17 Dec. 45
An examination of the contents of the magazine Der
Hoheitsträger reveals a continuing concern by the
Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party in measures and doctrines which were
employed throughout the course of the conspiracy charged in the
Indictment. I shall not trouble the Tribunal nor encumber the record by
offering in evidence exhaustive enumeration of these matters; but it may
serve to clarify the plans and policies of the inner elite of the
Leadership Corps by indicating that a random sampling of articles
published and policies advocated in the various issues of the magazine
from February 1937 to October 1938 included the following:
Slanderous anti-Semitic articles, attacks on Catholicism and the
Christian religion and the clergy; the need for motorized armament; 'the
urgent need for expanded Lebensraum and colonies; persistent attacks on
the League of Nations; the use of the block and cell in achieving
favorable Party votes, the intimate association between the Wehrmacht
and the political leadership; the racial doctrines of Fascism, the cult
of leadership; the role of the Gaue, Ortsgruppen, and Zellen in the
expansion of Germany; and related matters all of which constituted
elements and doctrinal techniques in the carrying out of the conspiracy
charged in the Indictment.
The political leaders were organized according to the leadership
principle. I quote from the fourth paragraph of Page 2 of Document
1893-PS, at the bottom of the page, and top of Page 3:
"The basis of the Party organization
is the Führer idea. The public is unable to rule itself either
directly or indirectly .... All political leaders stand as appointed
by the Führer and are responsible to him. They possess full
authority toward the lower echelons.... Only a man who has gone
through the school of subordinate functions within the Party has a
claim to the higher Führer offices. We can only use 'Führer'
who have served from the ground up. Any political leader who does not
conform to these principles is to be dismissed or to be sent back to
the lower offices, as Blockleiter, Zellenleiter, for further training.
The political leader is not an office worker but the political deputy
of the Führer .... With the political leader we are building the
political leadership of the State .... The type of the political
leader is not characterized by the office which he represents. There
is no such thing as a political leader of the NSBO, et cetera,
but there is only the political leader of the NSDAP."
Each political leader was sworn in yearly. According to the Party manual
the wording of the oath was as follows; and I quote from the second
paragraph on Page 3, Document 1893-PS:
"I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf
Hitler; I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the 'Führer'
appointed by him."