19 Dec. 45
bears on its fly-leaf the imprimatur of the Nazi Party,
and the book Is listed in the official list of National Socialist
bibliography. Chapter 7 from that book is our Document Number 1852-PS. I
offer this book in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-449.
Through this unity of organization and personnel, the SS and the police
became identified in structure and in activity. The resulting situation
was described in Best's book, which I have just offered in evidence, our
Document Number 1852-PS, as follows. I quote from Page 7 of that
document, Paragraph 5; from the original book, Page 95, Paragraph 3:
"Thus the SS and the police form one
unit, both in their structure and in their activity, although their
individual organizations have not lost their true individuality and
their position in the larger units of the Party and State
administration which are concerned with other points of view."
Through the police, the SS was in a position to carry out a large part
of the functions assigned to it. The working partnership between the
Gestapo, the Criminal Police, and the SD under the direction of the
Reichsführer SS resulted in the end in repressive and unrestained
police activity. That will be dealt with in the case against the
Gestapo. In considering that evidence, the Tribunal will bear in mind
that the police activities there shown were one aspect of SS functions,
one part of the whole criminal SS scheme. I shall not, therefore,
consider here evidence relating strictly to the police functions of the
SS.
Control over the police was not enough. Potential sources of opposition
could be tracked down by the SD. Suspects could be seized by the
Criminal Police and the Gestapo, but these means alone would not assure
the complete suppression of all opponents and potential opponents of the
regime. For this purpose concentration camps were invented. The evidence
already presented to the Tribunal has shown what the concentration camp
system involved, and the end result of that system was graphically
illustrated in the moving pictures displayed about 10 days ago. The
responsibility of the SS in that system is a topic to which I now turn.
The first requirement for the camps was guard and administrative
personnel. Part-time volunteer members of the Allgemeine SS were
originally utilized as guards; but part-time volunteers could not
adequately serve the needs of the extensive and long-range program that
was planned. So beginning in 1933 full-time professional guards units,
the Death's-Head Units, which I have. already described, were organized.
During the war, members of the General SS resumed the function of
guarding camps, which they had initially undertaken when the camps were
created. The Tribunal will recall the provisions of the Hitler order
which I read