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influence
over Hitler. He was active in the Party's rise
to power and even more so in the consolidation
of that power. He devoted much of his time to
the persecution of the churches and of the Jews
within Germany.
The evidence does not
show that Bormann knew of Hitler's plans to
prepare, initiate, or wage aggressive wars. He
attended none of the important conferences when
Hitler revealed piece by piece these plans for
aggression. Nor can knowledge be conclusively
inferred from the positions he held. It was only
when he became head of the Party Chancellery in
1941, and later in 1943 Secretary to the Führer
when he attended many of Hitler's conferences,
that his positions gave him the necessary
access. Under the view stated elsewhere which
the Tribunal has taken of the conspiracy to wage
aggressive war, there is not sufficient evidence
to bring Bormann within the scope of Count One.
War
Crimes and Crimes against Humanity
By decree of 29 May 1941
Bormann took over the offices and powers held by
Hess; by the decree of 24 January 1942 these
powers were extended to give him control over
all laws and directives issued by Hitler. He was
thus responsible for laws and orders issued
thereafter. On 1 December 1942 all Gaue became
Reich defense districts, and the Party
Gauleiters responsible to Bormann were appointed
Reich Defense Commissioners. In effect, this
made them the administrators of the entire
civilian war effort. This was so not only in
Germany, but also in those territories which
were incorporated into the Reich from the
absorbed and conquered territories.
Through
this mechanism Bormann controlled the ruthless
exploitations of the subjected populace. His
order of 12 August 1942 placed all Party
agencies at the disposal of Himmler's program
for forced resettlement and denationalization of
persons in the occupied countries. Three weeks
after the invasion of Russia, he attended the
conference of 16 July 1941 at Hitler's field
quarters with Göring, Rosenberg, and
Keitel; Bormann's reports show that there were
discussed and developed detailed plans of
enslavement and annihilation of the population
of these territories. And on 8 May 1942 he
conferred with Hitler and Rosenberg on the
forced resettlement of Dutch personnel in
Latvia, the extermination program in Russia, and
the economic exploitation of the Eastern
territories. He was interested in the
confiscation of art and other properties in the
East. His letter of 11 January 1944 called for
the creation of a large scale organization to
withdraw commodities from the occupied
territories for the bombed-out German populace.
Bormann was extremely active in the
persecution of the Jews, not only in Germany but
also in the absorbed and conquered coun-
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