strict military lines, and as early as 1933 the
Wehrmacht was cooperating in providing pre-military training for the
Reich Youth.
The Nazi Government endeavored to unite the Nation in support of
their policies through the extensive use of propaganda. A number of
agencies was set up, whose duty was to control and influence the
press, the radio, films, publishing firms, etc., in Germany, and to
supervise entertainment and cultural and artistic activities. All
these agencies came under Goebbels' Ministry of the People's
Enlightenment and Propaganda, which together with a corresponding
organization in the NSDAP and the Reich Chamber of Culture, was
ultimately responsible for exercising this supervision. The Defendant
Rosenberg played a leading part in disseminating the National
Socialist doctrines on behalf of the Party, and the Defendant
Fritzsche, in conjunction with Goebbels, performed the same task for
the State.
The greatest emphasis was laid on the supreme mission of the
German People to lead and dominate by virtue of their Nordic blood
and racial purity; and the ground was thus being prepared for the
acceptance of the idea of German world supremacy.
Through the effective control of the radio and the press, the
German People, during the years which followed 1933, were subjected
to the most intensive propaganda in furtherance of the regime.
Hostile criticism, indeed criticism of any kind, was forbidden, and
the severest penalties were imposed on those who indulged in it.
Independent judgment, based on freedom of thought, was rendered
quite impossible.
Measures of Rearmament
During the years immediately following Hitler's
appointment as Chancellor, the Nazi Government set about
re-organizing the economic life of Germany, and in particular the
armament industry. This was done on a vast scale and with extreme
thoroughness.
It was necessary to lay a secure financial foundation for the
building of armaments, and in April 1936 the Defendant Göring
was appointed coordinator for raw materials and foreign exchange, and
empowered to supervise all State and Party activities in these
fields. In this capacity he brought together the War Minister, the
Minister of Economics, the Reich Finance Minister, the President of
the Reichsbank and the Prussian Finance Minister to discuss problems
connected with war mobilization, and on 27 May 1936, in addressing
these men, Göring opposed any financial limitation of war
production and added that "all measures are to be considered
from the standpoint of an assured waging of war." At the Party
Rally in Nuremberg in 1936, Hitler announced the establishment of the