17 Dec. 45

COL. STOREY: First, what was the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party? What persons made up its membership? What was its size and scope?

In considering the composition and organizational structure of the Leadership Corps it will be convenient for the Tribunal to refer to Document Number 2903-PS, which is this exhibit on the wall and which was introduced by Mr. Albrecht at the opening of the Trial. And, supplementing the chart on the wall, I now offer in evidence Document 2833-PS, Exhibit Number USA-22, which is a chart of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, appearing at Page 9 of a magazine published by the Chief Education Office of the Nazi Party, .entitled The Face of the Party. It is this little photostatic copy that you have. Later on we expect to put the big one on the wall.

These charts and the evidence to follow show that the Leadership Corps constituted the sum total of the officials of the Nazi Party. It included the Führer at the top; the Reichsleiter, on the horizontal line; the Reich officeholders, immediately below —the five categories of leaders who were area commanders, called the "Hoheitsträger" or "bearers of sovereignty." They are in the red-lettered or red-lined boxes at the bottom. They range all the way from the 40-odd Gauleiter in charge of large districts, down through the intermediate political leaders, the Kreisleiter, the Ortsgruppenleiter, the Zellenleiter, and finally, to the Blockleiter who were charged with looking after 40 to 60 households and what may be best described as staff officers attached to each of the five levels of the Hoheitsträger.

Organized upon a hierarchical basis, forming a pyramidal structure — as appears from the chart which Your Honors hold in your hands — the principal political leaders on a scale of descending authority were:

The Führer at the top; the Reichsleiter, as I have mentioned, and the main office and officeholders; the Gauleiter, who was the district leader' with his staff officers; the Kreisleiter, who was the county leader, and his staff officers; the Ortsgruppenleiter, the local chapter leader, and his staff officers; the Zellenleiter, who was the cell leader, and his staff officers; and then, finally, the Blockleiter, with his staff officers.

I now offer in evidence Document 1893-PS. This is Exhibit Number USA-323. And this, if Your Honors please, is the Organization Book of the NSDAP, the National Socialist Party. It was edited by the Defendant, Reich Organization Leader of the NSDAP — the late Defendant — Dr. Robert Ley, and it is the 1943 edition. A large part of the evidence to be offered relating to the composition of the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party will be drawn from this primer of the Nazi organizations, and I shall later