Chapter XV

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_2. The Nazi conspirators constantly used physical violence and terror to break up meetings of political opponents, and to suppress opposition in their own meetings._ The following facts are indicative of the methods constantly used by the Nazi conspirators during this period: On numerous occasions meetings of the _Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft_ (Peace Society) were broken up and terrorized by shock troops and SA units. Groups of National Socialists invaded meetings of the society, interrupted the speaker, attempted to attack him, and endeavored to make sufficient disturbance so that the meetings would have to be cancelled. (_L-83_)

To quote once again from the official SA pamphlet:

“* * * As an example of a seemingly impossible deed, the 11th of February 1927 should be firmly preserved. It is the day on which the SA broke the Red Terror, with heavy sacrifice, in the hall battle at the Pharoah’s Hall (_Pharussaelen_) in Berlin, the stronghold of the Communists, and thereby established itself decisively in the capitol city of the Reich. In considering the badly wounded SA men, Dr. Goebbels coined the phrase “unknown SA Man”, who silently fights and bleeds, obeying only his duty.” (_2168-PS_)

In Berlin, under the leadership of Goebbels, so-called _Rollkommandos_, were organized for the purpose of disrupting political meetings of all non-Nazi groups. These _Rollkommandos_ were charged with interrupting, making noise, and unnerving the speaker. Finally the Nazis broke up meetings by _Rollkommando_ raids. In many cases, fights resulted, during which furniture was destroyed and a number of persons hurt. The Nazis armed themselves with blackjacks, brass knuckles, rubber truncheons, walking sticks, and beer bottles. After the Reichstag election of 1930, Nazi terrorism became more overt, and from then on scarcely a day went by when the Chief of the Security Police in Berlin did not receive a minimum of five to ten reports, and often more, of riots instigated by Nazis. (_2955-PS_)

During the campaign for the Reichstag election of 14 September 1930, Nazi conspirators made it a practice to send speakers accompanied by many Storm Troopers to meetings of other political parties, often physically taking over the meetings. On one such occasion a large detachment of Storm Troopers, some of whom were armed with pistols and clubs, attended a meeting called by the Social Democratic Party, succeeded in forcibly excluding everybody not in sympathy with their views, and concluded the meeting as their own. Such violent tactics, repeated many times, were an integral part of the political creed of the Nazi. (_L-83_)

Ultimately, in Berlin, just before the Nazis seized power, it was necessary to devote the entire Police Force to the job of fighting the Nazis, thus leaving little time for other Police duties. (_2955-PS_)

_3. The Nazi conspirators constantly threatened their opponents with organized reprisals and terror._ During the course of the trial of three officers of the _Reichswehr_ for high treason in Leipzig in September 1931, Hitler said:

“But I may assure you that if the Nazi movement’s struggle is successful, then there will be a Nazi Court of Law too, the November 1918 revolution will be atoned, and there’ll be some heads chopped off.” (_2512-PS_)

Frick wrote in the National Socialist Yearbook for 1930:

“No wonder that as the situation of the entire German people, as well as that of the individual racial comrade, grows rapidly worse, increased numbers are realizing the incompetence of the parliamentarian system, and no wonder that even some who are responsible for the present system desperately cry for a dictatorship. This however, will not save them from their fate of one day being called to account before a German State Tribunal.” (_2743-PS_)

On 7 October 1929, the National Socialist District leader Terboven said in a meeting in Essen:

“This weakness is especially known to Severing, who symbolizes the present State, and he intends to render a service to the State, which is breathing its last; but this too will no longer save the present corrupt parliamentarian system. * * * But I give such a dictatorship only four weeks. Then the people will awaken, then the National Socialists will come to power, and then there will not be enough lamp posts in Germany.

