Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 2, p. 32
		31 Nov. 45 against civilian populations before and during the war, and persecutions on political racial or religious grounds, in execution of the plan for preparing arid prosecuting aggressive or illegal ware, many of such acts and persecutions being violations of the domestic laws of the countries where perpetrated. IV. Particulars of the Nature and Development of the Common Plan or Conspiracy. (A) The Nazi Party as the central core of the Common Plan or Conspiracy. In 1921 Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader or Führer of the Nationalsozialistsche Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers Party), also known as the Nazi Party, which had been founded in Germany in 1920. He continued as such throughout the period covered by this Indictment The Nazi Party, together with certain of its subsidiary organizations, became the instrument of cohesion among the defendants and their co-conspirators and an instrument for the carrying out of the aims and purposes of their conspiracy. Each defendant became a member of the Nazi Party and of the conspiracy, with knowledge of their aims and purposes, or, with such knowledge, became an accessory to their aims and purposes at some stage of the development of the conspiracy. (B) Common objectives and methods of conspiracy. The aims and purposes of the Nazi Party and of the defendants and divers other persona from time to time associated as leaders, members, supporters, or adherents of the Nazi Party (hereinafter called collectively the "Nazi conspirators") were, or came to be, to accomplish the following by any means deemed opportune, including unlawful means, and contemplating ultimate resort to threat of force, force, and aggressive war: (1) to abrogate and overthrow the Treaty of Versailles and its restrictions upon the military armament and activity of Germany; (2) to acquire the territories lost by Germany as the result of the World War of 1914-18 and other territories in Europe asserted by the Nazi conspirators to be occupied principally by so-called "racial Germans"; (3) to acquire still further territories in continental Europe and elsewhere claimed by the Nazi conspirators to be required by the "racial Germans" as "Lebensraum," or living space, all at the expense of neighboring and other countries. The aims and purposes of the Nazi conspirators were not fixed or static, but evolved and expanded as they acquired progressively greater power and became able to make more effective application of threats of force and threats of aggressive war. When their expanding aims and purposes became finally so great as to provoke such strength of resistance as could be overthrown only by armed force and aggressive war, and not simply by the 32
		Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 2, p. 32     Last modified: October 10, 1998 Copyright © 1998 The Mazal Library and The Holocaust History Project. All rights reserved. Technical/administrative contact: webmaster@holocaust-history.org Find a typo? Let us know.