22 Nov. 45
touched world of Bolshevism cannot
forget that we have made final victory for them impossible in Europe,
right here on German soil."
And Raymond Geist, whose affidavit I previously
referred to, being Document Number 1759-PS, states:
"The German people were
well-acquainted with what was happening in concentration camps, and
it was well known that the fate of anyone too actively opposed to any
part of the Nazi program was liable to be one of great suffering.
Indeed, before the Hitler regime was many months old, almost every
family in Germany had received first-hand accounts of the brutalities
inflicted in the concentration camps from someone, either in the
family circle or in the circle of friends who had served a sentence,
and consequently the fear of such camps was a very effective brake on
any possible opposition."
And as the Defendant Göring said in 1934,--
and I refer to Document Number 2344-PS, which will be offered in
evidence:
"Against the enemies of the
State, we must proceed ruthlessly... therefore the concentration
camps have been created, where we have first confined thousands of
Communist and Socialist Democrat functionaries."
In addition to ruthlessly purging all political
opponents, the Nazi conspirators further consolidated their position
by promptly proceeding to eliminate all other political parties.
On-21 March 1933, the Defendant Frick announced that the Communists
would be prevented from taking part in the Reichstag proceedings.
This was accomplished, as has been pointed out, by placing them in
"protective custody in concentration camps." On the 26th
May 1933 a Reich Cabinet decree, signed by Hitler and the Defendant
Frick, provided for the confiscation of the Communist property. On 22
June 1933 the Social Democratic Party was suppressed in Prussia, it
previously having been seriously weakened by placing a number of its
members in concentration camps. On the 7th of July 1933 a Reich
decree eliminated Social Democrats from the Reichstag and from the
governing bodies of the provinces and municipalities. On the 14 of
July 1933, by a decree of the Reich Cabinet, the property of the
Social Democrats was confiscated, and the Nazi Party was constituted
as the sole political party in Germany, and thereupon it became
illegal to maintain or to form any other political party. Thus,
Hitler was able to say within hardly more than 5 months after
becoming Chancellor, I quote: "The Party has become the
State."
The Nazi conspirators immediately proceeded to make that
statement a recorded fact, for on the 1st of December 1933 the Reich