19 Dec. 45
I offer in evidence an affidavit by the Defendant
Wilhelm Frick, signed and sworn to here in Nuremberg on 19 November
1945. It is our Document Number 2950-PS. I offer it as Exhibit Number
USA-448. I shall quote a portion of that affidavit, beginning about the
middle of the first paragraph of the affidavit, the 10th line in the
original. I quote:
"Many people were killed — I
don't know how many — who actually did not have anything to do
with the Putsch. People who just weren't liked very well were killed,
as for instance, Schleicher, the former Reich Chancellor. Schleicher's
wife was also killed; as was Gregor Strasser, who had been the
Reichsleiter and second man in the Party after Hitler. Strasser, at
the time he was murdered, was not active in political affairs any
more. However, he was against the Führer in the elections of
November 1932. The SS was used by Himmler for the execution of these
orders to suppress the Putsch."
It was in recognition of its services in this respect that the SS was
elevated to the status of being a component of the Party equal in rank
to the SA, and other similar ranking. I ask the Court to take judicial
notice of a passage which appears on Page 1 of the Völkischer
Beobachter of July 26, 1934. It is our Document Number 1857-PS,
Exhibit USA-412. I shall read the translation of that passage, which is
very brief:
"The Reich Press office of the NSDAP
announces the following order of the Führer
"In consideration of the great meritorious service of the SS,
especially in connection with the events of 30 June 1934, I elevate it
to the standing of an independent organization within the NSDAP. The
Reichsführer SS, like the Chief of Staff, is, therefore, directly
subordinate to the highest SA leader."
By its action on June 30th, the SS proved itself. It was, therefore, the
type of organization which the conspirators wanted for the first
necessary step in their program, the acquisition of control over the
police, because one of the first steps essential to the security of any
regime is control of the police. The aim of the conspirators was to fuse
the SS and the police; to merge them into a single, unified repressive
force.
I turn now to the consideration of the development whereby the SS and
the police became intermingled. Shortly after the seizure of power the
conspirators began to develop, as a part of the State machinery, secret
political police forces, originating in Prussia in the Gestapo
established by decree of the Defendant Göring in 1933 and this
development will be dealt with in the case against the Gestapo. By 1934
the Reichsführer SS had become the chief of these