition government then still existing. Service and Fritsche prevented them, with some difficulty, from making news broadcasts.
audience. At paragraph 9 of his affidavit, Document No. 3469-PS, Fritsche has volunteered the following concerning his prior relationships with Dr. Goebbels:
"I was acquainted with Dr. Goebbels since 1928. Apparently he had taken a liking to me, besides the fact that in my press activities I had always treated the National Socialists in a friendly way until 1931. Already before 1933, Goebbels, who was the editor of the 'Attack' -- Der Angriff -- a Nazi newspaper, had frequently made flattering remarks about the form and content of my work, which I did as contributor of many 'National' newspapers and periodicals, among which were also reactionary papers and periodicals." informed Fritsche of his decision to place the Wireless News Service within the Propaganda Ministry as of 1 May 1933. He suggested that Fritsche make certain re-arrangements in the personnel which would remove Jews and other persons who did not support the NSDAP. Fritsche debated with Goebbels concerning some of these steps. It must be said that during this period Fritsche made some effort to place Jews in other jobs. informed Goebbels about the steps he had taken in reorganizing the Wireless News Service. Goebbels thereupon informed Fritsche that he would like to have him reorganize and modernize the entire news services of Germany within the controls of the Propaganda Ministry. approximately two months before this time, the Propaganda Ministry had been formed by decree -- 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 104; our document *---* 2029-PS.
Fritsche was intrigued by the Goebbels offer. He proceeded to conclude the Goebbels-inspired reorganization of the Wireless News Service and, on the 1st of May, 1933, together with the remaining members of his staff, he joined the Propaganda Ministry. On this same day he joined the NSDAP and took the customary oath of unconditional loyalty to the Fuehrer. From this time on, whatever reservations Fritsche may have had, either then or later, to the course of events under the Nazis, Fritsche was completely within the Nazi camp.
For the next 13 years he assisted in creating and in using the propaganda devices which the conspirators employed with such telling effect in each of the principal phases of this conspiracy. German Press Division. For four years, indeed, he headed this Division, during those crucial years 1938 to 1942. That covers the period when the Nazis undertook actual military invasions of neighboring countries. It is, therefore, believed appropriate to spell out in some detail, before this Tribunal, the functions of this German Press Division. These functions will show the important and, indeed, unique position of the German Press Division as an instrument of the Nazi conspirators not only in dominating the minds and the psychology of Germans through the German Press Division and through the radio, but also as an instrument of foreign policy and psychological warfare against other nations. by a Hitler decree of the 30th of June, 1933, found in 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, page 449. From that decree I wish to quote only one sentence. It is found in Document 2030-PS, your Document Book page 3:
"The Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda has jurisdiction over the whole field of spiritual indoctrination of the nation, of propagandizing the State, of cultural and economic propaganda, of enlightenment of the public at home and abroad. Furthermore, he is in charge of the administration of all institutions serving those purposes." "enlightenment at home and abroad." Division of the Propaganda Ministry, the Tribunal is referred to Document No. 2434-PS, Document Book page 5. It is offered in evidence as USA Exhibit 722. This document is an appropriate excerpt from a book by George Wilhelm Mueller, a Ministerial Director in the Propaganda Ministry, of which the Tribunal is asked to take judicial notices.
Fritsche's affidavit, paragraphs 14, 15 and 16, beginning at page 22 of your Document Book, contains an exposition of the functions of the German Press Division, a description which confirms and adds to the exposition in Mueller's book.
