Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 4, p. 31
		17 Dec. 45 An examination of the contents of the magazine Der Hoheitsträger reveals a continuing concern by the Leadership Corps of the Nazi Party in measures and doctrines which were employed throughout the course of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment. I shall not trouble the Tribunal nor encumber the record by offering in evidence exhaustive enumeration of these matters; but it may serve to clarify the plans and policies of the inner elite of the Leadership Corps by indicating that a random sampling of articles published and policies advocated in the various issues of the magazine from February 1937 to October 1938 included the following: Slanderous anti-Semitic articles, attacks on Catholicism and the Christian religion and the clergy; the need for motorized armament; 'the urgent need for expanded Lebensraum and colonies; persistent attacks on the League of Nations; the use of the block and cell in achieving favorable Party votes, the intimate association between the Wehrmacht and the political leadership; the racial doctrines of Fascism, the cult of leadership; the role of the Gaue, Ortsgruppen, and Zellen in the expansion of Germany; and related matters all of which constituted elements and doctrinal techniques in the carrying out of the conspiracy charged in the Indictment. The political leaders were organized according to the leadership principle. I quote from the fourth paragraph of Page 2 of Document 1893-PS, at the bottom of the page, and top of Page 3: "The basis of the Party organization is the Führer idea. The public is unable to rule itself either directly or indirectly .... All political leaders stand as appointed by the Führer and are responsible to him. They possess full authority toward the lower echelons.... Only a man who has gone through the school of subordinate functions within the Party has a claim to the higher Führer offices. We can only use 'Führer' who have served from the ground up. Any political leader who does not conform to these principles is to be dismissed or to be sent back to the lower offices, as Blockleiter, Zellenleiter, for further training. The political leader is not an office worker but the political deputy of the Führer .... With the political leader we are building the political leadership of the State .... The type of the political leader is not characterized by the office which he represents. There is no such thing as a political leader of the NSBO, et cetera, but there is only the political leader of the NSDAP." Each political leader was sworn in yearly. According to the Party manual the wording of the oath was as follows; and I quote from the second paragraph on Page 3, Document 1893-PS: "I pledge eternal allegiance to Adolf Hitler; I pledge unconditional obedience to him and the 'Führer' appointed by him." 31
		Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 4, p. 31     Last modified: October 10, 1998 Copyright © 1998 The Mazal Library and The Holocaust History Project. All rights reserved. Technical/administrative contact: webmaster@holocaust-history.org Find a typo? Let us know.