19 Dec. 45
If I may point out to the Court, the purpose in
offering that bit of evidence is to show that the foundation was laid
for having the Allgemeine SS (the General SS) take over the duties of
guarding concentration camps after the war had started. The Totenkopf
Verbände were originally created for that purpose. When the war
came they went into the Waffen-SS and their duties were taken over by
members of the General SS.
The final component which was specifically referred to in the
Indictment is the SS police regiments. I shall very shortly turn to the
steps by which the SS assumed control over the entire Reich police. Out
of the police special militarized forces were formed originally known as
SS police battalions and later expanded to SS Police Regiments.
I shall quote from Himmler's Posen speech, our Document Number 1919-PS,
Page 3 of the translation, next to the last paragraph; Page 59 of the
original. I quote:
"Now to deal briefly with the tasks
of the regular uniformed police and the Sipo — they still cover
the same field. I can see that great things have been achieved. We
have formed roughly 30 police regiments from police reservists and
former members of the police — police officials, as they used to
be called. The average age in our police battalions is not lower than
that of the security battalions of the Armed Forces. Their
achievements are beyond all praise. In addition, we have formed police
rifle regiments by merging the police battalions previously drawn up
of the 'savage peoples.' Thus, we did not leave these police
battalions untouched but blended them in the ratio of about 1 to 3."
The results of this blend of militarized SS police and "savage
peoples" will be seen in the evidence which I shall later introduce
relating to extermination actions conducted by them in the Eastern
Territories — exterminations which were so eminently successful and
ruthlessly conducted that even Himmler could find no words adequate for
their eulogy.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for 10 minutes.
[A recess was taken.]
MAJOR FARR: Each of the various components which I have described
played its part in carrying out one or more functions of the SS. The
personnel composing each differed. Some were part-time volunteers;
others professionals enlisted for different periods of time. But every
branch, every department, every member, was an integral part of the
whole organization. Each performed his assigned role in the manifold
tasks for which the organization had