“To advise me in directing the foreign policy I am setting up a Secret Cabinet Council. As President of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate Reich Minister Baron von Neurath. As members of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate:
“Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop; Prussian Minister President, Reich Minister of the Air, Supreme Commander of the Air Forces, General Field Marshal Hermann Göring; the Führer’s Deputy, Reich Minister Rudolf Hess; Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr. Joseph Goebbels; Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers;”—that is shown at the top immediately under Hitler—“Supreme Commander of the Army, Colonel General Walther von Brauchitsch; Supreme Commander of the Navy, Grand Admiral Dr. Raeder; Chief of the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, General of the Artillery Wilhelm Keitel.”
It will be noted that every member was either a Reich Minister or, as in the case of the Army, Navy, and OKW heads, had the rank and authority of a Reich Minister.
On 30 August 1939 Hitler established the Council of Ministers for Defense of the Reich, better known as the Ministerial Council—coming down from the year 1939, the Ministerial Defense Council. This was the so-called war cabinet. The decree appears in the 1939 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, at Page 1539. I now refer to Document 2018-PS of the Laws and Decrees, and I quote Section Number 1:
“(1) A Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall be formed out of the Reich Defense Council as a standing committee;
“(2) The standing members of the Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall include:
“General Field Marshal Göring, as chairman; the Führer’s Deputy”—the Defendant Hess—“the Plenipotentiary General for Reich Administration”—who was the Defendant Frick—“the Plenipotentiary General for Economy”—the Defendant Funk—“the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery”—Dr. Lammers—“the Chief of the High Command of the Armed Forces”—who was the Defendant Keitel.
“(3) The chairman may draw on any other members of the Reich Defense Council as well as other personalities for advice.”
Again it will be seen that all were also members of the ordinary Cabinet. But this use of the Cabinet as a manpower reservoir from whom the trusted collaborators were selected becomes particularly poignant when we consider the actions of the Nazi conspirators which were not published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, which were concealed from the world, and which were part and parcel of their conspiracy to wage aggressive war. It will have been noted that the decree setting up the Ministerial Council contained this language, the one to which I have just referred:
“A Ministerial Council for Defense of the Reich shall be formed out of the Reich Defense Council as a standing committee . . . .”—also Subparagraph 3 of the same one—“The chairman may draw on any other members. . . .”
There is evidence already before this Tribunal establishing the creation—by the Cabinet—on 4 April 1933 of this really secret war-planning body. I refer the Tribunal to Exhibit USA-24, which appears in our document book as Document 2261-PS. That document contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law of 21 May 1935. As to the membership of that Council when first created, I have here a copy of the minutes of the second session of the working committee of the delegates for the Reich defense, dated 22 May 1933, and signed by the Defendant Keitel. It appears in our document book as EC-177, Exhibit USA-390. The composition of the Reich Defense Council appears on Page 3 of the original, and also on Page 3 of the translation:
THE PRESIDENT: I thought you were going to refer to 2261-PS.
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, I just referred to it as being an exhibit already in evidence and said that it was one of the unpublished Reich defense laws. That was the only purpose in referring to it.
The quotation is from Page 3 of the translation, beginning at the top of the page:
“Composition of the Reich Defense Council:
“President, Reich Chancellor; Deputy, Minister of the Reichswehr; Permanent Members, Minister of the Reichswehr, Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, Reich Minister of the Interior, Reich Minister of Finance, Reich Minister of Economic Affairs, Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Reich Air Ministry, Chief of the Army Command Staff, Chief of the Navy Command Staff, and—as the case may be—the remaining Reich Ministers, other personalities, for example, leading industrialists, et cetera.”
All but the Chiefs of the Army and Navy Command Staff were, then, component parts of the ordinary Cabinet. The composition of this Defense Council was changed in 1938. I refer the Tribunal to Exhibit USA-36, which appears in our document book as Number 2194-PS. This contains the unpublished Reich Defense Law of 4 September 1938.
I now quote from Paragraph 10, entitled “The Reich Defense Council,” which is found at Page 4 of the copy of the law in the original; and I now quote from Page 6 of the English translation, the top of the page:
“(2) The Führer and Reich Chancellor is chairman in the Reich Defense Council. His permanent deputy is General Field Marshal Göring; he has the authority to call conferences of the Council. Permanent members of the Council are:
“Reich Minister of Air and Supreme Commander of the Air Force, the Supreme Commander of the Army, the Supreme Commander of the Navy, the Chief of the OKW, the Führer’s Deputy, the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, the President of the Secret Cabinet Council, the Plenipotentiary General for the Reich Administration, the Plenipotentiary General for Economics, the Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Reich Minister of the Interior, the Reich Minister of Finance, the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, the President of the Reich Bank Directorate.
“The other Reich Ministers and the Reich offices directly subordinate to the Führer and the Reich Chancellor will be consulted if necessary. Further personalities may be called as the case demands.”
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, it would help me if you explained to me what conclusions you are asking us to draw from these documents.
COL. STOREY: If Your Honor pleases, we were trying to show the progressive domination of the Reich Cabinet by the defendants and the members of this group, so that, as Your Honors will see as we later go ahead, they could pass laws and decrees secretly, by circulatory process or at the will, in effect, of the defendants. I realize it is a little detailed, but we are trying to show the composition and how it was set up, and the conclusions will be drawn later.
By that time the Supreme Commanders of the Army and Navy had been given ministerial rank and authorized to participate in Cabinet meetings. I cite 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, Page 215.
May we at this time call the attention of the Tribunal to two members of the Defense Council who will also appear in the Ministerial Council under the same title: the Plenipotentiary for Administration and the Plenipotentiary for Economy. The former post was held by the Defendant Frick, while the latter was first held by the Defendant Schacht and then by the Defendant Funk, who signed the decree in that capacity. These facts are verified by the Defendant Frick in Exhibit Number USA-3, which is the Nazi governmental organization chart previously referred to.
As we will later show, these two posts had many of the other ministries subordinated to them for war-planning aims and purposes. They, together with the Chief of the OKW, formed a powerful triumvirate, known as the “Three-Man College”—that is shown in the three boxes down from 1935 to 1938—which figured prominently, as the proof will disclose, in the plans and preparations to wage aggressive war. And the incumbents of these positions were Cabinet members: the Defendants Frick, Funk, and Keitel.
This utilization of the ordinary Cabinet as a supply center for other governmental agencies and the cohesion between all of the groups