19 Dec. 45
and the Police" — our Document Number
1992(a)-PS. I quote a passage from Page 8, last paragraph of the
translation, Page 151 of the original, Paragraph 3:
"I now come to the Security Service
(SD); it is the great ideological intelligence service of the Party
and, in the long run, also that of the State. During the time of
struggle for power it was only the intelligence service of the SS. At
that time we had, for quite natural reasons, an intelligence service
with the regiments, battalions and companies." — I
interpolate; he refers there to the regiments, battalions and
companies of the General SS. — "We had to know what was
going on on the opponent's side, whether the Communists intended to
hold up a meeting today or not, whether our people were to be suddenly
attacked or not, and similar things. I separated this service already
in 1931 from the troops —
"
I note that it appears in the mimeographed translation as 1941; but, as
will appear from a passage on the next pages of the translation, it was
1931 to which he was referring.
" ... from the units of the General
SS, because I considered it to be wrong. For one thing, secrecy is
endangered, then the individual men, or even the companies, are too
likely to discuss everyday political problems."
Although, as Himmler put it, the SD was only the intelligence service of
the SS during the years preceding the accession of the Nazis to power,
it became a much more important organization promptly thereafter. It had
been developed into such a powerful scientific espionage system under
its chief, Reinhard Heydrich, that on 9 June 1934, just a few weeks
before the bloody purge of the SA, it was made by decree of the
Defendant Hess, the sole intelligence and counter-intelligence agency of
the entire Nazi Party. I refer in support of that statement to
D'Alquen's book, Die SS, our Document Number 2284-PS, at Page 11
of the translation. I shall not pause to quote that passage. The
organization and numbers of the SD, as they stood in 1937, were thus
described by Himmler — I quote again from his article, "Organization
and Obligations of the SS and the Police," our Document Number
1992(a)-PS, at Page 9 of the translation, second paragraph, Page 151 of
the original, Paragraph 4:
"The Security Service was already
separated from the troop in 1931 and separately organized. Its higher
headquarters coincide today with the Oberabschnitte and Abschnitte"
— I refer to the Abschnitte and Oberabschnitte indicated on the
chart — "and it has also field offices, its own organization
of officials, and a great many command posts, approximately 3,000 to
4,000 men strong, at least when it is built up."