17 Dec. 45
work, the guard has "in the case of the most
pressing need and danger the right to force obedience with the weapon if
he has no other means. He can use the weapon as much as is necessary to
attain his goal."
On 18 April 1944 Reich Commissar Lohse, Reich Minister for the Occupied
Eastern Territories, in a letter to Reich Youth Leader Axmann — I
now offer in evidence Document 347-PS, Exhibit Number USA-340 —
proposed that the Hitler Youth participate in and supervise the military
education of the Estonian and Latvian youth. Lohse states in the above
letter that:
"In the military education camps the
young Latvians are trained under Latvian leaders in the Latvian
language, not because this is our ideal but because absolute military
necessity demands this."
Lohse further stated in the above letter, and I quote:
" . . . in contrast to the Germanic
peoples of the West, military education is no longer to be carried out
through voluntary enlistments but through legal conscription. The
camps in Estonia and Latvia will have to be under German leadership;
and as military education camps of the Hitler Youth, they must be a
symbol of our educational mission beyond Germany's borders. I consider
the execution of the military education of the Estonian and Latvian
youth not only a military necessity but also a war mission of the
Hitler Youth, especially. I would be thankful to you, Party Member
Axmann, if the Hitler Youth would put itself at our disposal with the
same readiness with which they have so far supported our work in the
Baltic area."
An order of
the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, dated 22 October 1938, is
Document 1438-PS, of which I ask the Court to take judicial notice, and
I quote:
"The Reichsführer SS and the
Chief of the German Police ... can take the administrative measures
necessary for the maintenance of security and order even beyond the
legal limits otherwise set on such measures."
The above order related to the administration of the Sudeten-German
territory.
In a letter dated 15 April 1943, our Document Number 407-PS, already in
evidence as Exhibit Number USA-209, Gauleiter and Plenipotentiary for
the direction of labor Fritz Sauckel wrote to Hitler advising him of the
success of the forced-labor program as of that date and stating that —
and I quote:
"You can be assured that the District
of Thuringia and I will serve you and our dear people with the
employment of all our strength."