17 Dec. 45
regionally and technically —
according to the same principles as the Party. That is why trade union
and employee associations had to be smashed unrelentingly, and the
basis of construction was formed, as in the Party, by the cell and the
local section."
On 17
October 1944 Reichsleiter Rosenberg sent a letter to Reichsleiter
Bormann which I introduce as Document 327-PS, Exhibit Number USA-338, in
which he informed the latter that he had sent a telegram to the
Gauleiter urging them not to interfere in the liquidation of certain
listed companies and banks under his supervision. Rosenberg emphasizes
to Bormann that any "delay of liquidation or independent
confiscation of the property by the Gauleiter would impair or destroy an
organized plan" for the liquidation of a vast amount of property.
On 7 November 1943 the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces
delivered a lecture at Munich to the Reichsleiter and the Gauleiter. I
now refer to Document L-172, previously introduced in evidence as
Exhibit Number USA-34. The Chief of Staff stated that his object was to
give a review of the strategic position at the outset of the fifth year
of war; and he stated that he realized that the political leaders in the
Reich and Gau areas, in view of their burdensome tasks in supporting the
German war effort, were in need of information he could give. He stated,
in part, as follows:
"Reichsleiter Bormann has requested
me to give you a review today of the strategic position in the
beginning of the fifth year of war .... No one — the Führer
has ordered — may know more or be told more than he needs for his
immediate task; but I have no doubt at all in my mind, gentlemen, that
you need a great deal in order to be able to cope with your tasks. It
is in your Gaue, after all ... that all the enemy propaganda, and the
demoralization through malicious rumors that try to find themselves a
place among our people concentrate .... Against this wave of enemy
propaganda and cowardice ... you need to know the true situation; and
for this reason, I believe that I am justified in giving you a
perfectly open and uncovered account of the state of affairs."
Reichsleiter Bormann distributed to all Reichsleiter, Gauleiter, and
leaders of Party-affiliated organizations an undated letter, which is
Document 656-PS, Exhibit Number USA-339, on the National Socialist Party
stationery, signed by Bormann, an order of the Supreme Command of the
Wehrmacht relating to self-defense by German guard personnel and German
contractors and workers against prisoners of war. The order of the
Wehrmacht referred to states that the -question of treatment of
prisoners of war is continually being discussed by the Wehrmacht and
Party bureaus. The order states that should prisoners of war refuse to
obey orders to