18 Dec. 45
co-operation of the Wehrmacht High Command was demanded
by the Hitler order of 1 March 1942, which I now offer in evidence as
our Document 149-PS, Exhibit USA-369, which is signed personally by
Adolf Hitler and is also in the Jumbo type. The order decrees the
ideological fight against the enemies of National Socialism to be a
military necessity and reaffirms the authority of the Einsatzstab
Rosenberg to conduct searches and seizures of suitable material for the
Hohe Schule. The fifth paragraph states:
"The directives concerning
co-operation with the Wehrmacht were given to the Chief of the OKW
with the approval of Reichsleiter Rosenberg."
While
I am on that document, which is referred to later, I should like to read
the other portions. I call attention of Your Honors to the distribution.
It is distributed to all duty stations of the Armed Forces, the Party,
and the State. It says:
"Jews, Freemasons, and related
ideological enemies of National Socialism are responsible for the war
which is now being waged against the Reich. The co-ordinated
ideological fight against those powers is a military necessity. I have
therefore charged Reichsleiter Rosenberg to carry out this task in
co-operation with the chief of the OKW. His Einsatzstab in the
Occupied Territories is authorized to search libraries, record
offices, lodges, and other ideological and cultural institutions of
all kinds for suitable material, and to confiscate the said material
for the ideological task of the NSDAP and the later scientific
research work of the Hohe Schule. The same regulation applies to
cultural assets which are in possession of or the property of Jews, or
ownerless, or not clearly of unobjectionable origin."
The final passage is:
"The necessary measures within the
Eastern territories under the German- Administration are determined by
Reichsleiter Rosenberg in his capacity as Reichsminister for the
Occupied Eastern Territories. " — Signed — " Adolf
Hitler."
THE PRESIDENT:
Colonel Storey, I think the Tribunal would find it convenient, and it
would save time, if the documents, when they are referred to, were read
in full insofar as you want to read them, rather than returning to read
one passage and then returning to a document later on.
COL. STOREY: Yes, Sir. May I explain why that was, Sir? I was trying to
fit in this presentation with the Leadership Corps. It was quoted in two
places and I didn't notice it until I started.
THE PRESIDENT: What I am saying is that I think it is much easier to
follow the documents if all the parts of the document