“The National Socialists will march into the new Reichstag with thirty members; then there will be black eyes every day in this Reichstag; thus this corrupt parliamentarian system will be further discredited; disorder and chaos will set in, and then the National Socialists will judge the moment to have arrived in which they are to seize the political power.” (_2513-PS_)

On 18 October 1929, Frick, while discussing the Young Plan in a meeting in Pyritz said:

“This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the ballot, but this cannot continue indefinitely, for history has taught us that in a battle, blood must be shed, and iron broken. The ballot is the beginning of this fateful struggle. We are determined to promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed in accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror.” (_2513-PS_)

In December 1932, Frick, at that time Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Reichstag, stated to a fellow member of that committee:

“Don’t worry, when we are in power we shall put all of you guys into concentration camps.” (_L-83_)

_4. The Nazi conspirators openly approved acts of terrorist committed by their subordinates._ On 22 August 1932, five National Socialists were condemned to death for a murder in the town of Potempa. Hitler wired to the condemned men:

“My Comrades! Faced with this terrible blood sentence, I feel myself bound to you in unlimited faithfulness. Your liberty is from this moment a question of our honor. To fight against a Government under which such a thing could happen is our duty.” (_2532-PS_; _2511-PS_)

Goering, two days later sent the following telegram to the condemned men:

“In nameless embitterment and rage against the terror sentence which has struck you, I promise you, My Comrades, that our whole fight from now on will be for your freedom. You are no murderers. You have defended the life and the honor of your Comrades. I send to your families today 1,000 Marks which I have received from your friends. Be courageous. More than 14,000,000 of the best Germans have made your interest their own.” (_2634-PS_)

On 2 September 1932, the death sentences were commuted to imprisonment for life. In 1933, after the Nazis came into power, the five were set free. (_2532-PS_)

Soon after coming to power the Nazi conspirators took steps to grant a general amnesty for all unlawful acts, including acts of violence, committed by their adherents in the course of their struggle for power. On 21 March 1933 a decree was promulgated, signed by von Hindenburg, Hitler, Frick, and von Papen granting amnesty “For penal acts committed in the national revolution of the German People, in its preparation or in the fight for the German soil”. (_2059-PS_)

B. _Control Acquired_

(1) _On 30 January 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of the German Republic._

(2) _After the Reichstag fire of 28 February 1933, clauses of the Weimar Constitution guaranteeing personal liberty and freedom of speech, of the press, of association and assembly, were suspended._ The Weimar Constitution contained certain guarantees as to personal freedom (Article 114), as to inviolability of the home (Article 115), and as to the secrecy of letters and other communications (Article 117). It also had provisions safeguarding freedom of speech and of the press (Article 118), and of assembly (Article 123), and of association (Article 124). The Reich President was authorized, “if public safety and order in the German Reich are considerably disturbed or endangered,” to take steps to suspend “the Fundamental Rights” established in Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153. (Article 48 (2)). (_2050-PS_)

On 28 February 1933, the Nazi conspirators, taking as their excuse a fire which had just destroyed the Reichstag building, caused to be promulgated a Decree of the Reich President suspending the constitutional guarantees of freedom. This decree, which purported to be an exercise of the powers of the Reich President under Article 48 (2) of the Constitution, and which was signed by the Reich President, Hindenburg, the Reich Chancellor, Hitler, the Reich Minister of the Interior, Frick, and the Reich Minister of Justice, Guertner, provided in part:

“Sections 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution of the German Reich are suspended until further notice. Thus, restrictions on personal liberty, on the right of free expression of opinion, including freedom of the press, on the right of assembly and the right of association, and violations of the privacy of postal, telegraphic, and telephonic communications, and warrants for house-searchers, orders for confiscations as well as restrictions on property, are also permissible beyond the legal limits otherwise prescribed.” (_1390-PS_)

(3) _The Nazi conspirators secured the passage by the Reichstag of a “Law for the Protection of the People and the Reich”, giving Hitler and the members of his then Cabinet plenary powers of legislation._ At the first meeting of Hitler’s Cabinet on 30 January 1933, passage of an Enabling Law (_Ermaechtigungsgesetz_) was discussed, and suppression of the Communist Party was considered as a means for securing the majority requisite for this and other purposes. (_351-PS_) Since such a law involved a change in the Constitution it was governed by Article 76 of the Weimar Constitution which provided: “The Constitution may be amended by law. The acts of the Reichstag amending the Constitution can only take effect if two-thirds of the regular number of members are present and at least two-thirds of those present consent.” (_2050-PS_) At the first meeting of the Hitler Cabinet on 30 January 1933, both Hitler and Goering favored early dissolution of the Reichstag and new elections in an effort to achieve a majority for the new Cabinet. (_351-PS_) This course was followed and new elections for the Reichstag were held on 5 March 1933, at which 288 Nazi were elected out of 647 members (_2514-PS_).

