23 Nov. 45
the original attack. The marchers were
met at the Chancellery by Reichsstatthalter Seyss-Inquart, who
addressed them and unveiled a memorial tablet. From the
Reichsstatthalterei the Standarte"--that is the SS organization
which made the original attack and which marched on this occasion 4
years later--"marched from the old Ravag broadcasting center,
from which false news of the resignation of Dollfuss had been
broadcast, and there unveiled a second memorial tablet. Steinhaeusel,
the present Police President of Vienna, is a member of the SS
Standarte 89."
Today that original memorial plaque, if the Court please, is
rubble, like so much of Nuremberg; but we found a photograph of it in
the National Library in Vienna. I should like to offer this
photograph in evidence. It was taken on this occasion 4 years later.
The Nazi wreath encircles the memorial tablet. A large wreath of
flowers with a very distinct swastika Nazi symbol was laid before the
wreath. I offer that photograph identified as 2968-PS in evidence. I
offer it as Exhibit USA-60. You will find that in the document book.
I know of no more interesting or shocking document at which you could
look. We call celebrating a murder 4 years later, "Murder by
ratification."
As that photograph shows, this plaque which was erected to
celebrate this sinister occasion reads: "One hundred and
fifty-four German men of the 89th SS Standarte stood up here for
Germany on July 25, 1934. Seven found death in the hands of the
hangman."
The Tribunal may notice that the number "154" at the
top of the plaque is concealed in the photograph by the Nazi wreath
surrounding the plaque. I must confess that I find myself curiously
interested in this tablet and in the photograph which was taken and
carefully filed. The words chosen for this marble tablet, and surely
we can presume that they were words chosen carefully, tell us clearly
that the men involved were not mere malcontent Austrian
revolutionaries, but were regarded as German men, were members of a
pare-military organization, and stood up here for Germany.
In 1934 Hitler repudiated Doctor Rieth because he dragged the
German Reich into an internal Austrian affair without any reason. In
1938 Nazi Germany proudly identified itself with this murder, took
credit for it, and took responsibility for it. Further proof in the
conventional sense, it seems to us, is hardly necessary.
Next we refer to the program culminating in the Pact of July 11,
1936. In considering the activities of the Nazi conspirators in
Austria between July 25, 1934 and November 1937 there is a distinct
intermediate point, the Pact of July 11, 1936. Accordingly,