18 Dec. 45
Afternoon Session
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal please, the persons who
held these posts in the ordinary Cabinet varied between the years 1933
and 1945. Although it is not incumbent upon us to prove who they were,
since the group and not the individuals are under consideration,
nevertheless their names are already before this Tribunal in the
original governmental chart, Exhibit Number USA-3. Since it will be of
interest to the Tribunal to see what persons — and 17 of them are
defendants here — held what positions in the Cabinet, a table has
been prepared which lists all the departments and posts I have mentioned
and the incumbents thereof during the years 1933 to 1945. The German
equivalents of the titles are also shown; and with the permission of the
Tribunal, I will now distribute this table to the members of the
Tribunal. Copies have likewise been filed in the defendants' Information
Center. The table also is annotated with citations to sources verifying
the facts shown — all of which, however, were of common knowledge
during the period in question.
Diverting from the text: This is simply prepared for the convenience of
the Tribunal in connection with the studying of the briefs and the
documents. As I said at the outset, the proof will show that there was
only an artificial distinction between the ordinary Cabinet, the Secret
Cabinet Council, and the Council of Ministers for the Defense of the
Reich. This is evidenced in the first instance by the unity of personnel
between the three subdivisions.
Thus, on 4 February 1938 Hitler created the Secret Cabinet Council. If
Your Honors will refer to this big chart, you will notice under 1938
there is a red line pointing down to the Secret Cabinet Council created
during that year. This decree appears in the 1938 Reichsgesetzblatt,
Part I, at Page 112. It is in our document book, Document 2031-PS, and I
should like to quote from this document. It begins with the opening
paragraph, Document 2031-PS, under the Laws and Decrees Section. I
quote:
"To advise me in directing the
foreign policy I am setting up a Secret Cabinet Council. As President
of the Secret Cabinet Council I nominate:
"Reich Minister Baron von Neurath. As members of the Secret
Cabinet Council I nominate: "Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs
Joachim von Ribbentrop; Prussian Minister President, Reich Minister of
the Air, Supreme Commander of the Air Forces, General Field Marshal
Hermann Göring the Führer's Deputy, Reich Minister Rudolf
Hess; Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Dr.
Joseph Goebbels; Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery,
Dr. Hans Heinrich Lammers;" — that