tries. He took part in the discussions which led to
the removal of 60,000 Jews from Vienna to Poland in cooperation with
the SS and the Gestapo. He signed the decree of 31 May 1941 extending
the Nuremberg Laws to the annexed Eastern territories. In an order of
9 October 1942 he declared that the permanent elimination of Jews in
Greater German territory could no longer be solved by emigration, but
only by applying "ruthless force" in the special camps in
the East. On 1 July 1943 he signed an ordinance withdrawing Jews from
the protection of the law courts and placing them under the exclusive
jurisdiction of Himmler's Gestapo.
Bormann was prominent in the slave labor program. The Party
leaders supervised slave labor matters in the respective Gaue,
including employment, conditions of work, feeding, and housing. By
his circular of 5 May 1943 to the Leadership Corps, distributed down
to the level of Ortsgruppenleiter, he issued directions regulating
the treatment of foreign workers, pointing out they were subject to
SS control on security problems, and ordered the previous
mistreatment to cease. A report of 4 September 1942 relating to the
transfer of 500,000 female domestic workers from the East to Germany
showed that control was to be exercised by Sauckel, Himmler, and
Bormann. Sauckel by decree of 8 September directed the Kreisleiter to
supervise the distribution and assignment of these female laborers.
Bormann also issued a series of orders to the Party leaders
dealing with the treatment of prisoners of war. On 5 November 1941 he
prohibited decent burials for Russian prisoners of war. On 25
November 1943 he directed Gauleiter to report cases of lenient
treatment of prisoners of war. And on 13 September 1944 he ordered
liaison between. the Kreisleiter with the camp commandants in
determining the use to be made of prisoners of war for forced labor.
On 29 January 1943 he transmitted to his leaders OKW instructions
allowing the use of firearms, and corporal punishment on recalcitrant
prisoners of war, contrary to the Rules of Land Warfare. On 30
September 1944 he signed a decree taking from the OKW jurisdiction
over prisoners of war and handing them over to Himmler and the SS.
Bormann is responsible for the lynching of Allied airmen. On 30
May 1944 he prohibited any police action or criminal proceedings
against persons who had taken part in the lynching of Allied fliers.
This was accompanied by a Goebbels' propaganda campaign inciting the
German people to take action of this nature, and the conference of 6
June 1944, where regulations for the application of lynching were
discussed.
His Counsel, who has labored under difficulties, was unable to
refute this evidence. In the face of these documents, which bear
Bormann's signature, it is difficult to see how he could do so even
were the defendant present. Counsel has argued that Bormann is