Concerning the German Press Division, Fritzsche's affidavit states:
"During the whole period from 1933 to 1945 it was the task of the German Press Division to supervise the entire domestic press and to provide it with directives by which this division became an efficient instrument in the hands of the German State leadership. More than 2300 German dialy newspapers were subject to this control. The aim of this supervision and control, in the first years following 1933, was to change basically the conditions existing in the press before the seizure of power. That meant the coordination into the New Order of these newspapers and periodicals which were in the service of capitalistic special interests or party politics. While the administrative functions wherever possible were exercised by the professional associations and theReich Press Chamber, the political leadership of the German press was entrusted to the German Press Division. The head of the German Press Division held daily press conferences in the Ministry for the representatives of all German newspapers. Hereby all instructions were given to the representatives of the Press. These instructions were transmitted daily, almost without exception, and mostly by telephone, from headquarters by Dr. Otto Dietrich, Reich Press Chief, in a fixed statement, the so-called "Daily Parole of the Reich Press Chief." Before the statement was fixed the head of the German Press Division submitted to him -- Dietrich -- the current press wishes expressed by Dr. Goebbels and by other Ministries. This was the case especially with the wishes of the Foreign Office about which Dr. Dietrich always wanted to make decisions personally or through his representatives at the headquarters, Helmut Suendermann and chief editor Lorenz. The practical use of the general directions in detail was thus left entirely to the individual work of the individual editor. Therefore, it is by no means true that the newspapers and periodicals were a monopoly of the German Press Division or that essays and leading articles through it had to be submitted to the Ministry. Even in war times this happened in exceptional cases only. The less important newspapers and periodicals which were not represented at the daily press conferences received their information in a different way -- by providing them either with ready-made articles and reports, or with a confidential printed instruction. The publications of all other official agencies were directed and coordinated likewise by the German Press Division.
To enable the periodicals to get acquainted with the daily political problems of newspapers and to discuss these problems in greater detail, the "Informationskorrespondenz" was issued especially for periodicals.
Later on it was taken over by the Periodical Press Division. The German Press Division likewise was in charge of pictorial reporting insofar as it directed the employment of pictorial reporters at important events. In this way, and conditioned by the current political situation, the entire German Press was made a permanent instrument of the Propaganda Ministry by the German Press Division. Thereby, the entire German Press was subordinate to the political aims of the Government. This was exemplified by the timely measuring and the emphatic presentation of such press polemics as appeared to be most useful, as shown for instance in the following themes: the class struggle of the system era; the leadership principle and the authoritarian state; the party and interest politics of the system era; the Jewish problem; the conspiracy of World Jewry; the Bolshevistic danger; the plutocratic Democracy abroad; the race problem generally; the church; the economic misery abraod; the foreign policy; and living space -- lebensraum." own words,-indeed -- that the German Press Division was the instrument for subordinating the entire German press to the political aims of the Government.
We now pass to Fritzsche's first activities on behalf of the conspirators within the German Press Division. It is appropriate to read again from his affidavit -- paragraph 17, your document page 23. Fritzsche is describing a conference with Goebbels:
"At this time Dr. Goebbels suggested to me, as a specialist on news technique, the establishment and direction of a section "News", within the Press Division of his Ministry, in order to organize fully and to modernize the German news agencies. In executing this assignment given to me by Dr. Goebbels I took for my field the entire news field for the German Press and the radio in accordance with the directions given by the Propaganda Ministry, at first with the exception of the D.N.B., German News Agency."
An obvious reason why the D.N.B. was excepted from Fritzsche's field at this time is that the D.N.B. did not come into existence until the year 1934.
Later on, in paragraph 17 of the Fritzsche affidavit, the Tribunal will note the tremendous funds put at the disposal of Fritzsche in building up the Nazi news services. Altogether the German news agencies received a ten-fold increase in their budget from the Reich, an increase from 400,000 to 4,000,000 marks. Fritzshe himself selected and employed the Chief Editor for the Transocean News Agency and also for the Europa press. Fritzsche states that some of the "directions of the Propaganda Ministry which I had to follow were" -- and then skipping -- "increase of German news copy abroad at any cost" -- and then skipping again -"spreading of favorable news on the internal construction and peaceful intentions of the National Socialist System." achieved the fusion of the two most important domestic news agencies, the Wolff Telegraph Agency and the Telegraph Union, and thus formed the official German news agency, ordinarily known as D.N.B. It has already been pointed out to the Tribunal that the indictment is in error in alleging that Fritzshe himself was Editor-in-Chief of the D.N.B. Fritzsche held no position whatsoever with the D.N.B. at any time. However, as head of the news section of the German Press Division, Fritzsche's duties gave him official jurisdiction over the D.N.B., which was the official domestic news agency of the Reich after 1934. In the last part of paragraph 17 of this affidavit, Fritzsche states that he coordinated the work of the various foreign news agencies "within the inland Europe and overseas foreign countries with each other and in relationship to D.N.B." After January, 1933, the Wireless News Service was the official instrument of the Nazi government in spreading news over the radio. During the same time that Fritzsche headed the Wireless News Service, he personally made radio broadcasts to the German people. These broadcasts were naturally subject to the controls of thePropaganda Ministry and reflected its purposes. The influences of Fritzsche's broadcasts to the German people, during this period of consolidation of control by the Nazi conspirators, is all the more important since Fritzsche was concurrently head of the Wireless News Service, which controlled the spreading of all news by radio.
