18 Dec. 45
Members of the SA were required to take a personal oath
of fidelity to him. But when his policies conflicted with those of the
Nazi leaders, he was removed and murdered and replaced by Victor Lutze.
This drastic action was accomplished without revolt or dissension in the
ranks of the SA and with no change in the objectives or program of the
organization. The SA remained "a reliable and strong part of the
National Socialist Movement" — and I am quoting; this is
Document 2407-PS, Exhibit USA-412, the English translation of the Völkischer
Beobachter. It is the last paragraph in the English translation,
just above the name "Adolf Hitler." I will say for the
translators that the quotation is included in our text. If we might go
on, I quote:
"It is my wish that the SA be built
up as a reliable and strong part of the National Socialist movement,
full of obedience and blind discipline. They must help to create and
form the new German citizens."
The importance of the SA in the Nazi plan for the utilization of the
people of Germany is shown in Hitler's pronouncement, "The Course
for the German which appears in the issue of Der SA-Mann of the
5th of September 1936, at Page 22. It is our Document 3050-PS, Exhibit
Numbers USA-414 and USA-418; and it is at Page 29 of the English
translation - Page 29 of Document 3050-PS, the paragraph in the middle
of the page; and I quote:
"... the young boy will enter the
Jungvolk, and the adolescent will enter the Hitler Youth; the young
man of the Hitler Jugend will go into the SA, the SS, and other units,
and the SA and SS men will one day enter into the labor service and
from there the Army, and the soldier of the Volk will return again
into the organization of the Movement, of the Party, into the SA and
SS, and never again will our Volk decay as it once had decayed."
And so we see that at all times during the conspiracy the relationship
between the SA and the Nazi Party was such that the SA was constantly
available to the conspirators as an instrument to further their aims.
The SA was created by the conspirators at the inception of the Nazi
movement. It was at all times subject to the direction of Adolf Hitler.
Seven of the defendants held positions of leadership and responsibility
in the organization, and at all times the SA was subject to the call of
the Hoheitsträger. The SA stood at the forefront of the election
fights; and co-operation between the Offices of the Party, of the SA,
and of the State was assured by law.
And so it was declared by Victor Lutze, the former Chief of Staff of
the SA, in a pamphlet entitled The Nature and Tasks of the SA;
and it is our Document Number 2471-PS. The original we offer in evidence
as Exhibit USA-413; and I quote from the top of