19 Dec. 45
I need hardly point out the importance of this function
to the successful effectuation of the conspiracy, for it is self-evident
that the Nazis could not have carried their conspiracy to the stages
which they did, had not the minds of the people of Germany been cruelly
and viciously influenced and infected with their evil ideologies.
I now proceed to the other functions of the SA which I mentioned
previously. The next is its use in the early stages of the conspiracy as
the "strong-arm" of the NSDAP. In the early stages of the Nazi
movement, the employment of the SA as the propagandist instrument of the
Party, involved and was combined with the exercise of physical violence
and brutality.
As said by Hitler in Mein Kampf - and this excerpt appears at
Page 4 of Document 2760-PS, Page 4 of the English translation, Exhibit
Number USA-256:
"The young Movement, from the first
day, espoused the standpoint that its idea must be put forward
spiritually, but that the defense of this spiritual platform must, if
necessary, be secured by strong-arm means."
I will read the rest of that paragraph:
"Faithful to its belief in the
enormous significance of the new doctrine, it seems obvious to the
Movement that for the attainment of its goal no sacrifice can be too
great."
And so, in the early
days of the Nazi movement, so that the Nazis might better spread their
fanatical philosophies, the SA was employed as a terroristic group, in
order to gain for the Nazis possession and control of the streets. That
is another way of saying that it was a function of the SA to beat up and
terrorize all political opponents. The importance of this function is
indicated in Document 2168-PS, Exhibit Number USA-411, which was written
by SA Sturmführer Bayer on orders from SA headquarters. I refer to
Page 3 of the English translation of Document 2168-PS, the third
paragraph from the bottom:
"Possession of the streets is the key
to power in the State — for this reason the SA marched and
fought. The public would never have received knowledge of the
agitative speeches of the little Reichstag faction and its
propagandists or of the desires and aims of the Party if the martial
tread and battle song of the SA companies had not beat the measures
for the truth of a relentless criticism of the state of affairs in the
governmental system. They wanted the young Movement to keep silent.
Nothing was to be read in the press about the labor of the National
Socialists, not to mention the basic aims of its platform. They simply
did not want to awaken any interest in it. However, the martial tread
of the SA took