VI. Incorrect Judgment with regard to the
General Staff
and the OKW
The verdict incorrectly rejects the accusation of
criminal activity directed against the General Staff and the OKW.
The rejection of the accusation of criminal activity of the
General Staff and of the OKW contradicts both the actual situation
and the evidence submitted in the course of the Trial.
It has been established beyond doubt that the Leadership Corps of
the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany, together with the SS-Party machine,
represented the most important agency in preparing and realizing the
Nazi aggressive and man-hating program. This was constantly and
forcefully reiterated by the Hitlerites themselves in their official
bulletins meant for the officer personnel of the armed forces. In the
Nazi Party bulletin called "Politics and the Officer in the III
Reich" it is quite clearly stated that the Nazi regime is
founded on
" . . . . two pillars: the Party
and the Armed Forces. Both are forms of expression of the same
philosophy of life . . . the tasks before the Party and the Armed
Forces are in an organic relationship to each other and each bears
the same responsibility . . both these agencies depend on each
other's success or failure." (PS-4060, USA-928)
This organic inter-relationship between the Nazi
Party and the SS on the one hand and the Nazi Armed Forces on the
other hand, was particularly evident among the upper circles of
military hierarchy which the Indictment groups together under the
concept of criminal organization-that is, among the members of the
General Staff and the OKW.
The very selection of members of the Supreme
Command of the Army in Nazi Germany was based on the criteria of
their loyalty to the regime and their readiness not to pursue
aggressive militaristic policies but also to fulfill such special
directives as related to treatment meted out to prisoners of war and
to the civilian populations of occupied territories.
The leaders of the German Armed Forces were not merely officers
who reached certain levels of the military hierarchy. They
represented, first of all, a closely-knit group which was entrusted
with the most secret plans of the Nazi leadership. Evidence submitted
to the Tribunal has fully confirmed the contention that the military
leaders of Germany justified this trust completely and that they were
the convinced followers and ardent executors of Hitler's plans.
It is not accidental that at the head of the Air Force stood the
"second man" of the Nazi Reich, namely Göring; that
the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy was Dönitz, subsequently
designated by Hitler to be the latter's successor; that the command
of the Ground