Archive/File: imt/tgmwc/tgmwc-01/tgmwc-01-03.02
Last-Modified: 1999/08/28

    

    (8) All original documents are now located in safes in

    the document room, where they will be secured until

    they are presented by the prosecution to the court

    during the process of this trial.

    

    (9) Some of the documents which will be offered in

    evidence by the United States were seized and processed

    by the British Army. Also, personnel from the Office of

    the United States Chief of Counsel and the British War

    Crimes Executive have acted jointly in locating,

    seizing and processing such documents.

    

    (10) Substantially the same system of acquiring

    documentary evidence was utilised by the British Army

    and the British War Crimes Executive as that

    hereinabove set forth with respect to the United States

    Army and the Office of the United States Chief of

    Counsel.

    

    (11) Therefore, I certify in my official capacity as

    hereinabove stated, to the best of my knowledge and

    belief, that the documents captured in the British Zone

    of Operations and Occupation, which will be offered in

    evidence by the United States Chief of Counsel, have

    been authenticated, translated, and processed in

    substantially the same manner as hereinabove set forth

    with respect to the operations of the United States

    Chief of Counsel.

    

    (12) Finally, I certify that all documentary evidence

    offered by the United States Chief of Counsel,

    including those documents from British Army sources,

    are in the same condition as captured by the United

    States and British Armies; that they have been

    translated by competent and qualified translators; that

    all photostatic copies are true and correct copies of

    the originals and that they have been correctly filed,

    numbered and processed as above outlined."

    

                                                   Signed by

                                          WILLIAM H. COOGAN,

                                                   Major QMC

                                                    0-455814



After the documents selected by the screening process

outlined reached our office they were again examined, re-

screened, and translated by expert U.S. Army personnel, as

outlined by Major Coogan.



                                                   [Page 90]



Finally, more than 2,500 documents were selected and filed

here in the Court House. At least several hundred will be

offered in evidence. They have been photographed, translated

into English, filed, indexed, and processed. The same

general procedure was followed by the British War Crimes

Executive with regard to documents captured by the British

Army, and there has been complete integration and co-

operation of activities with the British in that regard.



In order to present our case and to assist the Tribunal, we

have prepared written briefs on each phase of our case,

which cite the documents by appropriate numbers. Legal

propositions of the United States will also be presented in

such briefs. The briefs and documents will cover each

allegation of the Indictment which is the United States'

responsibility. I hold in my hand one of the trial briefs

entitled "Reshaping of Education, Training of Youth," which

will be offered later on this day. Accompanying each brief

is a document book containing true copies in English of all

documents referred to in the brief. I hold in my hand the

document book that will be submitted to this Tribunal in

support of the brief which I have just exhibited to your

Honour. Likewise, copies in German have been or will be,

furnished to defence counsel at the time such documents are

offered in evidence. Upon conclusion of the presentation of

each phase or section of our case by counsel, the entire

book of documents will be offered in evidence such as this

book. At the same time, Lt. Barrett, who will sit here

during the whole trial and who is on our staff, will hand to

the clerk of this Tribunal the original documents that may

be offered in evidence in this form. It will have the seal

of the Tribunal, will be exhibit USA -, 2836-PS, and in turn

Lt. Barrett will hand the original document to the Tribunal.

In the same manner, the document book will be passed by Lt.

Barrett to the clerk of the Court, and these trial briefs

for the assistance of the Tribunal will be made available to

the Court and to the defence counsel. Likewise, copies of

documents actually introduced in evidence will be made

available to the Press. Thus, may your Honour please, it is

hoped that by this procedure the usual laborious and tedious

method of introducing documentary evidence may be expedited.



May I, therefore, respectfully inquire of the Tribunal and

of defence counsel if there is any objection to the

procedure outlined? If not, the United States will proceed

with the presentation of the documentary evidence and trial

briefs as outlined herein.



THE PRESIDENT: Will you wait one moment?



COLONEL STOREY: Yes, Sir.



THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has no objection to the course

that you propose.



COLONEL STOREY: If your Honour pleases, may I now announce

what will be presented immediately following by the United

States?



THE PRESIDENT: I think perhaps that I ought to say to

counsel for the defendants that their silence will be taken

as their assent to the course proposed. In the absence of

any objection by them to the course proposed by Col. Storey

on behalf of the Chief Prosecutor for the United States, the

Tribunal will take it, that they agree that the course is

convenient.



Thank you, gentlemen.



COLONEL STOREY: If your Honour pleases, the next

presentation will be the briefs and documents on the Common

Plan or Conspiracy up to 1939. We will open by presentation

of charts of the Nazi Party and Reich Government with

exhibits and explanation by Mr. Albrecht. That will be

followed by a presentation of the trial briefs and documents

on the other phases of the Common Plan or Conspiracy up to

1939.



Mr. Albrecht.



MR. ALBRECHT: May it please the Tribunal, the prosecution

will now allude briefly to certain facts, which may well be

considered to be within judicial purview,



                                                   [Page 91]



the consideration of which the prosecution has found useful

in understanding and evaluating the evidence that will be

presented to the Tribunal during the trial, in support of

the allegations of the Indictment.



In the opinion of the prosecution, some preliminary

references must be made to the National Socialist German

Labour Party, the NSDAP, which in itself is one of the

defendant organisations in this proceeding, but which is

represented among the defendant organisations by its most

important formations, namely the Leadership Corps of the

NSDAP, which you will hear referred to as "Das Korps der

Politischen Leiter der NSDAP," the "SS"  (Die Schutzstaffeln

der NSDAP), and the "SA" (Die Sturmabteilungen der NSDAP).



With the permission of the Tribunal the prosecution will

offer at this point, as its first exhibit, a chart showing,

the structure and Organisation of the NSDAP substantially as

it existed at the peak of its development in March, 1945.

This chart has been prepared by the prosecution on the basis

of information contained in important and well-known

official publications of the National Socialist Party with

which the defendants must be presumed to have been well

acquainted. We refer particularly to the Organisation Book

of the Party, "Das Organisationsbuch der NSDAP", and to the

National Socialist Year Book," Nationalsozialistisches

Jahrbuch", of both of which, be it noted, the late

defendant, Robert Ley was the chief editor or publisher.

Both books appeared, in the course of time, in many editions

and appeared in hundreds of thousands of copies, throughout

the period when the National Socialist Party was in control

of the German Reich and of the German people. The chart,

furthermore, which we are offering, has been certified on

its face as correct by a high official of the Nazi Party,

namely Franz Xaver Schwarz, its Treasurer

(Reichsschatzmeister der NSDAP), and official in charge of

Party administration. This affidavit is being submitted with

the chart, and I now wish to offer this chart in evidence.



We have been able to have this chart duplicated, and, with

the permission of the Tribunal, are making it available to

all concerned.



Before I offer some remarks of explanation concerning the

Organisation of the National Socialist German Labour Party,

which, we believe, will be found useful in connection with

the prosecution's case, I would just like to call the

attention of the Tribunal to the fact, that the larger chart

which now appears is a simplification of the duplicated

chart with which your Honour has been furnished. For if it

had been reproduced in the same detail, I am afraid many of

the boxes would not have appeared intelligible from this

point.

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