7 Jan. 46
by pleading membership in the profession to which their
actions were a disgrace.
COL. STOREY: If the Tribunal pleases, the next subject will be the
presentation of supplemental evidence concerning the persecution of the
churches as presented by Colonel Wheeler.
COLONEL LEONARD WHEELER, JR. (Assistant Trial Counsel for the United
States): Your Honors, the material now to be submitted comprises, first,
supplemental proof on the suppression of the churches within Germany:
the Evangelical churches, the Catholic Church, and the Bibelforscher (or
Bible students); and second, acts of suppression in the annexed and
occupied territories, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. A large part
of this proof will be from the official files of the Vatican.
I now submit to the Court United States Trial Brief H (supplemental),
on "Suppression of the Christian Churches in Germany and in the
Occupied Territories," and Document Book H (supplemental),
containing English translations of all the documents referred to in the
supplemental brief, or to be referred to in my oral presentation. I
shall take up first the supplemental proof on the suppression of the
churches in Germany.
Hitler announced in March 1933 a distinction in his policy toward
politics and morals on the one hand and religion on the other. I offer
in evidence Document Number 3387-PS, Exhibit Number USA-566. This is a
speech by Hitler to the Reichstag on March 23, 1933, quoted in the Volkischer
Beobachter, for March 24, 1933, Page 1, Column 5 of the German
newspaper. I quote from this speech:
"While the Government is determined
to carry through a political and moral purging of our public life, it
is creating and insuring the requisites of a truly religious life. The
Government sees in both Christian confessions the factors most
important for the maintenance of our Volkstum. It will respect
agreements concluded between them and the Länder. However, it
expects that its work will meet with like appreciation. The Government
will treat all other denominations with objective justice. However, it
can never condone that belonging to a certain denomination or to a
certain race should be regarded as a license for the commission or
toleration of crime. The Government will devote its care to harmony
between Church and State."
Toward the Evangelical churches, the Nazi conspirators proceeded at
first with caution, and an appearance of legality. They set up a new
constitution of the German Evangelical Church, which introduced the
innovation of a single Lutheran Reich Bishop, who assumed all the
administrative functions of the old agencies of the