21 Nov. 45
"Shortly after the first war I
came to the conclusion that we should have to be victorious in three
battles if Germany were to become powerful again: 1. The battle
against the working class-Hitler has won this. 2. Against the
Catholic Church perhaps better expressed against Ultramontanism. 3.
Against the Jews." (1947-PS)
The warfare against these elements was
continuous. The battle in Germany was but a practice skirmish for the
worldwide drive against them. We have in point of geography and of
time two groups of Crimes against Humanity-one within Germany before
and during the war, the other in occupied territory during the war.
But the two are not separated in Nazi planning. They are a continuous
unfolding of the Nazi plan to exterminate peoples and institutions
which might serve as a focus or instrument for overturning their
"new world order" at any time. We consider these crimes
against humanity in this address as manifestations of the one Nazi
plan and discuss them according to General Von Fritsch's
classification.
1. The Battle against the Working
Class
:
When Hitler came to power, there were in Germany
three groups of trade unions. The General German Trade Union
Confederation (ADGB) with 28 affiliated unions, and the General
Independent Employees Confederation (AFA) with 13 federated unions
together numbered more than 4,500,000 members. The Christian Trade
Union had over 1,250,000 members.
The working people of Germany, like the working people of other
nations, had little to gain personally by war. While labor is usually
brought around to the support of the nation at war labor by and large
is a pacific, though by no means a pacifist force in the world. The
working people of Germany had not forgotten in 1933 how heavy the
yoke of the war lord can be. It was the workingmen who had joined the
sailors and soldiers in the revolt of 1918 to end the first world
War. The Nazis had neither forgiven nor forgotten. The Nazi program
required that this part of the German population not only be stripped
of power to resist diversion of its scanty comforts to armament but
also be wheedled or whipped into new and unheard of sacrifices as a
part of the Nazi war preparation. Labor must be cowed, and that meant
its organizations and means of cohesion and defense must be
destroyed.
The purpose to regiment labor for the Nazi Party
was avowed by Ley in a speech to workers on May 2, 1933 as follows:
"You may say what else do you want,
you have the absolute power. True we have the power, but we do not
have the whole people, we do not have you workers 100 per cent, and