Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression

He observed, for example, how opposition journalists, a profession to which he had previously belonged, were either absorbed or eliminated. He continued to support the conspiracy. He learned from day to day the art of intrigue and quackery in the process of perverting the German nation, and he grew in prestige and influence as he practiced this art.

Fritzsche learned a lesson from his predecessor, Berndt, who fell from the leadership of the German Press Division partly because he over-played his hand by blunt and excessive manipulation of the Sudetenland propaganda. Fritzsche stepped into the gap caused by the loss of confidence of both the editors and the German people, and did his job with more skill and subtlety. His shrewdness and ability to be more assuring and "to find," as Goebbels said, "willing ears of the whole nation," these things made him the more useful accomplice of the conspirators.

Nazi Germany and its press went into war with Fritzsche in control of all German news, whether by press or radio. In 1942, when Fritzsche transferred from the field of the press to radio, he was not removed for bungling, but because Goebbels then needed his talents most in the field of radio. Fritzsche is not in the dock as a free journalist but as a propagandist who helped substantially to tighten the Nazi stranglehold over the German people, who made the excesses of the conspirators palatable to the German people, who goaded the German nation to fury and crime against people they were told by him were sub-human.

Without the propaganda apparatus of the Nazi State, the world would not have suffered the catastrophe of these years, and it is because of Fritzsche's role in behalf of the Nazi conspirators, and their deceitful and barbarous practices, that he is called to account before the International Military Tribunal.

(See also Section 9 of Chapter VII on Propaganda, Censorship, and Supervision of Cultural Activities.)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO HANS FRITZSCHE

*2434-PS

693255-47-67

Note: A single asterisk (*) before
a document indicates that the
document was received in evidence
at the Nurnberg trial. A double
asterisk (**) before a document
number indicates that the docu-
ment was referred to during the
trial but was not formally received
in evidence, for the reason given in
parentheses following the descrip-
tion of the document. The USA
series number, given in paren-
theses following the description of
the document, is the official exhibit
number assigned by the court.

Decree establishing the Reich Min-
istry of Public Enlightenment and
Propaganda, 13 March 1933. 1933
Reichsgesetzblatt, Part I, p. 104... IV
Decree concerning the Duties of
the Reich Ministry for Public En-
lightenment and Propaganda, 30
June 1933. 1933 Reichsgesetzblatt,
Part I, p. 449.....
The Reich Ministry for Enlighten-
ment of the People and for Propa-

652

653