Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 4, p. 134
		19 Dec. 45 I need hardly point out the importance of this function to the successful effectuation of the conspiracy, for it is self-evident that the Nazis could not have carried their conspiracy to the stages which they did, had not the minds of the people of Germany been cruelly and viciously influenced and infected with their evil ideologies. I now proceed to the other functions of the SA which I mentioned previously. The next is its use in the early stages of the conspiracy as the "strong-arm" of the NSDAP. In the early stages of the Nazi movement, the employment of the SA as the propagandist instrument of the Party, involved and was combined with the exercise of physical violence and brutality. As said by Hitler in Mein Kampf - and this excerpt appears at Page 4 of Document 2760-PS, Page 4 of the English translation, Exhibit Number USA-256: "The young Movement, from the first day, espoused the standpoint that its idea must be put forward spiritually, but that the defense of this spiritual platform must, if necessary, be secured by strong-arm means." I will read the rest of that paragraph: "Faithful to its belief in the enormous significance of the new doctrine, it seems obvious to the Movement that for the attainment of its goal no sacrifice can be too great." And so, in the early days of the Nazi movement, so that the Nazis might better spread their fanatical philosophies, the SA was employed as a terroristic group, in order to gain for the Nazis possession and control of the streets. That is another way of saying that it was a function of the SA to beat up and terrorize all political opponents. The importance of this function is indicated in Document 2168-PS, Exhibit Number USA-411, which was written by SA Sturmführer Bayer on orders from SA headquarters. I refer to Page 3 of the English translation of Document 2168-PS, the third paragraph from the bottom: "Possession of the streets is the key to power in the State — for this reason the SA marched and fought. The public would never have received knowledge of the agitative speeches of the little Reichstag faction and its propagandists or of the desires and aims of the Party if the martial tread and battle song of the SA companies had not beat the measures for the truth of a relentless criticism of the state of affairs in the governmental system. They wanted the young Movement to keep silent. Nothing was to be read in the press about the labor of the National Socialists, not to mention the basic aims of its platform. They simply did not want to awaken any interest in it. However, the martial tread of the SA took 134
		Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 4, p. 134     Last modified: January 2, 1999 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.