13 Dec.
45
potential oppositions by terror, and Frick's statement
to Seger is completely consistent with an earlier statement which he
made on the 18th of October 1929. We refer to Document Number 2513-PS
(Exhibit USA-235), which has also been received in evidence and has been
included in USA Exhibit B. We refer to the first page of the English
translation, Page 48 of the German text. On Page 1 the quotation begins:
"This fateful struggle will first be
taken up with the ballot; but this cannot continue indefinitely, for
history has taught us that in a battle blood must be shed and iron
broken. The ballot is the beginning of the fateful struggle. We are
determined to promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as
Mussolini exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed
in accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror."
THE PRESIDENT: This is the defendant, is it?
MR. DODD: Yes, the Defendant Frick.
There are many additional cases of the use of the concentration camp
against the men who wanted peace. There was, for example, a group called
the Bibelforscher, that is, Bible research workers, most of whom were
known as Jehovah's Witnesses. They were pacifists, and so the
conspirators provided not only for their prosecution in the regular
courts but also for their confinement in concentration camps after they
had served the judicial sentences; and we refer to Document Number D-84,
Exhibit USA-236. This document is dated the 5th day of August 1937; and
it is an order by the Secret State Police at Berlin, and I refer
particularly to the first and last paragraphs of this order, as follows:
"The Reich Minister of Justice had
informed me that he does not share the opinion voiced by subordinate
departments on various occasions according to which the arrest of the
Bibelforscher after they have served a sentence is supposed to
jeopardize the authority of the law courts. He is fully aware of the
necessity for measures by the State Police after the sentence has been
served. He asks, however, not to bring the Bibelforscher into
protective custody under circumstances detrimental to the respect of
the law courts."
And then,
the Paragraph numbered "(2)":
"If information regarding the
impending release of a Bibelforscher from arrest is received from the
authorities carrying out the sentence, my decision regarding the
ordering of measures by the State Police will be asked for without
delay in accordance with my circular decree dated 22. 4. 37, so that
transfer to a concentration camp can take place immediately