22 Nov. 45

There were certain other powers that went to an organization within the shadow-land I mentioned, and which, unfortunately, does not have its name appear on this chart, the Dreierkollegium (the College of Three), which title should really be imposed over the last three boxes in the upper right hand corner; because the Dreierkollegium consisted not alone of the Plenipotentiary for Administration, but also the Plenipotentiary for War Economy, and the chairman of that group who, I believe, was the Defendant Keitel, as the head of the OKW, the Wehrmacht, all the armed forces. The duties of the Dreierkollegium would seem to have included the drafting of decrees in preparation of and for use during war. To the Secret Cabinet Council, the Geheimer Kabinettsrat, of which the Defendant Von Neurath was chairman,--or President, I believe was his title, went other powers. That Secret Cabinet Council was created by a decree of the Führer in 1938.

Certain other delegation of power took place to the Ministerrat für die Reichsverteidigung (the Ministerial Council for the Defense of the Realm), which is the smallest box appearing under the large box of the Reich Defense Council, to the right of the vertical line.

The Council of Ministers for the Defense of the Reich was responsible to the Führer alone. Its membership, as would seem to be indicated on the chart, was taken from the Reich Defense Council. It had broad powers to issue decrees with the force of law in so far as the Reichsregierung itself had not legislated on the subject.

It should be stressed that this delegation of Cabinet functions to various groups, composed largely of its own members, helped to conceal some of the important policies of the Reichsregierung, namely, those relating to the preparation of war, which delegated the necessary authority to secret and semi-secret agencies. Thus in a general way, as I have outlined, did the National Socialist Party succeed in putting Nazi policies into effect through its dummy, through the machinery of the State, the Reichsregierung, in its revised form.

I think it might be helpful if Your Honors will permit me to point out on this chart the large number of instances in which the defendants, names reappear in connection with the functions of the Government of the Reich.

Now, first of all, the Reichsregierung itself-I am sorry to say in that connection that there is one omission, a very important omission It is the name of the Vice Chancellor under Hitler, Von Papen, who was Vice Chancellor from the seizure of power until some time around the purge in June 1934.

Your Honors will see a grouping of Reich Ministers with portfolio, and under it of Ministers without portfolio, in which mostly