Volume 4 — Introductory material (continued 14)

We see into the distant future, because we know what it will be. That is why we are doing our duty more fanatically than ever, more devoutly than ever, more bravely, more obediently and more thoroughly than ever. We want to be worthy of being permitted to be the first SS-men of the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, in the long history of the Germanic people, which stretches before us.

Now let us remember the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler, who will create the Germanic Reich and will lead us into the Germanic future [p. 116].

Our Fuehrer Adolf Hitler Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil! Sieg Heil!

Speech of the Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler at Kharkow April 1943

My SS-Fuehrer,

It is perhaps very strange, that we should meet in a university of the Russian State, here at Kharkow,—at this Kharkow, which has played so great a part, and really will play a still bigger part in the history of the war. Until last year it was of no very great significance. This year it has become, like Stalingrad, but in the reverse sense, a city of destiny in German war history, in German history. I have asked you, the Commanding Officers of the three SS-Divisions, who took part in this campaign from the Dnieper to Kharkow and carried out this campaign practically alone and forced a decision, to come together here in order, as has been the custom for many many years, as long as there has been an SS, to meet each other again, and in order once more to establish a few facts about the past and the future.

I would like, in a few words, to outline the whole position and situation with regard to the war.

Today, Germany is on the borders of Europe everywhere. These European frontiers stretch up as far as the North Cape, down the Norwegian coast, through Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and France and jump over to Africa, continue to Tunis to form a bridgehead, run across as far as the frontiers formed by the sea, then from Greece and Crete up to the borders of the neutral states of Turkey and Bulgaria, to join hands again here in the East. I would like to give it a name: it is the great fortress of Europe.

It will undoubtedly happen, that the enemy will make the attempt, today, tomorrow or the next day, at some time, to break into this fortress of Europe at one point or another. That will undoubtedly be the case. Possibly he will be able to force an entry for a shorter or longer period at one point or another in places which we do not have in our personal and responsible control, or which we are not defending with our arms [p. 2]. One thing is certain: wherever the enemy lands, if once we can get to grips with him on the Continent, where we are not dependent on supplies from overseas, that ought to be, and will be, all right with us. On the whole, however, it is here in the East that the decision lies. The fortress of Europe with its frontiers must be held and will be held too, as long as is necessary. The decision, therefore, lies here in the East; here must the Russian enemy, this people numbering two hundred million Russians, be destroyed on the battle field and person by person, and made to bleed to death ...

It is my opinion—and here, I believe, I am speaking to men [p. 3] who already understand this—that we must conduct the war and our campaign on these lines:—how can we take the most men from the Russians—dead or alive? We shall do it by killing them or taking them prisoner and [p. 4] really putting them to work, by endeavoring to gain as much control as possible over any territory we occupy, and by leaving empty of people any territory we dispose of, any areas we make over to the enemy. Either they must be deported and will be used as labour in Germany for Germany, or they will just die in battle. To hand people back again, giving the enemy workers once more and enabling him to recruit again,—that I think, taking the broad view, would be absolutely wrong. That could not be advocated * * *

On the other side, one thing goes on the same as ever, the U-boat war, this dreadful stranglehold on the throat of the enemy. [p. 5] I have good reason to be convinced that this stranglehold will never be relaxed, but will tighten. I cannot help feeling that things are beginning to go worse with England these last few months in matters of supply. That by no means indicates that England will collapse today, tomorrow or the next day, but it does mean that we will just be approaching the time when one or other of our opponents, once Russia is conquered and eliminated as a factor, will come to the conclusion that it is not worth carrying on the war. The result—and I am convinced of this, I believe it and I know it—the result, the end of this war, regardless of however many months or even years it lasts, will be this: that the Reich, the German Reich or the Germanic Reich of the German nation, will with just title find confirmation of its evolution, that we have an outlet and a way open to us in the East, and that then centuries later, a politically Germany—a Germanic World Empire will be formed. That will be the result, that will be the fruit of all the many, many sacrifices, which have been made and which must still be made.

We have,—I would say, as very consistent National Socialists, [p. 7] taken the question of blood as our starting point. We were the first really to solve the problem of blood by action, and in this connection, by problem of blood, we of course do not mean anti-semitism. Anti-semitism is exactly the same as delousing. Getting rid of lice is not a question of ideology. It is a matter of cleanliness. In just the same way, anti-semitism, for us, has not been a question of ideology, but a matter of cleanliness, which now will soon have been dealt with. We shall soon be deloused. We have only 20,000 lice left, and then the matter is finished within the whole of Germany. But for us the question of blood was a reminder of our own worth, a reminder of what is actually the basis holding this German people together. Just as is the case in the years between 1938 and 1943, in exactly the same way as now, the same ill-founded reproaches were made then: well, if you bring the Nordic man so much to the fore, you’re creating a new split, a new class-distinction,—it’s a new class hatred. We’re overcoming the social barriers, so I’ve been told by important party members, and now you’re setting up racial ones. My reply to these people has always been: If you want to look at things in a negative way, there is nothing in the world which you cannot see in a negative way. From the negative angle, of course, you can argue that way. I see it differently, for I see it on this plane: What is the binding factor which holds the man in East Prussia and the man in the Black Forest together, the man in Schleswig-Holstein and in Hamburg and the man in Munich, in Graz, in Pomerania, in Berlin [p. 8] and in the Rhineland? What is then the factor or the element which contains all that is dear and precious and valuable to us? It is in fact what we Germans call inherent Kultur, it is this Germanic, this Nordic component of our blood.

In one operation those peoples must and will be incorporated in the Germanic Reich which, at one time, were part of Germany, part of the German Empire (the Roman Empire and the German nation) and belonged to us up to 1806 or only till 1648,—that is Flanders, Wallonia, and the Netherlands. They were a part of the Reich [p. 10]. Over and above this, we must have the power to bring into the fold, and make a part of our community in a second operation, those Germanic peoples and states too, which have never been part and parcel of the German Reich,—I mean Denmark and Norway, the Danish and Norwegian people.

I very soon formed a Germanic SS in the various countries. We very soon got Germanic volunteers from them [p. 11]. It has not always been liked and is still not liked today by many of the political leaders in these countries. From the beginning, I have said to them, “You can do what you like and leave what you like. I leave everything entirely to you, but you may be sure, that an SS will be set up in your country, and there is but one SS in Europe, and that is the Germanic SS, led by the Reichsfuehrer-SS. You can resist, or you can offer no resistance, it’s all the same to me. We shall do it in any case!” We have told them that curtly and plainly and clearly from the beginning.

I have said to the SS-men from the beginning too: We do not expect you to renounce your nation, or do anything which a proud and self-respecting fellow who loves his nation cannot do. We do not expect you to become German out of opportunism. But we do expect you to subordinate your national ideal to the greater racial and historical ideal, to the Germanic Reich.

In addition, one thing is quite obvious. All of us, who are members of the Germanic peoples, can be happy and thankful that once in thousands of years fate has given us, from among the Germanic peoples, such a genius, a leader, our Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, and you should be happy to be allowed to work with us.

Although I do not wish to discuss any individual official matters here, I would still like to mention in a slightly official way, in my capacity as a military man, what I said before about racial Germans. I beg you never to commit the psychological error of speaking of Germans who came from Roumania or Hungary or Croatia, as Croats, Roumanians or Hungarians. I also beg you never to make the mistake of letting a man who speaks [p. 12] German badly or cannot speak and read German, sense this, or let him sense the thought: “You are a second-rate German, for you can’t read or write German properly.” I beg you rather, (and here too I am stating a very sober opinion), to think in this case of these Germans in the whole of the Balkans, still more of those overseas, in America, when one day we must fetch over here in millions,—and we shall succeed in doing so—who have held out for centuries. I am certainly of the opinion that if a mighty German Reich with an incredible upward urge in its very being and a great German Fuehrer had not now come into being at this time and in the last few decades, it would have been the end of these Germans. A person with a very strong character can personally rise above his surroundings for years and perhaps for decades. A race, if it is in small groups, cannot in the long run hold out against its surroundings. And we must never forget this: these Germans do not usually live together in hundreds of thousands, but a thousand here in a few villages, and two thousand there, and 20 thousand at the most somewhere else. But they do not live together in large numbers. So they are always encircled by a foreign nation [Volkstum], and surrounded by its influence, but are above all surrounded by the influence of the people of the country. They are not the people of the country, those are the others. They are subjects of a state of foreign nationality, which, in any moment of doubt, is their enemy, or at the very best, as, shall we say, Roumania, a tolerably neutral and impartial observer. But on the whole these Germans have lived, throughout the centuries of German weakness, from the Thirty Years’ War up till now, in surroundings calculated not to strengthen their consciousness of German race [Deutschtum] but to destroy it.

There was something else besides this. If one of these Germans wanted to get anywhere he could only do so by entering the state system of the foreign people as an official or an officer. It is no mere chance—[p. 13]. I am not making spiteful assertions now but merely stating the facts—that, for instance, among Hungarian generals there is such a considerable percentage of men of German origin, who of course had, in most cases, to alter their names if they wanted to get anywhere. In many cases, if they did not do so, and remained obdurate about it, they were subsequently removed from office. I quote here as an example the present Chief of the Hungarian General Staff, General Sombacke, who in his youth at the Austrian Military Academy still had the thoroughly good German name of Knaus. May I remind you of Feldmarschall or Feldmarschall-Lieutnant Raab, who as we all know, has now retired. Both are of German descent, and one could name countless hundreds of leading men in these South-Eastern States who are all of German origin, had to become part of the alien nation, and were then drained [eine Auslaugung bildeten] of their own most valuable national characteristics.

