may be illustrated by two striking instances. The first instance is contained in a synopsis of correspondence between the Reich Ministry of the Interior and its field offices from November 1942 through August 1943, concerning the legal aspects of the confiscation of property by the SS for the enlargement of the concentration camp at Auschwitz (1643–PS). This document contains the minutes of a meeting held on 17 and 18 December 1942 concerning the confiscation of this property. These minutes indicate that a further discussion was to be held on this subject on 21 December 1942, between the representatives of the Reichminister of the Interior and the Reichsfuehrer SS. There is also a summary of a teletype letter, 22 January 1943, from Dr. Hoffman, representing the Reichminister of the Interior, to the Regierungspraesident in Kattowitz, a provincial administrator under the direct jurisdiction of the Reichminister of the Interior. The summary begins significantly with the sentence:

"The territory of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp will be changed into an independent estate." (1643-PS) A second illustration of Frick's personal interest in the activities of Himmler's police and SS is the fact that in 1943 Frick visited the concentration camp at Dachau, where he personally acquainted himself with the forced malaria inoculation of healthy camp inmates and with other experiments on human beings carried out by Dr. Rascher. This is borne out by the affidavit of Dr. Franz Blaha, a former inmate of the concentration camp at Dachau, who has stated that Frick made a special tour of inspection of the malaria and cooling experimental stations at Dachau (3249–PS).

(6) Suppression and terrorization of opponents. Having established this powerful police organization under his command, Frick used it especially in order to suppress all internal opposition. That this would be his aim he had repeatedly announced even in the years before 1933, when he declared that he was ready to establish the power of the conspirators with terror and violence (2513-PS).

As early as 1932, Frick threatened his opponents in the Reichstag with these words:

"Don't worry, when we are in power we shall put all of you guys in concentration camps." (L-83)

In pursuance of this long-planned campaign of political terrorism, Frick drafted and signed a series of decrees legalizing all those uses of the political police which he considered neces

sary in order to establish the dictatorial power of the conspirators within Germany.

Five days after the accession of the conspirators to power Frick signed the first law limiting the freedom of assembly and of the press in Germany. Then, on 28 February 1933, the day 4 after the Reichstag fire, civil rights in Germany were abolished altogether by decree signed by Frick (1390–PS).

The preamble of this decree, which was published on the morning after the Reichstag fire, stated that the suspension of civil rights was decreed as a defense measure against Communist acts of violence endangering the State. At the time of 1 publication of this decree, the Nazi government announced that a thorough investigation had proven that the Communists had set fire to the Reichstag building. It is not necessary here to go into the controversial question of who set fire to the Reichstag, but it should be stressed that the official Nazi statement that the Communists had set fire to the building, on which Frick's law was predicated, was issued without any investigation. Proof of this fact is contained in an interrogation of Goering on 13 October 1945, which contains the following passage:

"Q. How could you tell your press agent, one hour after the
Reichstag caught fire, that the Communists did it,
without investigation?

A. Did the public relations officer say that I said that?
Q. Yes. He said you said it.

A. It is possible when I came to the Reichstag, the Fuehrer
and his gentlemen were there. I was doubtful at
the time but it was their opinion that the Communists
had started the fire.

Q. But you were the highest law enforcement official in a
certain sense. Daluege was your subordinate. Look-
ing back at it now, and not in the excitement that was
there once, wasn't it too early to say without any in-
vestigation that the Communists had started the fire?
A. Yes, that is possible, but the Fuehrer wanted it this way.
Q. Why did the Fuehrer want to issue at once a statement
that the Communists had started the fire?

A. He was convinced of it.

Q. It is right when I say he was convinced without having
any evidence or any proof of that at this moment?
A. That is right, but you must take into account that at

that time the Communist activity was extremely
strong, that our new government as such was not very
secure." (3593-PS)

This Act of 28 February 1933 also constituted the basis for the establishment of the concentration camps. Frick himself established in detail the handling of so-called "protective custody" under which inmates were held in concentration camps (779-PS; 1723-PS; L-302).

Frick also signed two laws designed specifically to suppress all criticism and opposition to the Government and the Nazi Party (1652-PS; 1393-PS).

Frick also signed the laws which brought about the suppression of independent labor unions as a potential source of opposition inside Germany to the progress of the Nazi conspiracy (405-PS; 1861-PS; 1770-PS). Among these decrees was the law providing for the confiscation of all labor union property in favor of the German Labor Front (1403–PS).

Furthermore, Frick and his subordinates took an active part in the persecution of the independent churches. An order of the Reich Minister of the Interior dated 6 November 1934 prohibited the publication of Protestant church announcements (1498-PS); likewise Frick issued a circular letter to Reich officials imposing severe restrictions on Catholic youth organizations (1482-PS). Frick further on 5 May 1938 wrote to the heads of government agencies proposing methods for invalidating the concordat between Austria and the Holy See (680-PS). His Ministry was also in correspondence with the SD from 1940-1942 concerning the confiscation of church property (R-101-A, through R-101-D).

