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IMT02-T179 MAZAL LIBRARY |
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22 Nov.
45 Third, that it put forward and disseminated various lines of propaganda, and used various propaganda techniques to assist it in its unprincipled rise to power. Fourth, that it ultimately did seize all governmental power in Germany. Fifth, that it used this power to complete the political conquest of the State, to crush all opposition, and to prepare the nation psychologically and otherwise for the foreign aggression upon which it was bent from the outset. In general we undertake to outline, so far as relevant to the charge, what happened in Germany during the pre-war period, leaving it to others to carry the story and proof through the war years. The aims of this conspiracy were open and notorious. It was far different from any other conspiracy ever unfolded before a court of justice, not only because of the gigantic number of people involved, the period of time covered, the magnitude and audacity of it, but because, unlike other criminal conspirators, these conspirators often boastfully proclaimed to the world what they planned to do, before they did it. As an illustration, Hitler, in his speech of 30 January 1941, said: "My program was to abolish the Versailles Treaty. It is futile nonsense for the rest of the world to pretend today that I did not reveal this program until 1933 or 1935 or 1937. Instead of listening to the foolish chatter of émigrés, these gentlemen would have been wiser to read what I have written thousands of times. No human being has declared or recorded what he wanted more than I. Again and again I wrote these words, The abolition of the Treaty of Versailles'." First, a brief reference to the history of the Nazi Party. The Court will no doubt recollect that the National Socialist Party had its origin in the German Labor Party, which was founded on 5 January 1919 in Munich. It was this organization which Hitler joined as seventh member on 12 September 1919. At a meeting of the German Labor Party held on 24 February 1920, Hitler announced to the world the "25 Theses" that subsequently became known as the ``unalterable" program of the National Socialist German Workers Party. A few days later, on 4 March 1920, the name of the German Labor Party was changed to the "National Socialist German Workers Party," frequently referred to as the NSDAP, or Nazi Party. It is under that name that the Nazi Party continued to |
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