I believe I will skip the part that describes those lines because it is self-evident.
The Ministerial Defense Council was created in 1944; the Delegate for Total War Effort was Goebbels. These agencies were, next to Hitler, the important Nazi functionaries. In every case, as the chart shows, they were occupied by persons taken from the ordinary Cabinet. The arrow running from the Reich Defense Council to the Ministerial Defense Council is intended to reflect the fact, shown previously, that the latter was formed out of the former. We will, for other points of this presentation, refer again to the chart, especially to that portion to the right, which relates to ministries.
The unity, cohesion, and inter-relationship of the subdivisions of the Reichsregierung were not the result of a co-mixture of personnel alone. It was also realized by the method in which it operated. The ordinary Cabinet consulted together both by meetings and through the so-called circulation procedure. Under this procedure, which was predominantly used when meetings were not held, drafts of laws prepared in the individual ministries were distributed to the other Cabinet members for approval or disapproval.
The man primarily responsible for the circulation of drafts of laws under this procedure was Dr. Lammers, the Leader and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. I have here an affidavit executed by him concerning that technical device, which we offer in evidence as Exhibit USA-391, Document 2999-PS. It is short and I should like to quote all of it:
“I, Hans Heinrich Lammers, being first duly sworn, depose and say:
“I was Leader of the Reich Chancellery from 30 January 1933 until the end of the war. In this capacity I circulated drafts of proposed laws and decrees, submitted to me by the minister who had drafted the law or decree, to all members of the Reich Cabinet. A period of time was allowed for objections, after which the law was considered as being accepted by the various members of the Cabinet. This procedure continued throughout the entire war. It was likewise followed also in the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich.”—Signed—“Dr. Lammers”—and sworn to before Lieutenant Colonel Hinkel.
As an illustration of how the circulation procedure worked, I have here a memorandum dated 9 August 1943, which bears the facsimile signature of the Defendant Frick and is addressed to the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery. Attached to the memorandum is a draft of the law in question and a carbon copy of a letter dated 22 December 1943, from the Defendant Rosenberg to the Reich Minister of the Interior, containing his comments on the draft. I now offer Document 1701-PS as Exhibit USA-392, and I call Your Honors’ attention to the big red border around the enclosure. The quoted portion is from Page 1 of the translation and Page 1 of the original. Quoting:
“To the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery in Berlin (W8). For the information of the other Reich Ministers. Subject: Law on the Treatment of Asocial Elements of Society. Referring to my letter of 19 March 1942, 55 enclosures.
“The draft of the Law on the Treatment of Asocial Elements of Society having been completely rewritten, I am sending the enclosed new draft with the consent of the Reich Minister of Justice, Dr. Thierack, and ask that the law be approved in the circulatory manner. The necessary number of copies is attached.”
The same procedure was followed in the Council of Ministers when that body was created; and the decrees of the Council of Ministers were also circulated to the members of the ordinary Cabinet.
I have here a carbon copy of a memorandum found in the files of the Reich Chancellery by the Allied armies and addressed to the members of the Council of Ministers, dated 17 September 1939 and bearing the typed signature of Dr. Lammers. It is Document 1141-PS, Exhibit USA-393. From the English translation, the last paragraph just above Dr. Lammers’ signature, I quote:
“Matters submitted to the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich have heretofore been distributed only to the members of the Council. I have been requested by some of the Reich Ministers who are not permanent members of the Council to inform them of the drafts of the decrees which are being submitted to the Council, so as to enable them to check those drafts from the point of view of their respective offices. I shall follow this request so that all of the Reich Ministers will in the future be informed of the drafts of decrees which are to be acted upon by the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich. I therefore request that 45 additional copies of the drafts, as well as of the letters which usually contain the arguments for the drafts, be added to the folders submitted to the Council.”
Von Stutterheim, who was an official of the Reich Chancellery, comments on this procedure at Page 34 of a pamphlet entitled The Reich Chancellery, which I now offer in evidence, Document 2231-PS . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I don’t understand what the importance of the last document is.
COL. STOREY: The last document, if Your Honor pleases, is in further evidence of the approval of laws and of the passing of laws by a circulatory process.
THE PRESIDENT: We already have that in Dr. Lammers’ affidavit.
COL. STOREY: It might be considered strictly cumulative, if that is what Your Honor has in mind.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, if it is cumulative, we don’t really want to hear it.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir; I will ask then that it be stricken from the record. I had really overlooked the fact that it was cumulative. Miss Boyd and Commander Kaplan tell me that the Document Number 2231-PS is probably also corroborative of the same process; and I will, therefore, not offer it.
I have already stated that for a time the Cabinet consulted together through actual meetings. The Council of Ministers did likewise, but those members of the Cabinet who were not already members of the Council also attended the meetings of the Ministerial Council. And when they did not attend in person they were usually represented by State Secretaries of the Ministries. We have here the minutes of six meetings of the Council of Ministers of the 1, 4, 8, and 19 September 1939, also of the 16 October and 15 of November 1939. These original documents were found in the files of the Reich Chancellery. I offer them in evidence as Document 2852-PS, Exhibit USA-395. It will only be necessary to point, for our purposes, to a few of the minutes. I call the attention of the Tribunal to the meeting held on the 1st of September 1939, which is probably the first meeting since the Council was created on the 30th August 1939; and I read from that document—showing who was present—beginning at the top of the English translation:
“Present were the permanent members of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich:
“The Chairman, General Field Marshal Göring; the Führer’s Deputy, Hess;”—for some unknown reason a line appears through the name Hess—“the Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration, Dr. Frick; the Plenipotentiary General for Economy, Funk; the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers; and the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces, Keitel, represented by Major General Thomas.”
These were the regular members of the Council. Also present were the Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, Darré, and seven State Secretaries—naming the secretaries. These State Secretaries were from the several ministries or other supreme Reich authorities, as, for example, to name a few: Körner was the Deputy of the Defendant Göring in the Four Year Plan; Stuckart was in the Ministry of the Interior; Landfried was in the Ministry of Economics; Syrup was in the Ministry of Labor. These later positions appear on the government chart which is already in evidence. Another meeting of the Council—I will skip that one.
And then there came the names of nine State Secretaries . . .
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Colonel Storey, the last document showed only that certain members of the Cabinet came to a Cabinet meeting. Did it show any more than that?
COL. STOREY: It shows no more than that. I was just going on a little farther to show that an SS Gruppenführer was present also, and other people