If, then, we get sons of these racial Germans [Volksdeutschtum] who have still survived there—(some are genuine volunteers, and others come as a result of a levy, for we have organized the racial groups from within the Reich through the SS, so that without possessing political power we have in fact, morally such strength and power among these people that we can compel a man, compel him morally, to serve with us in Germany, due entirely to the power of the whole German national community)—if we therefore get these men, you must not make it difficult for them to enter our community by calling him by the name which you judge he will not wish to hear. A Saxon from Siebenburg will never let it be said that he is a Roumanian. It’s just against that that he and his fathers have fought for 700 years. And a German from Hungary will never let it be said that he is a Hungarian. If you know how he has been thrashed by many a Hungarian gendarme, before he came to us, how his mother was thrashed, and his parents driven from hearth and home, you can imagine how bitter it is for him if he now joins German service-men and they say: here comes a Hungarian. Or you can imagine how bitter it is for him when he is reproached for something which he cannot help. If we had not been to a German school we should not be able to read and write German either. If we had been forced, shall we say, to go to a Polish school, we should write Polish too, although we profess to be Germans. And that is often the case with these men. I must therefore expect of you understanding and human sympathy in this matter, and must expect that the leaders, in addition to their many other duties, will undertake to see that additional German instruction in reading, speaking and writing, be given to these men at every opportunity that is offered. I lay special emphasis on this matter, because by negotiations, we have now managed to make an arrangement enabling us in future to enlist even those Germans who up to now have been serving in the Roumanian army. So we can expect a great influx from the Germans of the South-East.

We know that these clashes with Asia and Jewry are necessary [p. 16] for evolution. They give the cue [Auftakt] for the European Continent to unite. These clashes are the only evolutionary possibility which will enable us one day, now that Fate has given us the Fuehrer Adolf Hitler, to create the Germanic Reich. They are the necessary condition, for our race, and our blood to create for itself and put under cultivation, in the years of peace, (during which we must live and work austerely, frugally and like Spartans), that settlement area in which new blood can breed, as in a botanical garden so to speak. Only by this means can the Continent become a Germanic Continent, capable of daring to embark, in one or [p. 17] two or three or five or ten generations, on the conflict with this Continent of Asia which spews out hordes of humanity. Perhaps we shall also have to hold in check other coloured peoples who will soon be in their certain prime, and thus preserve the world, which is the world of our blood, of our children and of our grandchildren. Now it is just this world we like the best, the Germanic world, the world of Nordic life. We know that this conflict with the advancing pressure from Asia, with the 200 million Russians, is necessary. And we shall win as sure as I am speaking here in the University of Kharkow. We shall have to pass through many a valley, many a narrow defile. Many will grow tired on the way. Of course they will mostly be those who have no reason to do so. To put it vulgarly, many will do something in their trousers. Many people will get shaky at the knees. The only thing that matters is that we stand firm. This is what is important for us as SS-men, for our province of duty and our mission (it is a task additional to those of the whole German Armed Forces and the whole German people): That is what I would like to impress upon you, this is what I beg you, as Commanding Officers, as Chiefs, and as leaders to teach the young men again and again in their ideological instruction. That is what I demand and exact of you,—that you really concern yourselves with the man, the young fellow of 17 to 18 who comes to us, and with many who are in our ranks not as volunteers but as conscripts. I ask you to look after them, and guide them, and not let them go before they are really saturated with our spirit and are fighting as the old guard fought before us—that is what I request and demand of you.

We have only one task, to stand firm and carry on the racial struggle without mercy. I will now say again something which I have already today said to the men elsewhere: we will never let that excellent weapon, the dread and terrible reputation which preceded us in the battles [p. 18] for Kharkow fade, but will constantly add new meaning to it. They can call us what they like in the world, the main thing is that we are the eternally loyal, obedient, steadfast and unconquerable fighting men of the Germanic people and of the Fuehrer, the SS of the Germanic Reich.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1932-PS

SS Main Economic Administrative office

[SS-Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt]

Oranienburg 7 June 1943

Office group D, Concentrations Camps

D I/ 1 Az: 14 c 2 / Ot / S.—Secret diary No. 743/43

Subject: Treatment of prisoners who fall under the night and fog decree. [NN-Erlass].

Reference: Reich Security Main Office [Reichs-Sicherheitshauptamt] IV c 2 General No. 103/42 g - issued 5 May, 1943

Annexes: None

SECRET

To the Camp commanders of the Concentrations Camps

Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Flossenburg, Neumarkt, Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen, Natzweiler, Stu., Ravensbruck, Herz., Riga, Lublin and the Civilian Camp Bergen-Belsen.

[Da., Sah., Bu., Mau., Flo., Neu., Au., Gr.-Ro., Natz., Stu., Rav., Herz., Ri., Lub., und Zil Bergen-Belsen.]

I send the following decree of the Reich Security Main Office [Reichssicherheitshauptamt] regarding treatment of Night and Fog [NN] prisoners for acknowledgement and strictest observation.

The purpose of the NN decree is the elimination of all anti-German forces in the occupied territories and their being brought into the Reich.

The relatives and the population are to be kept in uncertainty about the fate of these persons. In order to achieve this, the NN decree further provides that prisoners of this kind should be placed under prohibitions to write, to receive mail and parcels, to talk, or that information should be given about them. In this regard it is irrelevant whether it is the question of a NN-prisoner of the old or new type. By NN-prisoners of the old type are understood those whom the military courts have handed over to the disposing agencies for shipment to the Reich, while the so-called New-Type NN-prisoners have been brought directly by the arresting agencies of the Security-Police and of the SD to the concentration camps (KL) in the Reich without the participation of military courts.

The Agencies of the security police and of the SD in question are instructed to submit to the Reich security Main Office and to the concentration camp in charge questionnaires on all prisoners who fall under the NN-decree. This questionnaire should contain detailed personal data, data on racial origin, the reason for arrest, the former place of custody and other incriminating elements. These questionnaires are to be marked by a seal “Night and Fog” [Nacht und Nebel].

Upon the reports of the agencies of the Security Police and of the SD a collective order for protective custody will be issued here with the questionnaires attached and the agencies will be further instructed to transfer the arrestees to a concentration camp.

Insofar as Germanic NN-prisoners are concerned, they will be transferred from here to the concentration camp of Natzweiler exclusively; in all other cases the NN-prisoners will be shipped to a concentration camp depending on the location of the transferring agency of the Security Police and of the SD with consideration of the echelon division and of capacity of the concentration camp.

The camp commanders of concentration camps in which there are already NN-prisoners have to order immediately that the prisoners should be investigated according to racial points of view and that the Germanic NN-prisoners should be transferred to the concentration camp of Natzweiler. Compliance with this order is to be reported on individual questionnaires for each prisoner. The camp commander of the concentration camp of Natzweiler has to take care that the NN-prisoners are to be kept separated from the other prisoners.

In other respects the directives of the RSHA-Referat ND 4—which have been sent together with the secret letter No. 551/42, dated 18 Aug. 1942, are referred to.

Furthermore it is pointed out again as has been ordered already in the circular decree, issued 2 Feb. 1943, secret diary No. 111/43—that death notices of NN-prisoners are to be submitted exclusively to the agency particular transferring agency of the Security Police and of the SD, to the RSHA and to this agency, in order to exclude divulgence of the place of custody of an NN-prisoner. Hereby the decrees regulating the procedure in cases of death, particularly any notification of the relatives are cancelled. The effects of deceased Night and Fog prisoners are to be sent in their entirety to the transferring agency in charge which will guard it until further notice.

The chief of the central office [signature illegible] SS Lt. Colonel

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1933-PS

Main Bureau for SS Economic Administration

Bureau Group Chief D—Concentration Camp— DI/l/Az: 14 f 13/L/S

Secret order of the day—No. 612/43

Subject: Action 14 f 13 in the concentration camps.

Reference: Local directive DI/1/Az: 14 f 13/OT/S—Secret order of the day No. 34/43 of S.1.43

STATE SECRET

To the Camp Commanders of the Concentration Camps

Da., Sah., Bu., Mau., Flo., Neu., Au., Gr.-Ro., Natz., Stu., Rav., Ri., Herz., Lubl., and Bergen-Belsen.

Copy to: Chief of Bureau D II, III in the house

The Reich Fuehrer-SS and Chief of German Police has decided, after consultation, that in the future only mentally sick [geisteskranke] prisoners may be selected for action 14 F 13 by the medical commissions appointed for this purpose.

All other prisoners incapable of working (tubercular cases, bed-ridden cripples, etc.) are to be basically excepted from this action. Bedridden prisoners are to be drafted for suitable work which they can perform in bed.

The order of the Reich Fuehrer SS is to be obeyed strictly in the future.

Requests for fuel for this purpose therefore do not take place.

[signature illegible] SS-Brigadefuehrer and Major General of the Waffen-SS

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1939-PS

A “Proclamation to Workers” addressed to employees and employers by Dr. Robert Ley on 5 September 1939. Quoted from the chapter “The German Worker Has Recognized * * *” pp. 14-17, of “Forge of the Sword”, a collection in book form of speeches by, and articles about, Dr. Robert Ley, published in 1942 by the Central Publishing House of the NSDAP, Franz Eher Successor, Munich, with a foreword by Reichs Marshal Goering.

The German people in its over-all attitude is what the Fuehrer has made of that people after the collapse. The poised and self-assured attitude of the German people in the current world crisis contrasts so enormously with the insecurity of the so-called democratic nations, that each thinking human being must ask himself about the cause of this state of affairs, which is so full of hope for us Germans.