to be -- and often were -- very adept in psychological warfare. Before each major aggression, with some few exceptions based on the strategy of expediency, they initiated a press campaign calculated to weaken their victims and to prepare the German people psychologically for this Nazi madness. They used the press after their earlier conquests as a means for further influencing foreign politics and in maneuvering for the next following aggression. 1938, Fritzsche had become deputy head of the entire German Press Division. Fritzsche states that the role of German propaganda before the Munich Agreement on the Sudetenland was directed by his immediate chief, Berndt, head of the German Press Division, In paragraph 27 of the Fritzsche affidavit, page 26 of your document book, Fritzsche describes this propaganda.
Speaking of Berndt, Fritzsche states:
"He exaggerated minor events very strong ly, used sometimes old episodes as new -- and there even came complaints from the Sudetenland itself that much of the news reported by the German press was untrustworthy. As a matter of fact, after the great foreign political success at Munich in September, 1938, there came a noticeable crisis in confidence of the German people in the trustworthiness of its press. This was one reason for the recalling of Berndt, in December 1938 after the conclusion of the Sudeten action and for my appointment as head of the German Press Division. Beyond this, Berndt, by his admittedly successful but still primitive military-like orders to the German Press, had lost the confidence of the German editors."
Now, what happened at this time? Fritzsche was made head of the German Press Division in place of Berndt. Between December, 1938 and 1942, Fritzsche, as head of the German Press Division, personally gave to the representatives of the principal German newspapers the "daily parole of the Reich Press Chief." During this history-making period he was the principal conspirator directly concerned with the manipulations of the press. The first important foreign aggression after Fritzsche became head of the German Press Division was the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia. In paragraph 28, your document book page 26, Fritzsche gives his account of the propaganda action surrounding the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia as follows:
"The action for the incorporation of Bohemia and Moravia, which took place on 15 March 1939, wh ile I was head of the German Press Division, was not prepared for such a long period as the Sedeten action. According to my memory it was in February that I received the order from the Reich Press Chief, Dr. Dietrich, which was repeated as a request by the envoy Paul Schmidt of the Foreign Office, to bring the attention of the press to the efforts for independence of Slovakia and to the continued anti-German coalition politics of the Prague government. I did this. The daily paroles of the Reich Press Chief and the press conference minutes at that time show the wording of the corresponding instructions. These were the typical headlines of leading newspapers and the emphatic leading articles of the German daily press at that time: (1) the terrorizing of Germans within the Czech territory by arrest, shooting of Germans by the state police, destruction and damaging of German homes by Czech gangsters; (2) the concentration of Czech forces on the Sudeten frontier; (3) the kidnapping, deporting and persecuting of Slovakian minorities by the Czechs; that the Czechs must get out of Slovakia; (4) secret meetings of Red functionaries in Prague.
Some few days before the visit of Hacha, I received the instruction to publish in the press very emphatically the incoming news on the unrest in Czechoslovakia. Such information I received only partly from the German News Agency, D.N.B. Mostly it came from the Press Division of the Foreign Office and some of it came from big newspapers with their own news services. Among the newspapers offering information was above all the Voelkischer Beobachter which, as I learned later on, received its information from the SS Standartenfuehrer Gunter D'Alquen. He was at this time in Pressburg. I had forbidden all news agencies and newspapers to issue news on unrest in Czechoslovakia before I had seen it. I wanted to avoid a repetition of the very annoying results of the Sudeten action propaganda, and I did not want to suffer a loss of prestige caused by untrue news. Thus, all news checked by me was admittedly full of tendency -- voller tendenz -- however, not invented. After the visit of Hacha in Berlin and after the beginning of the invasion of the German Army, which took place on 15 March 1939, the German press had enough material for describing those events. Historically and politically the event was justified with the indication that the declaration of independence of Slovakia had required an interference and that Hacha with his signature had avoided a war and had reinstated a thousand-year union between Bohemia and the Reich." the 1st of September, 1939, and thus the propaganda action just preceding the precipitation of World War II, bears again the handiwork of Fritzsche and his German Press Division, In paragraph 30 of Fritzsche's affidavit, document book page 27, Fritzsche speaks of the conspirators' treatment of this episode as follows: in the case of Poland. Under the influence of the German-Polish agreement, it was generally forbidden in the German press for many years to publish anything on the situation of the German minority in Poland. This remained also the case when in the Spring of 1939 the German press was asked to become somewhat more active as to the problem of Danzig.
