19 Dec. 45

Now I would like to proceed to quote a paragraph on the same page, three paragraphs down, with respect to obedience. It appears on Page 418 of the original, second paragraph. I quote:

"Obedience is unconditionally demanded. It arises from the conviction that the National Socialist ideology must reign. He who possesses it and passionately supports it, submits himself voluntarily to the compulsion of obedience. Therefore, the SS man is prepared to carry out blindly every order which comes from the Führer or is given by one of his superiors even if it demands the greatest sacrifice of himself."

There are stated the two fundamental principles of the SS: (1) racial selection, (2) blind obedience.

Now, let me state what Himmler conceived that this organization was to be used for, I quote from his address to the officers of the SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" on the Day of Metz, our Document Number 1918-PS, Exhibit Number USA-304. I quote from Page 12 of the original document, the middle of the page, from the translation Page 3, last paragraph. I will begin the translation with the third sentence of that paragraph:

"The ultimate aim for these 11 years during which I have been the Reichsführer SS has invariably been the same: To create an order of good blood which is able to serve Germany, which unfailingly and without sparing itself can be made use of because the greatest losses can do no harm to the vitality of this order, the vitality of these men, because they will always be replaced; to create an order which will spread the idea of Nordic blood so far that we will attract all Nordic blood in the world, take away the blood from our adversaries, absorb it so that never again — looking at it from the viewpoint of the grand policy — will Nordic Germanic blood in great quantities and to an extent worth mentioning fight against us. We must get it and the others cannot have it. We never gave up the ideas and the aim conceived so many years ago. Everything we have done has taken us some distance further on the way. Everything we are going to do will lead us further on the way."

Now, one further quotation from the same document, which shows very explicitly why there was the building up of this order of Nordic blood, appears on Page 3 of the translation, the same document from which I have just quoted, about the middle of the first paragraph. It appears on Page 11 of the original speech, about the middle of the page. That is the speech to the officers of the SS Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler":

"Please understand we would not be able to hold the great Germanic Reich which is about to take shape. I am convinced