27 Nov. 45
We have a copy of the German publication known as Das
Archiv--the number of March 1935; and it is Page 1830 to which I
refer, and I would offer that in evidence, identifying it as our
number 2292-PS; I offer it as Exhibit USA-52. It is an announcement
concerning the German Air Force:
"The Reich Minister for Aviation,
General of the Airmen, Göring, in his talk with the special
correspondent of the Daily Mail, Ward Price, expressed himself
on the subject of the German Air Force.
"General Göring said:
"In the extension of our national
defenses'"--Sicherheit-- "'it was necessary, as we
repeatedly told the world, to take care of defense in the air. As far
as that is concerned, I restricted myself to those measures
absolutely necessary. The guiding line of my actions was, not the
creation of an aggressive force which would threaten other nations,
but merely the completion of a military aviation which would be
strong enough to repel, at any time, attacks on
Germany."'
Then, at the end of that section of the article in Das
Archiv:
"In conclusion, the correspondent
asks whether the German Air Force will be capable of repelling
attacks on Germany. General Göring replied to that exactly as
follows:
"'The German Air Force is just as passionately permeated
with the will to defend the Fatherland to the last as it is
convinced, on the other hand, that it will never be employed to
threaten the peace of other nations.' "
As I said, I believe, this morning, when we cite assurances of
that kind from Nazi leaders, we take it that we are not foreclosed
from showing that they had different intentions from those announced.
The next allegation of the Indictment is the promulgating of the
law for compulsory military service, universal military service.
Having gone as far as they could on rearmament and the secret
training of personnel, the next step necessary to the program for
aggressive war was a large-scale increase in military strength. This
could no longer be done under disguise and camouflage, and would have
to be known to the world. Accordingly, on 16 March 1935, there was
promulgated a law for universal military service, in violation of
Article 173 of the Versailles Treaty.
I ask the Court to take judicial notice of that law as it appears
in the Reichspesetzblatt, which is the official compilation of
laws, in the Title I of Volume I, yearly volume 1935, or Jahrgang, at