Also, when the first PolishEnglish conversations took place and when, the German press was instructed to use a sharper tone against Poland, the question of the German minority still remained in the background. But during the summer this problem was picked up again and created immediately a noticeable sharpening of the situation, namely, each larger German newspaper had for quite some time an abundance of material on complaints of the Germans in Poland without the editors having had a chance to use this material. The German papers from the time of the minority discussion at Geneva, still had correspondents or free collaborators in Kattewitz, Bromberg, Posen, Thorn, etc. Their material now came forth with a bound. Concerning this the leading German newspapers, upon the basis of directions given out in the so-called "daily parole" brought out the following publicity with great emphasis: (1) cruelty and terror against Germans and the extermination of Germans in Poland; (2) forced labor of thousands of German men and women in Poland; (3) Poland, land of servitude and disorder; the desertion of Polish soldiers; the increased inflation in Poland; (4) provocation of frontier clashes upon direction of the Polish Government; the Polish lust to conquer; (5) persecution of Czechs and Ukranians by Poland. The Polish Press replied particularly sharply." conventional pattern. You will find the customary definitions, the lies, the incitement and the threats and the usual attempt to divide and to weaken the victim. Paragraph 32 of the Fritzsche affidavit, your document book page 28, outlines this propaganda action as follows:
"During the period immediately preceding the invasion of Yugoslavia, on the 16th of April the German press emphasized by headlines and leading articles the following topics: (1) the planned persecution of Germans in Yugoslavia including the burning down of German villages by Serbian soldiers; also the confining of Germans in concentration camps and also the physical mishandling of German-speaking persons; (2) the arming of Serbian bandits by the Serbian Government; (3) the incitement of Yugoslavia by the plutocrats against Germany; (4) the increasing anti-Serbian feeling in Croatia; (5) the chaotic economic and social conditions in Yugoslavia." because these conspirators wanted the advantage of surprise, there was no special propaganda campaign immediately preceding the attack on the U.S.S.R. Fritzschein paragraph 33 of his affidavit discusses the propaganda line, however, for the justification of this war -- this aggressive war -- to the German people:
"During the night from the 21st to the 22nd of June 1941, Ribbentrop called me in for a conference in the Foreign Office Building at about 5 o'clock in the morning, at which representatives ot the domestic and foreign press were present. Ribbentrop informed us that the war against the Soviet Union would start that same day and asked the German press to present the war against the Soviet Union as a preventative war for the defense of the Fatherland, as a war which was forced upon us through the immediate danger of an attack of the Soviet Union against Germany. The claim that this was a preventative war was later repeated by the newspapers which received their instructions from me during the usual daily parole of the Reich Press Chief. I, myself, have also given this presentation of the cause of the war in my regular broadcasts." and expert assistance to the colossal apparatus of the Propaganda Ministry. In 1939 he apparently became dissatisfied with the efficiency of the existing facilities of the German Press Division in furnishing grist for the propaganda mill and its intrigues. He established a new instrument for improving the effectiveness of Nazi propaganda. In paragraph 19 of his affidavit, page 24 of cur document book, Fritzsche describes this new propaganda instrument as follows:
"About the summer of 1939 I established within the German Press Division a section called 'Speed-Service." And then skipping and quoting again "At the start it had the task of checking the correctness of news from foreign countries. Later on, about the Fall of 1939, this section also elaborated on collecting materials which were put at the disposal of the entire German press. For instance, dates from the British Colonial policy, from political statements of the British Prime Minister in former times, descriptions of social distress in hostile countries, etc. Almost all German newspapers used such material as a basis for their polemics. Hereby was achieved a great unification within the fighting front of the German press. The title "Speed Service" was chosen because materials for current comments were supplied with unusual speed".
of aggressive wars, Fritzsche made regular radio broadcasts to the German people under the program titles of "Political Newspaper Review", "Political and Radio Show", and later "Hans Fritzsche Speaks". His broadcasts naturally reflected the polemics and the controls of his Ministry and thus of the Common Plan or Conspiracy. of Goebbel's propaganda team, helped substantially to bathe the world in the blood bath of aggressive war.
