American prosecutors today began presenting to the International War Crimes Tribunal here documentary evidence of Germany’s planned extermination of the Jews in Europe.
The presentation of evidence depicting Nazi torture of Jews and of the civil populations in invaded territories will last until the court adjourns for Christmas recess on Dec. 21.
A film, called the “Nazi Plan,” which was shown in court today as part of the evidence, left no doubt that not only the Nazi leaders, but the entire German nation, was guilty of the persecution of the Jews. The film told a graphic story of how crowds of Germans hysterically applauded speeches by the Nazi leaders calling for the annihilation of Jews, and how they helped the Nazis to carry out their anti-Jewish program.
In presenting the evidence, Thomas Dodd, American associate prosecutor, charged Herman Goering, Alfred Rosenberg, Dr. Hans Frank, Gen. Keitel, and others of the top Nazis on trial here, with direct responsibility for the mass-murder of Jews in Nazi-occupied territories and with driving millions of Jews and non-Jews from these territories to slave labor where they were worked to death.
The prosecution read a speech by Heinrich Himmler, delivered before Nazi officials on Oct. 4. 1943, in which he ordered the “clearing out of Jews” and the “extermination of the Jewish race.” The Gestapo chief declared that the mass-annihilation of Jews “is a page of glory in German history which has never been written.”
MORE EVIDENCE OF ANTI-JEWISH CRIMES TO BE SUBMITTED BY RUSSIANS, FRENCH
Himmler’s address was submitted to the tribunal as a sample of the bloodthirsty speeches delivered by Nazi leaders to administrative officers, giving them a line of guidance on the German Government’s determination that all Jews be killed or tortured to death in slave labor camps. Other evidence of Nazi brutalities against Jews will be presented by the Russian and French prosecutors.
The film shown today lasted four hours. It depicted the Nazi rise to power and how jubilant Germans applauded storm troopers in trucks shouting “Germans, Don’t Buy in Jewish Stores”. It showed how crowds reacted to incitement in front of Jewish business firms during the early days of the Nazi regime, and how they cheered Goebbels when he told them that “Jews must be finished”.
A part of the film was devoted to Goering’s speech in the Reichstag announcing that marriage between Jews and non-Jews will no longer be permitted, and to showing how this announcement was received with tremendous applause by the public. It also shows Hitler addressing a crowd on Jan. 30, 1939, when he predicted that “the entire Jewish race will be annihilated in Europe if war occurs.”
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