20 Dec. 45
that mission must not be forgotten. The Tribunal will
recall Himmler's definition of that task — a definition I referred
to earlier — the prevention of a Jewish-Bolshevist revolution of
subhumans; in plain words, participation in the Nazi program of Jewish
persecution and extermination.
It would be idle for me to refer again at any length to the evidence
relating to that program which the Tribunal heard a day or so ago from
Major Walsh. I want to call attention to just a few documents showing
how the program involved every branch and component of the SS.
The racial philosophy of the SS, which I dealt with at the very outset,
made that organization a natural agency for the execution of all types
of anti-Semitic measures. The SS position on the Jewish question was
publicly stated in the SS newspaper Das Schwarze Corps, the
issue of August 8, 1940, by its editor, Gunter d'Alquen, a statement
which has already been read into evidence as Exhibit Number USA-269. It
is our Document 2668-PS. I shall not repeat that quotation in which
D'Alquen says that the Jewish question will not be solved until the last
Jew has been deported, and that the German peace which awaits Europe
must be a peace without Jews.
The attempted solution of the Jewish question through the "spontaneous"
demonstrations in Germany, following the murder of Vom Rath in November
of 1938, has been presented to the Tribunal. In those demonstrations all
branches of the SS were called on to play a part. I refer to the
teletype message from SS Gruppenführer Heydrich, Chief of the
Security Police and SD, issued on the 10th of November 1938. It is our
Document 3051-PS. Portions of that teletype have already been read into
evidence as Exhibit Number USA-240. I wish to read one further
paragraph, which has not been read. It appears on Page 2 of the
translation, the fourth paragraph. I quote:
"The direction of the measures of the
Security Police concerning the demonstrations against Jews is vested
with the organs of the State Police" — by which he means the
Gestapo — inasmuch as the inspectors of the Security Police are
not issuing their own orders. In order to carry out the measures of
the Security Police, officials of the Criminal Police as well as
members of the SD, of the Verfügungstruppe, and the Allgemeine SS
may be used."
With the
outbreak of the war and the march of Nazi armies over Europe, the SS
participated in solving the Jewish question in other countries in
Europe. The solution was nothing short of extermination. To a large
degree these wholesale murders were disguised under the name of "anti-partisan"
or "anti-guerilla" actions and as such they included as
victims not merely Jews but Soviets, Poles,