The achievement of the Fuehrer in the entire political sphere is a LARGE SCALE AND UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENT OF EDUCATION. The following principles have been taught by the Fuehrer and are decisive for the present strong attitude of Germany.

The Fuehrer has taught the German people that its existence and its being is dependent upon the unqualified perception of all Germans that the battle for life of the German people cannot be fought in limited areas, but that this battle for life means wrestling and battling in all spheres of life. It is the teaching of the totality for the battle for life.

We National Socialists say: social policy and economy are one and belong together. Progress and development are socialism. A socialist can never be a pacifist; on the contrary, he must ALWAYS STAND PREPARED AT THE HIGHEST PITCH OF MILITARY READINESS to attain the socialist objective. Peace and war are not separate, mutually exclusive conditions, but in each case they are only a different guise [Erscheinungsform] for one and the same struggle of the people to secure its living potentialities. We National Socialists do not hope for gifts and miracles, but we recognize that every thing must be fought and worked for honestly. We do not believe in chance, and we leave nothing to arbitrariness either. To us Fight is Life, and to us Life means Fight. We have no inclination to rest and restrict ourselves to watching, but we know that Life would simply pass us by were we to withhold ourselves from the Fight. We could never make up for what we neglect today.

BECAUSE OF THAT THE FUEHRER HAS FURTHERMORE TAUGHT US THAT OUR GERMAN PEOPLE MUST COMMIT ALL THE STRENGTH AND ENERGY IT POSSESSES TO FIGHT THROUGH THE STRUGGLE OF LIFE AND DESTINY, SO AS TO ATTAIN VICTORY. We National Socialists REJECT HALF MEASURES AND COMPROMISES. They never lead to the goal, but lull people to sleep until they wake up one day in horror and dread. COWARDS PERISH!

Because of that we National Socialists have mobilized all resources and all our energies during the past seven years, so as to be equipped for the supreme effort of battle. WE DO NOT THROW OURSELVES INTO ADVENTURES, AND WE ARE NOT SO UNSCRUPULOUS AS TO LEAVE ANYTHING TO ACCIDENT.

True,—when according to human judgment and according to the state of our knowledge all preparations have been made, then we have never as yet hesitated to venture the ultimate.

OBSERVE THE FUEHRER! Is he not the living model! His own career, his leadership of the NSDAP, the seizure of power, the conduct of the state, the regaining of Austria, the Sudeten area, Bohemia and Moravia and finally the Memel territory,—all great events demonstrate ever anew the fortunate fact that the Fuehrer prepares anything and everything to the last detail. He calculates, ponders, elucidates,—he acts. But when a decision has been arrived at, then there is no more going back. He holds fast. He is tenacious.

Thus did the Fuehrer’s great successes come about, and thus new successes will be added.

In conclusion the Fuehrer has taught a third principle: THE PREREQUISITE for any battle and THE PREREQUISITE for the mobilization of all our strength and energy is the folk and fate community of all Germans. [Volks und Schicksalsgemeinschaft]. Even though our professions may differ, even though our interests may clash, even though the individuality of the various tribes and provinces may reveal itself, one thing encompasses us, whether we are workers or soldiers: THE RECOGNITION, THAT WE GERMANS BELONG TOGETHER IN AN INDISSOLUBLE COMMUNITY OF FATE.

For example, what a splendid example was the building of the West Wall, which revealed convincingly and unforgettably the cohesion of worker and soldier!

THE COMMUNITY OF THE FACTORY IS NOT A MATTER OF PAPER VERBIAGE, BUT IT IS AN UNEQUIVOCAL FACT.

The Great War 1914/1918 was not lost because the German soldier had become a coward, but because dissension and discord tore the people asunder.

Destiny will test us anew. This time we will demonstrate what the National Socialist community can accomplish. This community is not a matter of paper verbiage, it is not a phrase! The first precautionary measure, the introduction of rationing certificates has proven how seriously the National Socialist state believes in the total people’s community.

Thus you, German man and German woman workers, will understand that in this gigantic fight of Germany for justice and freedom, for living space and bread, THERE IS NO PLACE WHATEVER FOR EVERYDAY QUARRELS. YOU, working German, will learn to understand THAT THE LONG-RANGE PLANS OF THE FUEHRER AUTOMATICALLY PRECLUDE ALL DISSENSION.

It will be impossible in future, too, to play the Home Front against the Fighting Front and Fighting Front against the Home Front. Not a front sector at some border is alone involved in battle, but the entire German people. The worker at his drill press, the merchant at his counter, the inventor in his laboratory, the soldier in the trenches, they are all equally determined to fight for Germany’s freedom.

No one will be able to evade the question: “Do you believe in Germany?”, and no one will want to evade that question. And the answer to this question will resound audibly for the whole world: “Yes, indeed, we believe in Germany because we believe in the work of the Fuehrer.”

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1940-PS

VOELKISCHER BEOBACHTER, Southern German Edition (Publisher Franz Eher, Successor), issue 136, of 11 May 1933, Page 1, column 5.

THE GERMAN LEADERS OF LABOR AN EDICT BY ADOLF HITLER

Berlin, 10 May

The Fuehrer Adolf Hitler has issued the following edict:

I appoint the Chief of Staff of the Political Organization [P.O.] of the NSDAP, Dr. Robert Ley, as leader of the German Labor Front.

I appoint District Leader [Gauleiter] Forster Danzig, as leader of the Employees’ Associations [Angestelltenverbaende].

I appoint the leader of the National Socialist Factory Cell Organization [N.S.B.O.], Schuhmann, as leader of the Workers’ Associations [Arbeiterverbaende].

Berlin, 10 May Adolf Hitler.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1942-PS

LEGAL REGULATIONS AND LEGAL PROBLEMS OF THE MOVEMENT

[Rechtseinrichtungen und Rechtsaufgaben der Bewegung] by Dr. Otto Gauweiler (Munich 1939), page 20.

a. Amendments in Reich Legislation:

By an order of the Fuehrer, dated 25 July 1934, his Deputy, as well as appointed reviewers, were given the power to take part in the editing of bills dealing with all the departments of the Reich. On the basis of this decree, the Deputy of the Fuehrer was to be invited to all discussions of the department heads, to which he could also send his representatives. Drafts of the laws had to be presented to the Deputy of the Fuehrer in the form of reviewer’s drafts [Referentenentwuerfe] and not as Cabinet bills. From a special order from the Fuehrer, 6 April 35, this privilege of participation in government affairs by the Fuehrer’s Deputy was expanded to include all executive decisions and orders insofar as they were published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. The Deputy of the Fuehrer can on his own initiative introduce bills, etc. regardless in what field; insofar as the good of the party is concerned, he is the man in charge.

Thus, the direct influence of the movement on the legislation and the executive branch was assured at a point where up to now the laws were an internal affair of the individual ministries. From now on, technical considerations or considerations of time cannot interfere with the requests and plans of the party.

PARTIAL COPY OF DOCUMENT 1947-PS

From: Freiherr v. Fritsch.

To: Baronin Margot v. Schutzbar.

Achterberg, 11 Dec 38.

My dear Baroness:

Many thanks for your two letters. * * * It is really peculiar that so many people should look to the future with increasing fears, in spite of the Fuehrer’s indisputable successes during the past years. Herr von Wiegand’s letter interested me very much and I am returning it herewith. Unfortunately, I am afraid he is right when he speaks of the profound hate which is directed to us by a large part of the world.

Soon after the war I came to the conclusion that we should have to be victorious in three battles, if Germany were to become powerful again:

1. The battle against the working class—Hitler has won this.

2. Against the Catholic Church, perhaps better expressed against Ultramontanism, and

3. Against the Jews.

We are in the midst of these battles and the one against the Jews is the most difficult. I hope everyone realizes the intricacies of this campaign.

* * * * * * *

(signed): FRITSCH

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1948-PS

The Reichsstatthalter in Vienna

I a Pol.—VIII—136/40 Vienna

Vienna 7 November 1940

Subject: Compulsory Labor of Able-bodied Jews.

1. Notice:

On 5 November 1940 telephone conversation with Colonel [Standartenfuehrer] Huber of the Gestapo. The Gestapo has received directions from the Reich Security Main Office [RSHA], as to how able-bodied Jews should be drafted for compulsory labor service. Investigations are being made at present by the Gestapo, to find out how many able-bodied Jews are still available in order to make plans for the contemplated mass projects. It is assumed that there are not many more Jews available. If some should still be available, however, the Gestapo has no scruples to use the Jews even for the removal of the destroyed synagogues.

SS Colonel Huber will report personally to the “Regierungspraesident” in this matter.

I have reported to the “Regierungspraesident” accordingly. The matter should further be kept in mind.

2. Presented anew: 25 November 1940

Presented anew: 20.12.40

[Initialed]

By order:

[Signed] Dr. Fischer.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1949-PS

State Administration of Reich Gau Vienna

Statistical Office for Reich Gau Ostmark

Zl. 3305/I 39

Vienna, 15 December 1939 1. Heldenplatz, Neue Burg Tel. R 27-5-65

To the Reich Commissar for the Reunion of the Austrian Nation with the German Reich

through channels via the Governor [Regierungspraesident] of Vienna

The Statistical Office for Reich Gau Ostmark has the honor to submit herewith, in the enclosure, an initial compilation of early results of this year’s census relative to the number and reduction in number of Jews and part Jews in Reich Gau Ostmark, especially in the Vienna districts, together with a brief commentary.

