21 Nov. 45
of the SD describing in detail how its members later violated the
secrecy of elections in order to identify those who opposed them. One
of the reports makes this explanation:
" . . ., The control was effected in
the following way: some members of the election committee marked all
the ballot papers with numbers. During the ballot itself, a voters'
list was made up. The ballot-papers were handed out in numerical
order, therefore it was possible afterwards with the aid of this list
to find out the persons who cast 'No'-votes or invalid votes. One
sample of these marked ballot-papers is enclosed. The marking was
done on the back of the ballot-papers with skimmed milk .... "
(R-142)
The Party activity, in addition to all the familiar forms of
political contest, took on the aspect of a rehearsal for warfare. It
utilized a Party formation, "Die Sturmabteilungen",
commonly known as the SA. This was a voluntary organization of
youthful and fanatical Nazis trained for the use of violence under
semi-military discipline. Its members began by acting as bodyguards
for the Nazi leaders and rapidly expanded from defensive to offensive
tactics. They became disciplined ruffians for the breaking up of
opposition meetings and the terrorization of adversaries. They
boasted that their task was to make the Nazi Party "master of
the streets". The SA was the parent organization of a number of
others. Its offspring include "Die Schutzstaffeln",
commonly known as the SS, formed in 1925 and distinguished for the
fanaticism and cruelty of its members; "Der
Sicherheitsdienst", known as the SD; and "Die Geheime
Staatspolizei", the Secret State Police, the infamous Gestapo
formed in 1934 after Nazi accession to power.
A glance at a chart of the Party organization is enough to show
how completely it differed from the political parties we know. It had
its own source of law in the Führer and sub-Führer. It had
its own courts and its own police. The conspirators set up a
government within the Party to exercise outside the law every
sanction that any legitimate state could exercise and many that it
could not. Its chain of command was military, and its formations were
martial in name as well as in function. They were composed of
battalions set up to bear arms under military discipline, motorized
corps, flying corps, and the infamous "Death Head Corps",
which was not misnamed. The Party had its own secret police, its
security units, its intelligence and espionage division, its raiding
forces, and its youth forces. It established elaborate administrative
mechanisms to identify and liquidate spies and informers, to manage
concentration camps, to operate death vans, and to finance the whole
movement. Through concentric circles of authority, the Nazi Party, as
its leader-