17 Dec. 45

German police. He was an officer of the State; he was an officer of the Party; and he issued this to officials of the Leadership Corps.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): And your point is, this order of Himmler's would be proof against the 600,000 members that you have spoken of?

COL. STOREY: Not against the members, but I said against the organization as a criminal organization, because from the top it disseminated orders of this type through the channels of the Leadership Corps.

THE PRESIDENT: But that is what I was putting to you, that it was not through the channels of the Leadership Corps, but through the channels of the police.

COL. STOREY: But the police, if Your Honor pleases, were connected with the Leadership Corps; and Himmler stood at the top of both. It does not show on that chart; but it is shown on the other big chart, if Your Honors please, with reference to Goebbels, who was a top-flight official in the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party, by virtue of his position as Propaganda Leader of the Party. In the issue of the Völkischer Beobachter of 29 May 1944 there appeared an article written by Goebbels, the Reichsleiter for Party Propaganda, in which he openly invited the German civilian population to punish Allied fliers shot down over Germany. I refer to Document 1676-PS, Exhibit USA-334, which is the issue of the Völkischer Beobachter containing this article inciting the people to the commission of War Crimes. I now quote:

"It is only possible with the aid of arms to secure the lives of enemy pilots who were shot down during such attacks, for they would otherwise be killed by the sorely tried population. Who is right here? The murderers who, after their cowardly misdeeds, await a humane treatment on the part of their victims, or the victims who wish to defend themselves according to the principle: 'An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth'? This question is not hard to answer."
Reichsleiter Goebbels then proceeds to answer this question in the following language, and still quoting:

"It seems to us hardly possible and tolerable to use German police and soldiers against the German people when it treats murderers of children as they deserve."
On the 30th of May 1944 the Defendant Bormann, Reichsleiter and Chief of the Party Chancellery, issued a circular letter on the subject which furnishes indisputable proof that British and American fliers, who were shot down, were lynched by the German population. I offer this circular letter of the Defendant Bormann into evidence — Document 057-PS; it is up towards the top.