[Signature illegible]

1 file of the Statistical Office for the Reich Districts (Gaue) of the Ostmark, together with a summary of 15 December 1939. Zl. 3305/I 39

Jews and Part Jews in the Reich Districts [Gaue] of the Ostmark

In the census of 17 May 1939, the question was put for the first time whether one of an individual’s grandparents was full Jew by race. The declarations were to be made by the people on the “Supplementary Card for Data on Descent and Education” in full and to the best of their ability; this supplementary card was to be given to the honorary census taker in a sealed, opaque envelope, which was opened only when the statistical count was made. No check has yet been made as to the correctness of the information submitted. In the compiling of the statistics, everyone who reported that three or four of his grandparents were full Jews was counted as a full Jew himself, everyone with two Jewish grandparents as a part Jew, Grade I, and correspondingly everyone with only one Jewish grandparent as a part Jew, Grade II. The resulting slight deviation from the pertinent legal definitions of full Jew and part Jew was occasioned by formulation of the question in the simplest possible way.

According to the initial results of this year’s census, there were 91,480 full Jews and 22,344 part Jews of Grades I and II in Vienna as of 17 May 1939. In the remaining Reich Districts of the Ostmark there were 3,073 full Jews and 4,241 part Jews. According to this, there were altogether 121,138 Jews in the Ostmark, of whom 113,824, i.e. 94%, lived in Vienna, 3% in Niederdonau, 1% in the Steiermark, and less than 1% in each of the remaining Gaus.

While 80% of all the Jews in Vienna were full Jews and only 14% were part Jews, Grade I, and 6% part Jews, Grade II, in the other Reich Gaus the part Jews predominated, totaling 58%, as against 42% who were full Jews. Only in Niederdonau were the full Jews, with a total of almost 2,000, approximately as numerous as the part Jews.

These varying proportions of full Jews and part Jews are explained primarily by the emigration of Jews following the political change over. This emigration had reduced the number of full Jews in the Reich Gaus of the Ostmark, excluding Vienna and Niederdonau, to a small remainder of 1,103 by the time of the census.

The extent of the emigration of full Jews can be estimated approximately by comparison with the number of persons of Jewish faith reported in the census of 1934. It must be remembered, however, that in 1934 the number of those of Jewish faith did not include all full Jews and that, on the other hand, a small number of those of Jewish faith were part Jews, Grades I and II.

With this reservation, it can be stated that the number of Jews in the Ostmark (not including the annexed Sudeten-German regions) has diminished from 191,528 Jews by faith to 94,384 full Jews. At the same time the number of Jews in the Reich Districts (Gaus), excluding Vienna, decreased by 13,000 i.e. approximately 82% to 3,000. In Vienna alone, the decrease amounted to 84,000 persons, i.e. 48%.

The ratio of the sexes among full Jews has become so greatly dislocated that there are 100 male full Jews to every 136 female full Jews in Vienna, which can probably be ascribed to the earlier emigration of the Jewish males. The ratio among the part Jews, comparatively few of whom are thought to have emigrated, is 100:112, more nearly the average surplus of women in the population of Vienna.

According to data furnished by the Central Office for Jewish emigration, Vienna IV., about 100,000 Jews emigrated from the Ostmark in the period between the change over [Umbruch] and the census. This number is very close to the figure of 97,000 given above as the reduction in Jews since the census of 1934. Some 26,000 persons of Jewish faith emigrated from the Ostmark in the months succeeding the census.

While the problem of full Jews is almost completely solved, therefore, in the Reich Districts of the Ostmark, with the exception of Vienna, from a numerical standpoint the problem of part Jews still plays a relatively large role. For example, almost half of the approximately 1,000 Jews in Oberdonau are part Jews, Grade I, and more than one quarter are part Jews, Grade II. Similar conditions prevail in the remaining Reich Gaus, particularly in Salzburg, in Carinthia, and in the Tyrol.

Nevertheless the problem of part Jews in the Ostmark is first and foremost a problem for the Reich District of Vienna, where there are 86% of the part Jews Grade I and 80% of the part Jews Grade II. Gau Niederdonau takes second place, with a large interval, but has only 6% of the part Jews Grade I and 8% of the part Jews Grade II.

Out of all the part Jews in the Ostmark, 68% had two Jewish grandparents and 32% had one Jewish grandparent. It is worth noting that 70% of all Jews in Vienna were half-Jews, whereas less than 60% were half-Jews in the remaining Gaus of the Ostmark.

At the present time the problem of part Jews in Vienna is still numerically overshadowed by the large number of full Jews, of whom there are estimated in round figures to be 70,000, since approximately 4,000 persons of Jewish faith have emigrated from the Ostmark every month since the census—with the exception of September.

[Signature illegible] 15.12.39.

JEWS AND PART JEWS IN THE DISTRICT OF VIENNA

Preliminary Results of 1939 Census * JEWS

GRAND TOTAL FULL JEWS PART JEWS, GRADE I PART JEWS, GRADE II

DISTRICTS

total male female total male female total male female total male female

I. Innere Stadt 6,825 3,001 3,824 5,947 2,596 3,351 650 293 357 228 112 116

II. Leopoldstadt 33,889 14,483 19,406 31,564 13,370 18,194 1,862 885 977 463 228 235

III. Landstrasse 7,623 3,290 4,333 5,890 2,530 3,360 1,180 520 660 553 240 313

IV. Wieden 3,166 1,365 1,801 2,121 901 1,220 698 31 388 348 154 193

V. Margareten 2,712 1,229 1,483 1,769 788 981 632 293 339 311 148 163

VI. Mariahilf 4,634 2,016 2,618 3,826 1,653 2,173 608 263 345 200 100 100

VII. Neubau 5,187 2,263 2,924 4,181 1,786 2,395 740 356 384 266 121 145

VIII. Josefstadt 3,699 1,668 2,031 2,958 1,314 1,644 534 256 278 207 98 109

IX. Alsergrund 12,784 5,179 7,525 11,281 4,527 6,754 1,076 498 578 347 154 193

X. Favoriten 2,307 1,057 1,250 1,393 609 784 609 292 317 305 156 149

XI. Aimmering 447 218 229 265 134 131 127 57 70 55 27 28

XII. Meidling 1,986 900 1,086 1,045 444 601 610 298 312 331 158 173

XIII. Hietzing 2,008 851 1,157 1,310 524 786 457 210 247 241 117 124

XIV. Penzing 1,729 759 970 933 403 530 506 230 278 290 126 164

XV. Fanfhaus 3,667 1,572 2,095 2,573 1,051 1,522 758 368 390 336 153 383

XVI. Ottakring 3,123 1,440 1,683 1,874 831 1,043 833 410 423 416 199 217

XVII. Hernals 1,690 760 930 934 394 540 508 249 259 248 117 131

XVIII. Wahlring 3,246 1,411 1,835 2,155 922 1,233 744 329 415 347 160 187

XIX. Dobling 2,961 1,325 1,636 2,030 845 1,185 633 315 318 298 165 133

XX. Brigittenau 7,082 3,020 4,063 6,025 2,519 3,506 754 339 415 304 162 142

XXI. Floridsdorf 1,391 671 720 524 224 300 540 279 261 327 168 159

XXII. Grossenzerdorf 171 82 89 45 21 24 69 35 34 57 26 31

XXIII. Schwechat 364 215 149 286 175 112 44 23 21 34 18 16

XXIV. Modling 365 176 189 113 56 57 146 67 79 106 53 53

XXV. Liesing 507 205 302 240 89 151 185 80 105 82 36 46

XXVI. Klosternauburg 340 161 179 198 93 105 88 41 47 54 27 27

Total 113,824 49,317 64,507 91,480 38,798 52,682 15,591 7,296 8,295 6,753 3,223 3,530

Decrease of Jews in the Reich Districts [Gaue] of the [3] (Based on preliminary results of 1939 census)

Numbers less in 1939 than in 1934 Local distribution

1939

Part Jews

Reich Gau Jews by religion as of 22 Mar 1934 Full Jews by race as of 17 May 1939 Absolute In percent Jews by religion 1934 Full Jews Grade I Grade II

Vienna 175,099 91,480 83,619 47.8 91.4 96.9 86.8 80.3

Niederdonau 11,439 1,836 9,603 83.9 6.0 2.0 5.6 7.1

Oberdonau 1,257 216 1,041 82.8 0.7 0.2 2.4 3.4

Steiermark 2,818 563 2,255 80.0 1.5 0.6 2.9 5.2

Karnten 273 60 213 78.0 0.1 0.1 0.7 1.5

Salzburg 239 67 172 72.0 0.1 0.1 0.7 1.0

Tirol 361 119 242 67.0 0.2 0.1 0.8 1.1

Vorarlbg. 42 43 1 ... 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.4

OSTMARK 191,528 94,384 97,144 50.7 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

FOOTNOTES:

Jews and Part Jews in the Reich Districts (Gaus) of the Ostmark (Preliminary results of the census of 17 May 1939)

These include In percentages

Part Jews Part Jews

Reich Gau Jews and part Jews together Full Jews Grade I Grade II Full Jews Grade I Grade II

Niederdonau 3,737 1,970 1,117 650 52.7 29.9 17.4

Oberdonau 1,015 251 468 296 24.7 46.1 29.2

Steiermark 1,512 563 508 441 37.2 33.6 29.2

Karnten 313 60 129 124 19.2 41.2 39.6

Salzburg 273 67 123 83 24.5 45.1 30.4

Tirol 360 119 147 94 33.1 46.8 26.1

Vorarlberg 104 43 23 38 41.4 22.1 36.5

Total 7,314 3,073 2,515 1,726 42.0 34.4 23.6

Vienna 113,824 91,480 15,591 6,753 80.4 13.7 5.9

Ostmark 121,138 94,553 18,106 8,479 78.1 14.9 7.0

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1950-PS

COPY

The Reichminister and Chief of the Reich Chancellory

RK. 789 B secret

Berlin, W8 3 Dec. 40 Voss Str. 6

SECRET

To the Reich Governor in Vienna Gauleiter von Schirach

VIENNA

Dear Mr. von Schirach,

As Reichleiter Bormann informs me, the Fuehrer has decided after receipt of one of the reports made by you, that the 60,000 Jews, still residing in the Reichsgau Vienna, will be deported most rapidly, that is still during the war, to the General Gouvernement because of the housing shortage prevalent in Vienna. I have informed the Governor General in Cracow as well as the Reichsfuehrer-SS about this decision of the Fuehrer, and I request you also to take cognizance of it.

