planning and waging of war against Poland; and,
successively, against 10 other countries.
The Prosecution says, in effect, that any significant
participation in the affairs of the Nazi Party or Government is
evidence of a participation in a conspiracy that is in itself
criminal. Conspiracy is not defined in the Charter. But in the
opinion of the Tribunal the conspiracy must be clearly outlined in
its criminal purpose. It must not be too far removed from the time of
decision and of action. The planning, to be criminal, must not rest
merely on the declarations of a party program, such as are found in
the 25 points of the Nazi Party, announced in 1920, or the political
affirmations expressed in Mein Kampf in later years. The
Tribunal must examine whether a concrete plan to wage war existed,
and determine the participants in that concrete plan.
It is not necessary to decide whether a single master conspiracy
between the defendants has been established by the evidence. The
seizure of power by the Nazi Party, and the subsequent domination by
the Nazi State of all spheres of economic and social life must of
course be remembered when the later plans for waging war are
examined. That plans were made to wage war, as early as 5 November
1937, and probably before that, is apparent. And thereafter, such
preparations continued in many directions, and against the peace of
many countries. Indeed the threat of war — and war itself if
necessary — was an integral part of the Nazi policy. But the
evidence establishes with certainty the existence of many separate
plans rather than a single conspiracy embracing them all. That
Germany was rapidly moving to complete dictatorship from the moment
that the Nazis seized power, and progressively in the direction of
war, has been overwhelmingly shown in the ordered sequence of
aggressive acts and wars already set out in this Judgment.
In the opinion of the Tribunal, the evidence
establishes the common planning to prepare and wage war by certain of
the defendants. It is immaterial to consider whether a single
conspiracy to the extent and over the time set out in the Indictment
has been conclusively proved. Continued planning. with aggressive war
as the objective, has been established beyond doubt. The truth of the
situation was well stated by Paul Schmidt, official interpreter of
the German Foreign Office, as follows:
"The general objectives of the
Nazi leadership were apparent from the start, namely the domination
of the European Con- tinent, to be achieved first by the
incorporation of all German speaking groups in the Reich, and
secondly, by territorial expansion under the slogan
"Lebensraum". The execution of these basic objectives,
however, seemed to be characterized