Taking advantage of the Presidential decree of 28 February 1933 suspending constitutional guarantees of freedom, Goering and other Nazi conspirators immediately caused a large number of Communists, including party officials and Reichstag deputies, and a smaller number of Social Democratic officials and deputies to be placed in “protective custody”. (_2324-PS_; _2573-PS_; _L-83_) Thus all Communist deputies and a number of Social Democratic deputies were prevented from attending the new session of the Reichstag. On 9 March 1933, Frick announced that the Communists would be prevented from participating in the first session of the Reichstag on March 21st, because of their being more usefully occupied. (_2403-PS_) As Frick cynically stated:

“When the Reichstag meets the 21st of March, the Communists will be prevented by urgent labor elsewhere from participating in the session. In concentration camps they will be re-educated for productive work. We will know how to render harmless permanently sub-humans who do not want to be re-educated.” (_2651-PS_)

At a meeting of the Reich Cabinet on 15 March 1933, the problem of securing the necessary two-thirds majority in favor of an Enabling Act was again considered. Frick stated his belief that the Act would have to be broadly-conceived, in a manner to allow for any deviation from the clauses of the Constitution of the Reich. Goering thought the two-thirds majority would be forthcoming and that if necessary some of the Social Democrats could be excluded from the room during the voting. (_2962-PS_)

At a meeting of the Cabinet on 20 March 1933, there was further discussion of means for securing the majority and quorum necessary to secure passage of the Act (_2963-PS_). On 23 March, Hitler spoke in favor of an Enabling Law proposed by the Nazi conspirators and in the course of the debate said:

“The Government insists on the passage of this law. It expects a clear decision in any case. It offers to all the Parties in the Reichstag the possibility of a peaceful development and a possible conciliation in the future. But it is also determined to consider a disapproval of this law as a declaration of resistance. It is up to you, gentlemen, to make the decision now. It will be either peace or war.” (_2652-PS_)

Thus subject to the full weight of Nazi pressure and terror, the Reichstag passed the proposed law, 441 deputies voting in its favor, and 94 Social Democrats being opposed (_2579-PS_). The following day, the law was promulgated. It provided:

“The Reichstag has resolved the following law, which is, with the approval of the Reichsrat, herewith promulgated, after it has been established that the requirements have been satisfied for legislation altering the Constitution.

“SECTION 1. Reich laws can be enacted by the Reich Cabinet as well as in accordance with the Procedure established in the Constitution. This applies also to the laws referred to in article 85, paragraph 2, and in article 87 of the Constitution.

“SECTION 2. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the Constitution so far as they do not affect the position of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The powers of the President remain undisturbed.

“SECTION 3. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet are prepared by the Chancellor and published in the Reichsgesetzblatt. They come into effect, unless otherwise specified, upon the day following their publication. Articles 68 to 77 of the Constitution do not apply to the laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet.

“SECTION 4. Treaties of the Reich with foreign states which concern matters of national legislation do not require the consent of the bodies participating in legislation. The Reich Cabinet is empowered to issue the necessary provisions for the execution of these treaties.

“SECTION 5. This law becomes effective on the day of its publication. It becomes invalid on April 1, 1937; it further becomes invalid when the present Reich Cabinet is replaced by another.” (_2001-PS_)

The time limit stated in the law was twice extended by action of the Reichstag and once by decree of Hitler. (_2047-PS_; _2048-PS_; _2103-PS_)

On 29 June 1933, Dr. Hugenberg resigned as Reich Minister of Economy and as Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture (_351-PS_). Thereafter, other members of the Cabinet resigned from time to time, and new members were added. The Reich Cabinet continued to exercise, on numerous occasions the plenary powers conferred on it by the law of 24 March 1933. (See Section 3 of