HEIL HITLER! Yours Obedient /s/ Dr. LAMMERS.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1954-PS

Deposition of Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel

Investigating Officer: Dr. Bohuslav Ecer, Colonel of the Czechoslovak Judge-Advocate’s Department.

Secretary: Elizabeth Radziejewska, WCB, USFET.

Present: Dr. Schwartz, L. of Judge-Advocate’s Department

Place: Ashcan—Time: 3rd August 1945, afternoon.

On being interrogated Keitel deposes:

I am Wilhelm Keitel, born 22 September 1882 at Helmscherode, district of Gandersheim, Brunswick. Married to Liza, born Fontaine, I have 5 children. I have 3 sons, 30, 28, and 26 years old, the last one killed in action in the East in 1941, and 2 daughters; one of them 35 years old, married. The other one died at the age of 30. I saw my wife for the last time in middle of April 1945.

My functions.

On 4 February 1938 I was appointed Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces by Adolf Hitler. Before I was appointed there was a Reich-Minister for War, who was at the same time Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. It was von Blomberg. On 4 February 1938 Adolf Hitler ordered a change. He abolished the functions of the Minister for War, and himself took over the functions of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.

At that time I became entrusted with certain functions of the Minister for War, and that from case to case. The three Supreme Commanders of the three formations of the Armed Forces—Air Force, Army, Navy—were under direct orders of the Fuehrer, and contrary to Blomberg, I had no command authority with respect to them. Therefore I was not entitled to give orders independently, but only by order of Adolf Hitler and after reporting to him. I had no authority of command, my role was really that of a Chief of Staff. I was, however, able to submit proposals in military matters to the Fuehrer in his capacity as Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces on my own initiative, if the three Supreme Commanders of the formations of the Armed Forces had not done so themselves; and generally the Fuehrer asked for my opinion in military matters. The decision was made by the Fuehrer alone.

On 1 September 1939 a Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Reich was created under the chairmanship of Hermann Goering. I was a member of this board only in so far as it dealt with military matters. I was never made a member of the Reich Government and I never had seat or vote in the Cabinet. For seat and vote in the Cabinet was never granted to me.

Relations to the Party.

In spring 1939 I was awarded the Golden Badge of Honor of the Party as a decoration. I never applied formally for admission to the Party. The Party considered me a member after the alteration of the law concerning the Armed Forces as from autumn 1944, because I held the Golden Party Badge; they asked me to pay a voluntary contribution to the Party. To begin with I sent them 1000 marks at that time. Personally I was a faithful follower of Adolf Hitler and my political conviction was National-Socialist. But when the Fuehrer granted me his confidence, I developed into National-Socialist under the influence of this personal contact. Even today I am a convinced adherent of Adolf Hitler; this does not exclude that I do not identify myself with some items of the Party programme and of the Party policy.

The German rearmament.

The German rearmament began approximately in the year 1935; at first to a modest extent, after we had withdrawn from the League of Nations and had reestablished the German sovereignty of arms.

Question: How much was the total expenditure for the German Armament up to 1 September 1939?

Answer: For the Armed Forces about 30 and not more than 40,000,000,000.

Q. Do you know about the speech of Adolf Hitler, delivered at the Sport Palace on 1 September 1939, in which he admitted to have spent 90,000,000,000 marks for German rearmament?

A. Yes. I know of his speech and also of the figure mentioned. I was utterly surprised by this figure and I nearly fainted when I heard this figure. As far as my knowledge went, this figure was exaggerated by about two thirds.

Q. Was it the purpose of German rearmament to prepare for a war of aggression?

A. Even during the years 1938 and 1939 none of us soldiers gave thought to a war of aggression. I knew that we were not at all prepared for a war of aggression, and even less for a world war.

Q. Did you ever advocate a German war of aggression in your official capacity?

A. I was in favor of a war of aggression under certain conditions, e.g. if by such a war of aggression a certainly impending attack of an adversary was to be prevented.

Q. What were the reasons for the German attack on the Soviet Union?

A. Because we had sure knowledge of the preparations of the Soviet Union for an attack and wished to prevent it.

Q. Did you know that some individuals in Germany, both military and civilian, advocated a total war?

A. No.

Q. Did you yourself favor total war, i.e. a war disregarding international law of warfare?

A. No.

Q. Was Germany prepared for a world war at the time of the Munich crisis?

A. No, for at that time no preparations had been made on our side, neither strategically nor operationally.

Q. Would Germany have begun the military attack if France and Gt. Britain had not agreed to the Munich Treaty?

A. Hardly, in my opinion, because as I said before, we were not prepared for a war at that time, especially if France had fulfilled her obligation to help Czechoslovakia.

Q. Had Adolf Hitler made up his mind firmly to get his political aims, even at the price of war of aggression waged by Germany or even of a world war?

A. I do not know that, but I am firmly convinced that he did not want a world war.

Q. Did you, in your capacity as Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, never sign an ordinance which might have implied a violation of the International Law of Warfare?

A. Not that I know of.

The investigating officer submits at this instance an ordinance of the Fuehrer concerning a General Trustee for the Employment of Labor to Wilhelm Keitel, an ordinance dated 21 March 1941.

Q. Were you one of the signatories of this ordinance?

A. Yes.

Q. Were you aware of the fact that a rule of International Law is violated by the employment of prisoners of war and the civilian population of the occupied countries in the German armament industry?

A. No, as long as the ordinance is applied in accordance with International Law. I am not responsible for further ordinances issued later on the basis of this ordinance in order to carry it into effect. I add, that the Fuehrer would have issued the ordinance also without my counter-signature; or to put it better that he would not have made the ordinance of 21 March 1942 dependent on my counter-signature.

The Czechoslovakian Problem.

Q. Who conceived the idea to solve the problem of the Sudeten-Germans by means of an occupation by German forces, and to solve the whole problem of Czechoslovakia forcibly by means of an occupation of the remainder of the Republic?

A. That was exclusively the idea of the Fuehrer, although possibly political advisers cooperated; about this I know nothing, though.

Q. Was there a part-mobilization or were there movements of German forces against Czechoslovakia during the second half of May 1938 with the purpose of solving the Sudeten-German problem by the use of force?

A. No. The idea of military action was not yet discussed at that time, so far as I know.

Q. Do you remember an order of Adolf Hitler’s of 28 May 1938, ordering the preparation of military action against Czechoslovakia for the 2 October?

A. I do not remember such an order, although I should have known about it.

The investigating officer now reads to Wilhelm Keitel the following passage from the Reichstag speech of Adolf Hitler’s of 30 January 1939, page 453 of the book “Dokumente der deutschen Politik” (Documents of German Policy), vol. 7, part 2:

As Germany had not mobilized, let alone any intentions to attack Czechoslovakia, the situation was bound—there is no doubt about it—to lead to a grave loss of prestige of the Reich. This unbearable provocation, made still worse by a really infamous prosecution and terrorization of our Germans living there, has led me to the decision to solve the Sudeten-German problem now finally and radically. On 28 May

(1) I ordered to prepare military interference against this state for the 2 October.

(2) I ordered the enormous and speedy completion of our defensive front in the West.

Keitel declares thereto:

Such orders may have been given, although from my memory I do not know anything about it; for according to my memory the respective preparatory measures were ordered only later, during the summer. I believe, though, that the declarations of Hitler’s are correct, but I do not know where they come from.

I stress the fact that Germany was not prepared for military action against Czechoslovakia in May 1938. I know, it is true, that the Fuehrer had made up his mind to solve the Sudeten-German problem in any case and within a reasonable space of time.

Q. Was the danger of a Czechoslovakian mobilization discussed at the time of the invasion of Austria by German forces?

A. I myself have drawn the attention of the Fuehrer to the fact that we were not prepared and could not occupy Austria if Czechoslovakia would mobilize. This indication was rejected by the Fuehrer.

Q. Do you know that at the time of the Austrian crisis Goering and Neurath gave guarantees, both in their own names and that of the Fuehrer, to Czechoslovakia that Germany felt bound by the Treaty of Arbitration concluded with Czechoslovakia in 1925 and that Germany had no intentions of attacking Czechoslovakia?

A. I do not know anything about such a guarantee.

Munich.

I was present, I admit, in Berchtesgaden, Godesberg, and Munich when Neville Chamberlain visited the Fuehrer. But I did not participate in any of the discussions and was but passively present, ready for any military information required.

Q. Did the Fuehrer consult you with regard to the military possibilities of Germany before the meetings with Chamberlain?

A. No. He was well informed about the military possibilities proper, and he knew that we were not at all prepared for war at the time of the Munich crisis.

Q. Was then Adolf Hitler in favor of war at that time?

A. No, because Germany was not prepared for war, as I have to stress again.

Q. What would have happened militarily, if Gt. Britain, France and the Soviet Union had taken the side of Czechoslovakia, and if they had declined the discussions with Germany and Italy, which led to the Munich Treaty?

