[The Tribunal adjourned until 18 December 1945 at 1000 hours.]
TWENTY-SECOND DAY
Tuesday, 18 December 1945
Morning Session
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, before adjourning yesterday afternoon, Your Honors properly asked a question or two about Documents 3051-PS and 3063-PS, to which I think I have an answer that will help the Tribunal. Your Honors will recall, with reference to Document 3051-PS—I believe it might be of assistance to turn to that document.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COL. STOREY: Your Honors asked yesterday afternoon, since this had to do with the SD and the SS, how the Party was involved. And I should like to quote Paragraph Number 1 on Page 2 of the English translation, which answers this question, and I am quoting:
“The Chiefs of the State Police or their deputies, upon receipt of this teletype, must get in contact by telephone with the political administration (Gauleitung or Kreisleitung) having jurisdiction over their districts and must arrange a joint meeting with the appropriate inspector or commander of the Order Police to discuss the organization of the demonstration. At these discussions the political leaders are to be informed that the German Police have received from the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police the following instructions, in accordance with which the political leaders should adapt their measures.”
That had to do with the preparation for the general anti-Jewish uprisings.
Now, with reference to Document 3063-PS, which follows just below that one, if Your Honor pleases.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
COL. STOREY: That, if you recall, Your Honor, was a report from the Supreme Party Court Justice Buch to the Defendant Göring concerning punishment for the uprisings that followed the 9th and 10th of November demonstration. I should like to quote the portion signed by the Defendant Göring. It is, I believe, the second page of the English translation. It is dated “Berlin, 22 February 1939”:
“Dear Party Member Buch:
“I thank you for forwarding the report of your special court on the proceedings concluded up to now concerning the excesses on the occasion of the anti-Jewish incidents of 9 and 10 November 1938, of which I have taken cognizance. Heil Hitler! Yours, signed, Göring.”
And then, passing, Your Honor, to Page Number 1, immediately following, of the English translation, I think the next two paragraphs will answer Your Honor’s question. I quote:
“On the evening of 9 November 1938 the Reich Propaganda Director, Party Member Dr. Goebbels told the Party leaders assembled at a reunion in the old town hall in Munich that in the districts”—Gaue—“of Kurhessen and Magdeburg-Anhalt anti-Jewish demonstrations had taken place, during which Jewish shops were demolished and synagogues were set on fire. The Führer, at Goebbels’ suggestion, had decided that such demonstrations were not to be prepared or organized by the Party; but so far as they originated spontaneously, they were not to be interfered with either. Besides that, Party Member Dr. Goebbels interpreted the sense of the contents of the teletype of the Reich Propaganda Administration of 10 November 1938. . . .”
THE PRESIDENT: What does “12:30 to 1 o’clock” mean there?
COL. STOREY: That is the time of the teletype message, I assume, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
COL. STOREY: “It was probably understood by all the Party leaders present, from the oral instructions of the Reich Propaganda Director, that the Party should not appear outwardly as the originator of the demonstrations but in reality should organize and execute them. Instructions in this sense were telephoned immediately—thus a considerable time before transmission of the first teletype—to the headquarters of their districts”—Gaue—“by a large part of the Party members present.”
Now Your Honors properly asked yesterday afternoon how the Blockleiter would be affected. Your Honors will recall that, in the instructions to the Blockleiter defining his offices, it was stated that his instructions would be received orally and they would be transmitted orally and never to use writing except in extreme cases. Therefore I say that these quoted portions clearly indicate that the Party was in fact used in connection with these famous 9 and 10 November 1938, anti-Jewish demonstrations.
Now, reverting back to the text where I left off yesterday afternoon: The Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party participated in the confiscation of church and religious property.
I offer in evidence Document 072-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-357, a letter dated 19 April 1941 from Reichsleiter Bormann to Reichsleiter Rosenberg. This letter exposes the participation of the Gauleiter in measures relating to the confiscation of religious property.
I now quote from the last paragraph of Page 1 of the English translation of Document 072-PS, which reads:
“The libraries and art objects of the monasteries confiscated in the Reich were to remain for the time being in these monasteries insofar as the Gauleiter had not directed otherwise. . . .”
On 21 February 1940 the Chief of the Security Police and SD, Heydrich, wrote a letter to Reichsführer SS Himmler, proposing that certain listed churches and monasteries be confiscated for the accommodation of so-called “racial Germans.”
The Tribunal, of course, will recall Himmler’s position.
After pointing out that on political grounds outright expropriation of religious property would not be feasible at the time, Heydrich suggested certain specious interim actions with respect to the church properties in question, to be followed progressively by outright confiscation.
I now offer in evidence R-101(a)—it is right towards the end of Your Honor’s Exhibit—as Exhibit USA-358.
If Your Honors please, there are several of those documents under R-101, and at the bottom you will notice they are labeled “a,” “b,” and “c.” The first one is R-101(a), and I quote the first five paragraphs on Page 2 of the English translation:
“Enclosed is a list of church possessions which might be available for the accommodation of racial Germans. The list, which I beg you to return, is supplemented by correspondence and illustrated material pertinent to the subject.
“For political reasons, expropriation without indemnity of the entire property of the churches and religious orders will hardly be possible at this time.
“Expropriation with indemnity or in return for assignment of other lands and grounds will be even less possible.
“It is therefore suggested that the respective authorities of the orders be instructed that they make available the monasteries concerned for the accommodation of racial Germans and remove their own members to other less populous monasteries.”
There is a marginal note opposite this paragraph that, translated, means “very good.”
“The final expropriation of these properties thus placed at our disposal can then be carried out step by step in the course of time.”
On 5 April 1940 the Security Police and Security Service SS sent a letter to the Reich Commissar for the consolidation of Germandom, enclosing a copy of the foregoing letter from Heydrich to Himmler of 21 February 1940, proposing the confiscation of Church properties. The letter of 5 April 1940 is included in the Document R-101(a), just introduced in evidence; and I quote from the second sentence of the first paragraph thereof, on Page 1 of the English translation of Document R-101(a):
“The Reich Leader SS has agreed to the proposals made in the enclosed letter and has ordered