With the Tribunal's consent I will now pass to proof bearing on Fritzsche's incitement of atrocities and his encouragement of a ruthless occupation policy. The results of propaganda as a weapon of the Nazi conspirators reaches into every aspect of this conspiracy, including the abnormal and inhuman conduct in the atrocities and the ruthless exploitation of occupied countries. Most of the ordinary members of the German nation would never have participated in or tolerated the atrocities committed throughout Europe if they had not been conditioned and goaded to barbarous convictions and misconceptions by the constant grinding of the Nazi propaganda machine. Indeed, the propagandists who lent themselves to this evil mission of instigation and incitements are more guilty than the credulous and callous minions who headed the firing squads or operated the gas chambers, of which we have heard so much in this proceeding. For the very credulity and callousness of these minions was in large part due to the constant and evil propaganda of Fritzsche and his official associates. Propaganda Ministry had a special branch for the "Enlightenment of the German people and of the world as to the Jewish question, fighting with propagandistic weapons against enemies of the State and hostile ideologies." This quotation is taken from a book written in 1940 by Ministerial Director Mueller, entitled "The Propaganda Ministry." It is found in Doc. No. 2434PS, our Doc. Book, p. 10, offered as U.S. Exhibit 722. In mentioning that document, your Honors, I should have said Document No. 2434 (A) PS. It is another excerpt from Ministerial Director Mueller's book and I merely ask that you take judicial notice of it for that one sentence that I have read.
Fritzsche took a particularly active part in this "enlightenment" concerning the Jewish question in his radio broadcasts. These broadcasts literally teemed with provocative libels against Jews, the only legal result of which was to inflame Germany to further atrocities against the helpless Jews who came within its physical power. Doc. No. 3064-PS contains a number of complete broadcasts by Fritzsche which were monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation and translated by BBC officials. For the convenience of the Tribunal I have had those excerpts upon which the prosecution relies to show illustrative types of Fritsche's broadcasts, mimeographed and made into one document, which I offer into evidence as US Exhibit 723. Even the defendant Streicher, the master Jew-baiter of all time, could scarcely outdo Fritzsche in some of his slanders against the Jews. All the excerpts in Doc. No. 3064-PS are from speeches of Fritzsche given on the radio between 1941 and 1945, which we have proven was a period of intensified anti-Jewish measures. With the permission of the Tribunal, I would like to read some of these excerpts:
Page 14 of our document book, Item 1. Fraom a broadcast of 18 December 1941: It is found on page 2122 of the translations from BBC:
"The fate of Jewry in Europe has turned out as unpleasant as the Fuehrer predicted in the case of a European war. After the extension of the war instigated by Jews, this unpleasant fate may also spread to the New World, for you can hardly assume that the nations of this New World will pardon the Jews for the misery of which the nations of the Old World did not absolve them. translations:
"But the crown of all wrongly-applied Rooseveltian logics is the sentence 'There never was a race and there never will be a race which can serve the rest of mankind as a master.' Here too we can only applaud Mr. Roosevelt. Precisely because there exists no race which can be the master of the rest of mankind, we Germans have taken the liberty to break the domination of Jewry and of its capital in Germany, of Jewry which believed to have inherited the Crown of secret world domination." not only a cause for past acts concerning persecution of Jews but an announcement that more is coming and an encouragement of what was coming. cast, translated at page 2101 of the BBC translation:
"We know very well that these German victories, unparalleled in history, have not yet stopped the source of hatred, which, for a long time, has fed the war mongers and from which this war originated. The international JewishDemocratic Bolshevistic campaign of incitement against Germany still find cover in this or that fox's lair or rat-hole. We have seen only too frequently how the defeats suffered by the war mongers only doubled their senseless and impotent fury."
Another broadcast of the 8th January 1944. Your Honors, I have tried to pick out illustrative broadcasts from different periods here.
"It is revealed clearly once more that not a system of Government, not a young nationalism, not a new and well applied Socialism brought about this war.