A. The military means of the German Reich were by no means sufficient against such a constellation. An action at such a time would have been madness.

Q. Was it the political purpose of the Munich Treaty to eliminate the Soviet Union from the European affairs?

A. That is correct, for Czechoslovakia was considered to be a virtual field of deployment of the Soviet Union which might have dangerous consequences for military operations.

Q. Did the Armed Forces as a whole make their influence felt by means of an official representative with regard to the designation of the borderline in consequence of the so-called Munich Treaty?

A. I personally did not, neither did an officer of my Staff to my knowledge; but it may be that a representative of the Army was given the duty to point out strategical points of view, when the borderline was discussed.

signed: Wilhelm KEITEL

Wilhelm Keitel has signed this protocol consisting of 9 (nine) pages, on all copies and on every page in my presence.

signed: Guy A. Weill O-513470 Capt, AUS.

Signed Col. Dr. B. Ecer

Signed Lt. Dr. P. Schwarz

Signed Elisabeth Radziejewska.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1956-PS

Das Archiv, Vol. 22-24, Page 1342 January 1936.

Meaning and tasks of the Secret State Police.

In order to refute the malicious rumours spread abroad, the “Voelkische Beobachter” (V.B. of 22.1.36) published an article on the origin, meaning and tasks of the Secret State Police; extracts from this read as follows:

The Secret State Police was created simultaneously in all German Provinces after the National Socialist Revolution owing to cogent political necessity. In Prussia its creator was Prime Minister Goering who is still the Chief of the Secret State Police today. In Bavaria the Bavarian Political Police was created by the Reichs Leader of the S.S. Himmler, who at the same time directed the building of the political police forces in the other provinces outside Prussia. The Political Police Forces became uniformly coordinated when, in the spring of 1934, Prime Minister Goering appointed the Reichs Leader of the S.S. as deputy Chief of the Prussian Secret State Police—cf. Si P.38 (Vol. 1). Thereby a unified leadership and a proportionate extension of the Political Police Forces of all provinces was assured.

The Secret State Police is an official machinery on the lines of the criminal police, whose special task is the prosecution of crimes and offences against the State, above all the prosecution of high treason and treason. The task of the Secret State Police is to detect these crimes and offences, to ascertain the perpetrators and to bring them to judicial punishment. The number of criminal proceedings continually pending in the People’s Court on account of high treasonable actions and of treason is the result of this work. The next most important field of operations for the Secret State Police is the preventive combatting of all dangers threatening the State and the leadership of the State. As, since the National Socialist Revolution, all open struggle and all open opposition to the State and to the leadership of the State is forbidden, a State Police as a preventive instrument in the struggle against all dangers threatening the State, is indissolubly bound up with the National Socialist Leader State. The opponents of National Socialism were not removed by the prohibition of their organizations and their newspapers, but have withdrawn to other forms of struggle against the State. Therefore, the National Socialist State has to trace out, to watch over and to render harmless the underground opponents fighting against it in illegal organizations, in camouflaged associations, in the coalitions of well meaning fellow Germans and even in the organizations of party and state before they have succeeded in actually executing an action directed against the interest of the state. This task of fighting with all means the secret enemies of the state will be spared no Leader State, because powers hostile to the state, from their foreign headquarters, always make use of some persons in such a state and employ them in underground activity against the state.

The preventive activity of the Secret State Police consists primarily in the thorough observation of all enemies of the state in the Reichs territory. As the Secret State Police can not carry out, in addition to its primary executive tasks, this observation of the enemies of the state, to the extent necessary, there steps alongside to supplement it the Security Service of the Reichs Leader of the S.S., set up by the Deputy Fuehrer as the political intelligence service of the movement, which puts a large part of the forces of the movement mobilized by it into the service of the security of the state. The Secret State Police takes the necessary police preventive measures against the enemies of the state on the basis of the results of the observation. The most effective preventive measure is without doubt the withdrawal of freedom, which is covered in the form of “protective custody”, if it is to be feared that the free activity of the persons in question might endanger the security of the state in any way. The employment of protective custody is so organized by directions of the Reichs and Prussian Minister of the Interior and by a special arrest examination procedure of the Secret State Police, that—as far as the preventive fight against the enemies of the state permits—copious guarantees against a misuse of protective custody are provided. While protective arrest of short duration is carried out in police and court prisons, the concentration camps under the Secret State Police admit those taken into protective custody, who have to be withdrawn from public life for a longer time. The majority of the inmates of the concentration camps is formed by those communist and other Marxist functionaries, who, by previous experiences, would if free immediately resume their struggle against the state. Further police preventive measures against efforts hostile to the state consist in the dissolution of associations, in the prohibition and dissolution of assemblies and congregations, in the prohibition of publications of all kinds and so on. As the NSDAP and its leaders are also provided with special protection by legal regulations, the prosecution of crimes against these laws and the protection of the party and its leaders are also incumbent upon the Secret State Police.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1961-PS

1942 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PART I, PAGE 247

Decision of the Greater German Reichstag of 26 April 1942

At the proposal of the president of the Reichstag, on its session of 26 April 1942, the Greater German Reichstag has approved of the rights which the Fuehrer has postulated in his speech, with the following decision:

There can be no doubt, that in the present war, in which the German people is faced with a struggle for its existence or annihilation, the Fuehrer must have all the rights postulated by him which serve to further or achieve victory. Therefore—without being bound by existing legal regulations—in his capacity as leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, governmental chief and supreme executive chief, as supreme justice and leader of the party—the Fuehrer must be in a position to force with all means at his disposal every German, if necessary, whether he be common soldier or officer, low or high official or judge, leading or subordinate official of the party, worker or employee—to fulfill his duties. In case of violation of these duties, the Fuehrer is entitled after conscientious examination, regardless of so-called well-deserved rights, to mete out due punishment and to remove the offender from his post, rank and position without introducing prescribed procedures.

At the order of the Fuehrer this decision is hereby made public.

Berlin, 26 April 1942

The Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery Dr Lammers

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1962-PS

1935 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PAGE 839

Law to change the Penal Code 28 June 1935

The Reich government has ratified the following law which is herewith announced:

Article 1

Creation of Law by suitable application of the penal law.

The sect. 2 and 2a of the penal code contain the following wording:

sect. 2

Any person who commits an act which the law declares to be punishable or which is deserving of penalty according to the fundamental conceptions of the penal law and sound popular feeling, shall be punished. If there is no penal law directly covering an act it shall be punished under that law which most closely fits, in regards to fundamental conception.

sect. 2a

The culpability of the act and the punishment are determined according to the law which is in force at the time of the act.

Should a milder law be in force at the time of judgment than at the time of the act, then the milder law can be applied; should the act no longer be subjected to punishment at the time of judgment, then punishment may not take place.

A law which is only valid for a designated time is also to be applied upon the acts which have been committed during its validity even if it has been rescinded.

Decisions on disciplinary measures of security and improvement are to be made according to the law which is in force at the time of judgment.

Berlin 28 June 1935

The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor ADOLF HITLER The Reich Minister of Justice DR. GUERTNER.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1964-PS

1942 REICHSGESETZBLATT, PAGE 535

Decree of the Fuehrer regarding special jurisdiction of Reich Minister of Justice 20 Aug 1942.

A strong administration of Justice is necessary for the fulfillment of the tasks of the great German Reich. Therefore, I commission and empower the Reich Minister of Justice to establish a National Socialist Administration of Justice and to take all necessary measures in accordance with my directives and instructions made in agreement with the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery and the Leader of the Party-Chancellery. He can hereby deviate from any existing law.

Fuehrer Supreme Headquarters 20 August 1942

The Fuehrer ADOLF HITLER Reich Minister and Chief of Reich Chancellery Dr. Lammers

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1965-PS

EXTRACT FROM “DER STURMER”, 4 November 1943

“It is really the truth that the Jews ‘so to speak’ have disappeared from Europe and that the Jewish ‘reservoir’ of the East, from which the Jewish plague has for centuries beset the peoples of Europe, has ceased to exist * * * However, the Fuehrer of the German people at the beginning of the war prophesied what has now come to pass * * *”

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1969-PS

NOTE

To the file.

Subject: Ottilienheim Absberg.

Dr. Hefelmann, Berlin, informed me by telephone that the transfer of the sick from the Ottilienheim was not carried out by the directive of Berlin, but by the directive from the Bavarian State Ministry, Munich, Regierungsrat Gaum.

Furthermore, he told me, that the bearer of sovereignty [Hoheitstraeger] could not be included, since the regulation does not call for that.

Nurnberg, 5 March 1941.

/s/ Sellmer /t/ Sellmer 297/12

[Seal]

Gau Staff Office Sel/Pf.

5 March 1941

To the Kreisleiter Party Member Michael Gerstner

Weissenburg/Bavaria

Subject: Your letter of 24 Feb 1941 Alarm of the population of Absberg.

The Reich Office [Reichsstelle], Berlin, informs me that the transfer of the sick from the Ottilienheim was not carried out by Berlin, but by Munich. Therefore, I have now turned to Munich. In the meantime, I have found from the Regierungspraesident that we also raised a complaint against the ways and means of the treatment of the sick. I therefore hope, that such cross mistakes will not occur in the future.

Heil Hitler S 297/11 [Initial: Semmler] Gaustabsamtsleiter

NB: The specialist [Sachbearbeiter] for Bavaria is Regierungsrat Gaum in the Bavarian State Ministry in Munich. If possible we should get in touch with him. Regierungsrat Gaum will see to it, that the institutions will be cleared out as soon as possible.

