19 Dec. 45
offices of some department may have a particular
significance in this case.
These departments and their functions are described in two official
Nazi publications. The first is the Organization Book of the NSDAP
for 1943, our Document Number 2640-PS, already introduced in evidence as
Exhibit Number USA-323. The description, which I shall not read now,
appears on Pages 419-422 of the original and Pages 2 to 4 of the
translation. The second is an SS manual, which bears the title, The
Soldier Friend-Pocket Diary for the German Armed Forces Edition
D, Waffen-SS. It was prepared at the direction of the Reichsführer
SS and issued by the SS Main Office for the year ending 1942. It is our
Document Number 2825-PS. I offer it in evidence as Exhibit Number
USA-441. The description to which I refer appears on Pages 20 to 22 of
the original and Pages 1 and 2 of the translation. I will later have
occasion to read the description of the functions of some of the
departments in full. But I assume that the Court will take judicial
notice of the entire passages to which I have referred. In addition, the
departments are listed in a directory of the SS, published by one of the
main departments of the SS. This document was found in the files of the
Personal Staff of the Reichsführer SS, the first department from
the left of the chart. It is entitled Directory for the
Schutzstaffel of the NSDAP, 1 November 1944. It is marked "restricted"
and bears the notation "Published by SS Führungshauptamt,
(Command Office of the General SS), which is the fifth box from the
left. It is our Document Number 2769-PS. 1 offer it in evidence as
Exhibit Number USA-442. It is simply a list of the names of the
departments and offices with their addresses and telephone numbers, and
corroborates the statements in the two earlier publications to which I
referred.
Returning now to the chart following down the central spine from
the Reichsführer SS to the regional level we come to the
Higher SS and Police Leader, commonly known as HSSPF, the Supreme SS
Commander in each region. I shall refer to his functions at a later
point. Immediately below him is the breakdown of the organization of the
Allgemeine or General SS. To the left are indicated two other branches
of the SS-the Death's-Head Units (Totenkopf Verbände) and the
Waffen-SS. To the right, under the HSSPF, is the SD. All of these
components, together with the SS Police regiments, are specifically
named in the Indictment Appendix B, Page 36 as being
included in the SS.
Now a word as to these components. Up to 1933 there were no such
specially designated branches. The SS was a single group a group
of "volunteer political soldiers." It was out of this original
nucleus that the new units developed.