. NMT04-T0474
Volume IV · Page 474
| As early as 24 February 1920, the National
Socialist Party announced in its 25-point program, which was never changed, its
opposition to Jews and declared that a Jew could never be an equal citizen.
"Mein Kampf" was dedicated to what may be called the "Master Race" theory, the
doctrine of Aryan superiority over all other races. When the Nazis seized power
in 1933, persecution of the Jews became an official state policy. Then in
September 1935 came the well-known Nuernberg Laws which among other things
deprived the Jews of German citizenship. "Mein Kampf" was not a private publication. Its brazen voice rang through Germany. One passage was proclaimed over and over — |
"The soil on which we now live was not a gift bestowed by Heaven on our forefathers. They had to conquer it by risking their lives. So also in the future, our people will not obtain territory, and therewith the means of existence, as a favor from any people, but will have to win it by the power of a triumphant sword." |
| The Nazi Party dinned into the ears of the
world its odium for the Jews. "Der Stuermer" and other publications spread the
verbal poison of race hatred. Nazi leaders everywhere vilified the Jews,
holding them up to public ridicule and contempt. In November 1.938 an SS
inspired and organized hoodlumism fell upon the Jews of Germany. Synagogues
were destroyed, prominent Jews were arrested and imprisoned, a collective fine
of one billion marks was imposed, ghettos were established, and now the Jews
were compelled on orders of the security police to wear a yellow star on their
breast and back. Did the defendants not know of these things? Could they express surprise when, after this unbroken and mounting program of violence, plans were formulated for the "final solution of the Jewish problem"? Some of the defendants may say they never knew of the Nazi Party extermination program or, if they did, they were not in accord with the sentiments therein expressed. But again, a man who sails under the flag of skull and cross-bones cannot say that he never expected to fire a cannon against a merchantman. When Bach-Zelewski, SS general and many years member of the Party, was asked to explain the phenomenon of the Einsatzgruppen killings, he replied — |
"I am of the opinion that when, for years, decades, the doctrine is preached that the Slav race is an inferior race, and Jews not even human, then such an outcome is inevitable." |
| The argument has, however, been advanced that the Fuehrer Order was not criminal. Although this proposition is at first blush |