Berlin, 31 Dec 1940 NW 7, Unter den Linden 72

Telephone: Local 120034 Long Distance 120037 Teletype: Local 517 Long Distance K 1517 Cable Address: Reichsinnenminister [Rubber Stamp] Kreisleiter Informed

Reichministry of the Interior Ministerial Dr. Linden.

Iog 7633/40/5100.

It is requested, to mention this official designation and subject in any further correspondence.

[Red pencil] S.6.I.41

To the Gaustabsamtsleiter, Heinrich Sellmer in Nurnberg, Gauleitung

My dear party member Sellmer!

I forward in the enclosure an incident, which deals with the affair about which you have been informed by party member Blanicenburg from the Fuehrer’s chancellery. As you can see in the application of Mrs. Marie Kehr, the latter would like to have information whether it is possible by a law of the Reich, to relieve people from their incurable sufferings. I request that you investigate, whether Kehr is politically reliable, especially whether she does not have church connections. In case this should not be so, from my side, there are no misgivings, if you give Kehr the desired information orally.

Heil Hitler! /s/ Linden

In Ink

Ortsgruppenleiter Party member Popp is of the opinion, that one can inform Mrs. Kehr. She is calm and circumspect.

S 7 Jan 1941 297/21 2 DM

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1972-PS

SECRET

SS Fuehrungshauptamt [SS Main directorate office]

Kommandoamt of the Waffen SS

[Command Office]

Berlin—Wilmersdorf, 14 October 1941 Kaiserallee 188

Sect. Ia NR. 4116/41 geh.

SUBJ: Intermediate report on the civilian state of emergency.

TO: Reichsfuehrer SS

I deliver the following report regarding the commitment of the Waffen SS in the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia during the civilian state of emergency:

In the mutual changes, all Battalions of the Waffen SS in the Protectorate Bohemia and Moravia will be brought forth for shootings, and relatively for the supervision of hangings.

Up until now there occurred:

in Prague:

99 shootings

21 hangings

in Bruenn:

54 shootings

17 hangings

——

Total 191 executions (including 16 Jews)

A complete report regarding other measures and on the conduct of the officers, non-coms and men will be made following the termination of the civilian state of emergency.

Signed: JUETTNER SS Gruppenfuehrer [Maj. Gen.] and Generalleutnant of the Waffen SS

Official stamp of Personal Staff of Reichsfuehrer SS

15 Oct 1941

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1991-PS

6th Report on activities and final report of the German Armistice Delegation for Economy and of the Delegate of the Reich Government for Economic and Financial Questions with the French Government for the period from 1 July 1943 to 17 August 1944.

Salzburg. 15 December 1944.

No. 000101.

[Page 63, last paragraph].

During the four years of the occupation of France the Armistice Delegation transferred approximately 121 Million Rmk. worth of investments from French into German possession, among them shares of war vital enterprises in third countries, in France and in Germany. For details see the former activity reports of the Delegation. About half of these transfers have been paid for by Germany with economic compensations by delivery of French foreign bonds, which were acquired in Holland or Belgium, whereas the balance was paid through Clearing and from occupation costs. From the difference in the value of the French foreign bonds, between the German purchasing price and the French rate of purchase, there have been realized profits amounting to Rmk. 7 Million which could be paid to the Reich.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1992-PS

Lecture by General [Obergebietsfuehrer]

Dr. Hellmuth Stellrecht:

“The Military Education of the German Youth”

From: National Political Course for the Armed Force, from 15-23 January 1937

[National-Politischer Lehrgang der Wehrmacht, vom 15.-23. January 1937]

Restricted for the Armed Forces

[Pages 163-166]

All of you know already the words: Pre-military training, youth’s physical training or military education [Wehrerziehung].

The first term “pre-military training” means, that the young person prior to his induction into the Army should acquire a certain amount of knowledge; the second term “youth’s physical training” means conditioning of the body to a certain degree of physical fitness will be reached. However, we are choosing of the three terms the last one which is “military education”. Because not only does it mean acquiring a certain amount of knowledge and reaching a certain degree of physical fitness, but what is more important, it will have a decisive influence on the soldier.

One will ask: Why is it that there is such an endless debate going on in Germany today about the term “military education”? Why are attempts being made just at present to define clearly the term “military education” to carry out what is recognized as correct? Is it done for the sole purpose of trying to get the lead over foreign countries? Is it because of reasoning that we did this, or does it go much deeper than is noticeable on the surface?

Gentlemen, I believe that it was not only because of the reasoning of individuals who inspired us that a change in our thinking unnoticeable for many is taking place and becomes visible to all in its effects.

The term “military education” cannot be realized in a vacuum but it is closely connected with the symbol of the German soldier. Just like this symbol changes, the term “military education” also changes. Military education of the youth makes sense only under certain historical conditions. These in turn are closely connected with the ideology of state and society current at the time.

* * * * * * *

The young Germany found herself again in a soldierly way of life. The great historic development which lasted over hundred years had finally reached its conclusion and consequently the German people had gained new possibilities. Under Frederic the Great the military and the bourgeoisie (middle class) as different estates [Staende] opposed each other without understanding as hopeless strangers; the reforms, the wars of independence brought about, had united again both terms. However, they could not overcome the bourgeois way of life permanently.

Only within our time was this development concluded since life was again molded into one unit. No more the citizen of the sovereign ruler but each citizen of the New Reich is being born to bear arms. It is not a “cursed obligation” which puts him under military law but his own free will urges him to do it and makes him recognize the necessity of military service not only for one or two years but for a life-time, under a new unified system which begins in the earliest childhood and ends only when he is also unable to do service at home for the well being of all.

Considering all this, it goes without saying that we are talking about the military education of the German youth and carrying it out. It is just as clear before our eyes that Friederich Ludwig Jahn with all his knowledge and the great effort put forward by him did not succeed in carrying it out. But now the time is ripe because the newly gained philosophy of life may be realized. It would only be self deception to believe that this task could be solved from the top only. German youth has been a movement since a generation.

This movement started long before the war as a first proof of its coming great renovation protesting against the bourgeoise.

The Youth Movement before the war was not yet soldierly but it was hard against itself and on long hiking tours it helped to lay the foundation for a real great Germany. The volunteer-spirit of the great war would be unthinkable without this youth movement—that volunteer-spirit which is the prerequisite of military duty! Of course, those who only came in order to fulfill their own duty did not spare themselves anything either in the great war. They were no less brave than the volunteers. The only difference was that the volunteer was willing to take responsibility for his fate, injury and death, while the other one felt more secure if the State and the Law were responsible for himself and the family when the misfortune arose.

The voluntary service was contained in the free corps [Freikorps], in the military organizations [Wehrverbaenden], in the organizations of the NSDAP and in the Hitler Youth Movement.

The German youth has formed its own Reich within this youth-movement in which it has the right and privilege of its own way of life. In a decree issued by the Fuehrer on 1 December 1936, pertaining to the Hitler Youth Movement this own Reich was approved by him. It might be said that its own way of life gives its own character to German youth but we are lucky in that the philosophy of life of National Socialism has become the philosophy of life of youth and that there are no political differences between the different generations of present day Germany. Only the way of life of German youth has its individual emphasis. This has hardly penetrated the older generations. The way of life could also not be changed by an order from above because it did not grow by order or by accident but through a movement that has grown through the decades. We have to observe the fact that in the youth organization and in other organizations different ways of life confront each other. For instance, the way of life of the Army which is based on the probably oldest tradition which we have. There is no doubt that a boy who changes from one organization to another feels that the different ways of life are different and that he tries to decide for himself if one or the other is the right one. He probably tries to compare youth hostel and barracks, comradeship leader [Kameradschaftsfuehrer] and sergeant, an evening in a youth hostel and military instruction, the comradely “thou” which bound him to all leaders up to the Reichs Youth Leader and the pronounced separation from his superior even the corporal, also, abstinence from nicotine and alcohol and the sudden abolition of this abstinence.

It would, of course, be completely senseless for the individual to start to investigate if this or that way seems right to him. It goes without saying that an army which is to be trained for battle must be handled entirely different from a unit of boys. I believe that there is no organization in Germany which has gathered so much experience through its century old tradition in leading men as the army. Only at a later age one comes to see those things as a result of a deep psychological knowledge which, as a private, as a young sergeant or lieutenant, seemed obscure, or which one carried out without thinking, as and how it has always been done.

It would be just as senseless to argue that the army, as the oldest organization, should demand that the way of life in the youth organization should be patterned after the army’s way and that this should be done at once by a system of orders and regulations. That would be completely wrong because the present youth movement is of a natural growth which cannot suddenly be sent by coercion but needs a certain amount of freedom to be able to grow further. And nothing would be more harmful than to substitute a system of orders, which developed under totally different conditions, for the free will of the present young generation. The forty years of German youth history cannot and shall not be erased because what has developed alive out of an idealistic motive shall never be extinguished.

But, from a long range point of view, it is necessary that we do not allow the life of a German boy who has to pass through all the organizations, to go through as many breaking experiences as there are organizations. On the contrary, it is necessary to give to his life and his development actual stability. We do not only want to train our boys and through the difference of the organizations give them the opportunity to compare and to criticize but we want to lead them in an unbroken line of development from boy to man, a development which must be natural to them, which does not give them cause to investigate why they have been dealt with in this or that manner. The political education of the boy stops when he enters the service of the Armed Forces.