D. FRICK'S PROMOTION OF RACIAL PERSECUTION AND RACISM.

Frick promoted the program of racial persecution and racism, involving the wiping out of the Jews, and the killing of the allegedly insane and others for whom the German war machine had no further use.

In addition to its many other responsibilities, the vast administrative empire of Frick controlled the enactment and administration of racial and eugenic legislation. The "Manual for German Administrative Officials" (3475-PS) shows the following additional functions of Frick's Ministry: Health Administration, Social Hygiene; Heredity and Racial Welfare; Reich Plenipotentiary for Sanitaria and Nursing Homes; Board for the Examination of Physicians, Dentists and Pharmacists; and Reich Committee for Public Hygiene. Accordingly, Frick was the administrative guardian and protector of the German race.

(1) Persecution of Jews. Frick took charge of the legislative and administrative program through which the Nazi conspirators sought to wipe out the "non-Aryan" part of the German population. Here again he drafted, signed, and administered the basic legislation. Among these discriminatory enactments were the following: the Reich Citizens Law of 15 September 1935 depriving Jews of their citizenship rights (1416-PS); the law for the protection of German blood and honor, 15 September 1935, prohibiting mixed marriages (2000-PS); the first ordinance under the Reich Citizens Law, 14 November 1935, depriving Jews of the right to vote (1417-PS); the Civil Service Act of 7 April 1933 providing for the elimination of non-Aryan government workers (1397-PS); the decree of 20 May 1938 introducing the Nurnberg laws in Austria; the decree of 31 May 1941 introducing the Nurnberg laws in the annexed eastern territories (see 3119-PS).

Extending his program of persecution even to the religious practices of the Jews, Frick signed the decree which outlawed ritual slaughtering.

But the activities of Frick's Ministry were not restricted to the commission of such crimes, camouflaged in the form of legislation. The police field offices, subordinates to Frick, participated in the organization of such terroristic activities as the pogrom of 9 November 1938. The pogrom was organized through a series of secret teletype orders issued by Heydrich (374-PS; 3051–PS). Afterward Heydrich reported on the loss of Jewish life and property resulting from the pogrom (3058-PS).

The pogroms gave the Nazi conspirators occasion to proceed to the complete elimination of the Jews from economic life and the confiscation of most of their property (1662-PS; 1409-PS).

Three days after this pogrom of 9 November 1938 Frick, his undersecretary Stuckart, and his subordinates Heydrich and Daluege, participated in a conference on the Jewish question under the chairmanship of Goering. At this meeting various measures were discussed which the individual governmental departments should initiate against the Jews. Goering's concluding remark in that conference was:

"Also the Minister of the Interior and the Police will have to think over what measures will have to be taken." (1816– PS).

It was, accordingly, Frick's duty to follow up by administrative action the pogrom organized by Frick's own subordinates. Thereafter, Frick signed the Law of 23 July 1938 ordering a

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special registration for all Jews, in order to establish the strictest possible control over the Jewish population.

After the outbreak of the war Heydrich issued an order in Frick's name, compelling all Jews to wear a yellow star in public (2118-PS).

Among the Ordinances which Frick issued under the Reich Citizen Law of 15 September 1935, special mention should be made of the 11th Ordinance of 25 November 1941, which ordered the confiscation of the property of all deported or emigrated Jews; and the 13th Ordinance, under which the Jews were deprived of all legal protection and completely handed over to the jurisdiction of the police (1422-PS; 3085–PS).

Stuckart, Under-Secretary in the Ministry of Interior, characterized this legislation as the essential preparation for the "final solution of the Jewish question" (3131–PS).

(2) Measures against "Inferior Racial Stock." The Public Health Service was administered as a division of Frick's Ministry. One of its subdivisions was devoted to race and heredity problems (3123-PS). In his capacity as chief of this service · Frick drafted the basic law controlling sterilization of persons afflicted with "hereditary diseases" (3067-PS). Its administration was in the hands of his Ministry (D-181; L-305).

E. FRICK'S PARTICIPATION IN THE PREPARATIONS FOR AGGRESSIVE WAR.

Frick wholeheartedly supported the conspirators' preparations for war. It was his position that:

"Germany would observe her international undertakings only so long as it suited Germany's interests to do so." (2385-PS)

Frick, as Reich Minister of the Interior, was

"The 'civilian' defense minister and as such cooperated
prominently
in the important field of 'defense

*

legislation' and thereby in the development of *

Ger

many's armed forces." (3119-PS) Frick's Ministry had a division entitled "Armed Forces and Reich Defense" (3303-PS).

(1) Rearmament and reinstitution of military service. Frick took a leading part in Germany's rearmament in violation of the Versailles Treaty. He drafted the basic laws on military sevice. These include the law of 16 March 1935 reintroducing universal military conscription (1654-PS); the decree of 6 March 1936