18 Dec. 45

COL. STOREY: May I assume, Your Honors, that we need to offer no further proof that the Party itself had to do with the making of these laws as suggested by the Defendant Hess? I thought it was incumbent upon us to prove that the Party dominated this Cabinet, and particularly the Leadership Corps.

THE PRESIDENT: You are dealing now with the Reich Cabinet, and I think the Tribunal is satisfied that the Reich Cabinet had full powers to make laws.

COL. STOREY: I think that we go a little step further and undertake to show, if we have not already shown, that the way and manner in which they did it — by consulting the Party — was criminal. Now, I have some other laws to cite here in corroboration of that; but, if the Tribunal is satisfied, I don't see any use in citing them.

THE PRESIDENT: I don't think the Tribunal would imagine that they made laws without consulting somebody. Perhaps it would be a convenient time to break off for 10 minutes.

[A recess was taken.]
COL. STOREY: If Your Honors please, when we adjourned we were speaking of these laws that had been passed; and certainly I do not want to offer any cumulative evidence or any that is not necessary. I therefore am briefly referring to the laws which we propose to offer now.

The Party, as Your Honors will recall, had 25 fundamental points which they had set out to achieve, as introduced in evidence yesterday. Those points, Your Honors will recall, related to everything from the abrogation of the Treaties of Versailles and St. Germain to the obtaining of greater living space, and so forth.

Now, we propose to cite to Your Honors various decrees and laws passed by this Cabinet carrying into effect what we contend were the criminal purposes of the Party, and to show that the Reich Cabinet was asked by the Party to give semblance of legality to their alleged criminal purposes. That is the only reason we expect to chronicle or to mention the laws that were passed in pursuance thereof. And I shall proceed, as Your Honors suggest, by simply listing a group of the laws that seek to establish the co-called 25 points of the Nazi Party. Perhaps, with Your Honors' permission, I will just refer to a few of them as being indicative of the type of laws that were passed to further their 25 points.

For example, in implementation of this point the Nazi Cabinet enacted, among others, the following laws:

The law of February 3, 1938, concerning the obligation of German citizens in foreign countries to register. That is cited in the Reichsgesetzblatt.