We have to admit that the way of life in the youth organization is different from that in the Armed Forces. But our time gives us an opportunity to draw one line of development from the tenth year to the time of discharge from the Armed Forces; that is the line of development of military training and military education. Therefore, it is in general of tremendous educational value and not only for the training of a soldier. The boy should feel that he is part of a natural course of events and react to it by feeling a constant uninhibited enhancement of life.

The young scout grows into the armour-bearer of the nation. Thus the natural course of events is again completed which has been characteristic of every natural warriordom. It always let the boy become a scout first, then gave him practice weapons and only then let him earn the deathly weapon of the man.

All military training must thus be regarded a building of life without friction, following only the laws of life and supported by the one as well as the other organization and nothing to block it. Life itself knows no abrupt fundamental changes from one day to another. One is not a boy one day and a man the next one but every age period has educational and formative significance, which needs to be recognized and utilized.

In case these laws are observed one will, a few decades from now, be incredulous before the achievements which will be made by development of physical potentialities and by technical knowledge and also before the high degree of ideological readiness which is inherent in the German soldier. The recognition of the laws of development will and must give us an incredible advantage over the achievements of other nations, especially in the present which is carried along by the impulse of national uprising. There is no question that even with several years of military training another nation cannot ever make up for that which was neglected in regard to development which we recognized and utilized in time.

But that which will happen in the future in regard to this will not only mean the training to be a German soldier but training to be a German man, the decisive final finish of whom takes place in the service of the Armed Forces. In addition, an extensive exchange of experiences will come about on the broadest possible basis between the Armed Forces in the Youth Organization on all things so decisive for all future development in order to continue the one education in every respect at the exact point where the other one stopped.

In regard to work with pure military education, this has already been done in years of collaboration and very extensively. The result has been put down in a book written by me which regulates future military education up to the last detail of training and which, on mutual consent, includes a preface by the Reichs minister of war [Reichskriegsminister] and the Reichs Youth Leader [Reichsjugendfuehrer].

The basic idea of this work is to present to the boy what fits into the particular stage of his development. In doing this one quite naturally avoids to bring up something beforehand that belongs into the future training of the Armed Forces and does not fit the boy but only the man. For that reason no boy is given a military weapon, simply because it does not make sense from the point of view of development. But, on the other hand, it makes sense to give him practice guns of smaller caliber. Just as there are military exercises which fit only adult men there are exercises which are better tackled at the age of a boy. Among others, for instance, outdoor training.

The young man of twenty who has become estranged to nature in the city—and two-thirds of the German population today live in cities—will find it very difficult to reestablish contact. Everything has become too foreign to him and he will never again be able to become a bush or woods runner [Busch- und Waldlaeufer] whose best friends are nature and terrain.

It is different for the boy. At the age of 12 to 16 or 17 a boy is actually ideal for the terrain. It is exactly the age of wild west romanticism when he thinks only in terms of secret paths, ambush and surprise raids. If at that time nothing brings the boy into the terrain if he only continues the dull way of going to school something ingrown and crooked develops in him which can never again be straightened out. The right time to put him into the terrain has been missed.

The same is true of the training of the senses. I am of the opinion that to the training for seeing even the most insignificant things in nature, for noticing the slightest change in the normal world around us, a very systematic training of the ear should be added. One has to learn again to distinguish from entire noise pictures the single important sound which has something to say. One has to learn direction hearing and distance hearing and one has to train the ear to be constantly on the alert and immediately register the slightest noise which shows danger. This kind of training belongs entirely to a youthful age. If the right time has been missed it can hardly be made up in later years.

The boy starts to learn while he plays and in more and more systematic training becomes a young scout. He again acquires the incredible agility of primitive men to find cover and camouflage in the terrain, to use every indentation in the ground, every bit of vegetation to close in, to cover long distances without any noise also at night and, at the same time, to see everything, to hear everything and finally to appear out of nowhere before the baffled enemy; thus growing into the future battle technique through his full life of a boy.

I ask you, gentlemen, to think back for a moment and remember Langemarck, the volunteers who, for the idea, offered their lives to the bullets while singing “Deutschland, Deutschland ueber alles”. And then think of the youth with the same ideological readiness of a few decades later which does not waste one drop of blood, which in defense and attack evades the enemy, against whom the best weapon becomes useless because it hardly any longer can find its aim. This is a picture of the goal of great education which starts with the playful training of the boy in the terrain and completes itself in the training in the Armed Forces.

If we in Germany use only a fraction of the effort which is used in the school to prepare the boy for that we will certainly get results. Because this service has one advantage: It meets the desires of the boy halfway while, thank heavens, sitting on a school bench never does. Because the fate of nations will also in the future not be determined by academicians but by politicians and finally by the soldier. Why shouldn’t it be possible to give back to German youth what is natural to primitive men? Our nation is healthy. The natural tendency for it still exists. They have not been lost, they are only obscured. First, they have to be forced so that they may grow again.

What a boy between 10 and 14 does in his games, the older boy practices in systematic training. But nowhere is there a place for unnatural drilling, everything shall and must be part of the life of youth. But the effort made by the individual must be increased as he grows older.

We Germans were given a great gift by providence. That is, that we are the only nation who knows how to hike. We are bound to nature not only by the necessity to exploit it but by the talent to understand nature emotionally. We experience nature when we hike because we add our own effort.

We do not wish our youth to goose step in a column, but travel in a small group which must find its own way. The group learns, after it has been taught essentials, to orient itself, to read maps and to judge the terrain. It increases the joy of hiking if the leader gives definite problems, for instance, to find a certain point visible in the terrain on the map, or, to look up a road on the map and lead the group to it, etc., etc.

The trip offers the great opportunity to fit in all that which belongs to the system: description and judgment of terrain; recognition and description of the aim; use of terrain, scouting; reporting; securing; and to end up in a terrain game which requires all the boy; initiative.

The trip does not alone train the boy in the terrain but, as I like to call it, to self-help. During the war we found that the truly useful soldiers were not those who had completed their training but those guys who knew what to do in any situation and could take care of themselves when it came to the smallest details. Only the mastery of these thousands of skills makes a completely useful soldier. The idealist reaching for the stars is of little use if he cannot deal with all the unpleasant things which must be overcome. Of what use is the most enthusiastic man if he neglects his footwear and has to stay behind with bad feet. It is a useless comrade who does not know how to set up a tent, to dig a hole for cooking, to make a fire, to dress a wound. The many repulsive tasks in the world of war will soon cause him to stay behind as unfit, or he will remain a constant source of trouble to the sergeant, who will be unable to grasp how anybody could be born with so little common sense.

We have no use for helpless professors but need agile, quick youths who can deal with every situation in life and have learned all that at a time when it was easiest to learn it. This is, to a large extent the purpose of the hiking trip and the camp.

But the hiking trip has still another purpose. It is one of the best means of education at our disposal; because it is the only way in which the boy can get acquainted with his fatherland for which he will have to fight one day. From the perspective of the back alley he can never win it. But he who has not been completely satisfied will still find in sun and rain and in his own effort the meaning of trees and soil, of villages and old towns. He can carry it with him as his true possession and with this possession he ceases to be a proletarian. It is even a prerequisite for the possibility that the new state once again may give him a piece of land. Then again it would have a meaning to the individual.

The systematic development of physical ability for all of us today has become something self-understood. We can hardly grasp the fact that the old state did so little for it with a few hours of gymnastic exercises up to the end of compulsory school and nothing up to the time of military service. And that at a time when the number of men fit for military service in the large cities decreased from year to year. It does not make sense to us to provide physical training only for those who desire it and, therefore, join sports clubs. Because he who does not do that is certainly much more in need of physical training. A definite program for physical training simultaneous with the physical development of the young person is a demand already made by the Fuehrer in his book “Mein Kampf” and which was therefore also demanded and carried out by the new state. The gap between school, labor and army service must finally be closed.

What shall and must be done in particular is clear today and established. The natural is the best. General physical training is the beginning. Then follows athletics. Track comes first, followed by jumping, throwing and pushing. But not everything belongs to athletics but only the simplest: short and long distance running, high and broad jumping, shot put and instead of javelin, club-throwing. For building the body those are the most beneficial exercises which require a minimum of tools and at the same time not too much technique. Among those swimming is one of the exercises which develop the body in general. Why should a boy wait till he is 20 years old to learn how to swim? In the question itself lies the contradiction. Why should the army occupy itself by teaching 70 percent of the recruits how to swim. The boy of ten can learn to swim and should master it long before he becomes a soldier.

* * * * * * *

Of special value for the development of the body is any fighting sport, especially boxing. Every boy first learns free wrestling and then boxing. There is no sport which educates better to hardiness and fighting spirit.

One could not start it too early but only after the body has almost stopped growing, under no circumstances during the grooming periods. After that it shall be the main part of body training.

* * * * * * *

[Pages 174-176]

Every boy endures within the proper limits of his strength and resistance. It is the art of the educator not to go further and to go so far that through a new test new hardiness follows and in such a manner that the new test can be on a higher level and increase resistance by not giving beyond its limits.

* * * * * * *

All that has been learned serves, from a military point of view, nothing but to get close to the enemy and to bring arms into effect. The entire education and training remains without value if it does not lead to the full effect of the weapon against the enemy. All training, therefore culminates in training in shooting. It cannot be emphasized enough and because shooting is a matter of practice one cannot start too early. In the course of years we want to achieve that a gun feels just as natural in the hands of a German boy as a pen. It is a strange state of mind in a nation if, through years many hours every day are spent in practicing penmanship and grammatical writing but not a single hour in practice-shooting. Liberalism put the following slogan above school doors “Knowledge is power”. We, on the other hand, have found out during the war and postwar period that the power of a nation, in the last analysis, always rests on its arms and on those who know how to handle them.