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Volume V · Page 1179
| quotes brief excerpts. He quotes from a
decree (NO-4905, Pros. Ex. 2452) of the Reich Ministry of Finance
introduced in evidence in Case No. 11 * and published in the Reich Law Gazette,
in which the confiscation of the property of the Jews was delegated to fourteen
Senior Finance Presidents, who, with the Gestapo; "removed and utilized * * *
billions worth of property." He states that only one of these Senior Finance
Presidents has ever been brought to trial, and that another even acted as
President of a denazification court. He quotes a New York newspaper which
states that the Army of Occupation "amassed booty exceeding a total value of
one billion dollars." What is the purpose of injecting these impertinent
statements in his brief? They certainly do not rise to the dignity of proof,
and in any event have not the remotest relation to the issue before the
Tribunal in this case. Frank's counsel states that "Frank's position as official group chief was purely administrative * * *. He could not give even the least executive order." We presume the emphasis is on the word "executive", meaning an order for which he was the original authoritative source. In an organization such as the WVHA, the difference between executive orders and implementing orders is one of degree only. Executive orders are not self-executing. They require the efforts of perhaps a number of intermediaries to make them effective. This point has been more elaborately discussed elsewhere in this supplemental judgment. That Frank was one of the most active of these intermediaries is shown by his own testimony that "he signed thousands of orders in nineteen months". His counsel follows this with this incredible non-sequitur: "There is no more convincing evidence that Frank had no official contact with the concentration camps." The theory of Frank's defense is epitomized in this statement in his brief: "Himmler issued instructions for the handing over (seizure) of valuables, Globocnik confiscated the valuables as prescribed by (German) law. The Reich Bank received the valuables for the credit of the Reich * * * . Frank was neither the instigator, the chief nor the beneficiary." Counsel deftly skips over Frank's place in this program. There were many steps and many actors between Himmler and Globocnik and between Globocnik and Puhl. Some steps were vital, some were merely auxiliary (or, as has been said, administrative). Some actors were primary, others were subordinate. But all served to keep the program moving smoothly and efficiently. In this coordinated movement, Frank had his place and it was not an insignificant one. |
* U. S. A. vs. Ernst von Weizsaecker, et al., vols. XII, XIII & XIV.
