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"strengthening the power of the government and to secure the New Regime" (3128-PS).

(1) Powers of Frick as Minister of Interior. To this task his Ministry was perfectly suited. As Minister of the Interior Frick became responsible for the realization of a large part of the conspirators' program, through both legislation and administration. His Ministry was charged especially with the following tasks: (a) Internal Administration (State and local governments; State and Local Civil Service).

(b) Relations between Nazi Party and State.

(c) Elections.

(d) Citizenship.

(e) Racial Law and Policy (Jewish Question, Eugenics), National Health.

(f) Armed Forces and Reich Defense (Conscription).

(g) Establishment of the New Order in occupied and annexed territories.

(h) Legislation, Constitutional Law (civil liberties).

(i) Police Forces (including Gestapo, protective custody, concentration camps). (3303-PS; 3475–PS)

The names of the men who, according to (3475-PS), worked under Frick's supervision are significant. Among the subordinates of Frick were "Reich Health Leader, Dr. Conti," "Reich Fuehrer SS and Chief of the German Police, Heinrich Himmler," and "Reich Labor Service Leader, Konstantin Hierl." Frick was, therefore, supreme commander of three important pillars of the Nazi state: The Nazi Public Health Service, the Police System, and the Labor Service.

The wide variety of the activities of Frick as Reich Minister of the Interior can be judged from the following catalogue of his functions: He had final authority on constitutional questions, drafted legislation, had jurisdiction over governmental administration and civil defense, and was final arbiter of questions concerning race and citizenship. The Manual for Administrative Officials also lists sections of his ministry concerned with administrative problems for the occupied territories, including annexed territories, the New Order in the South East, the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and the New Order in the East (3475-PS). The Ministry of the Interior also had considerable authority over the civil service, including such matters as appointment, tenure, promotion, and discharge. The Manual for Administrative Officials (3475-PS) states that Frick's functions included supervision of the general law of civil servants, civil servants' policies, civil service aspirants, education and training of civil

servants and political and other officials. Frick's Ministry also had extensive jurisdiction over the German civil servants detailed to the administration of the occupied countries. This fact was admitted by Wilhelm Stuckart, former Under Secretary of Frick's Ministry of the Interior, who stated in an interrogation:

"As far as I know, the officials for the new territories were selected by the Personnel Office [of the Ministry of the Interior] according to their qualifications, their physical condition and maybe also their knowledge of the language." (3570-PS)

In the full use of these broad powers, Frick made his essential contribution to the advancement of the conspiracy.

(2) Nazi seizure of power of German States. His first act after the Conspirators' accession to power was to install Nazi governments and administrations in all German States where they were not already in power. The State governments which refused to hand over their constitutional authority to the Nazi successors designated by Frick were removed on Frick's orders. This was the case in Bavaria, Hamburg, Bremen, Lueback, Hessen, Baden, Wuerttemberg, and Saxony.

The manner and purpose of this program was clearly stated in the book, "Dr. Frick and his Ministry," which was published by his Under-Secretary Wilhelm Pfundner for Frick's 60th birthday in order to establish the full scope of his contribution to the creation of the Nazis' "Thousand-Year Reich":

"While Marxism in Prussia was crushed by the hard fist of the Prussian Prime Minister, Hermann Goering, and a gigantic wave of propaganda was initiated for the Rechstag elections of 5 March 1933, Dr. Frick prepared the complete seizure of power in all states of the Reich. All at once the political opposition disappeared. All at once the Main [River] line was eliminated. From this time on only one will and one leadership reigned in the German Reich." (3119-PS; 3132-PS)

(3) Abolition of political opposition. Frick then proceeded to destroy all opposition parties in order to establish the political monopoly of the Nazi Party over Germany. Here again he acted by legislative fiat against all parties which did not dissolve voluntarily. Among the laws which he initiated for this purpose were the law of 26 May 1933 confiscating Communists' property (1396-PS); the law of 14 July 1933 confiscating property inimical to nation and state (1388-PS); the law of 7 July 1933 void

ing the mandates of all Social Democrat candidates elected to Reich state and local diets (2058-PS); and the law of 14 July 1933 outlawing all political parties other than the Nazi Party (1388-A-PS; see 2403-PS).

Frick drafted and administered the laws which assured the control of the Nazi Party over the State and "placed the government machinery * at the disposal of the Party." Chief among these enactments were the Law to Secure the Unity of Party and State, of 1 December 1933, which provided that all government agencies should "lend legal and administrative aid to the Party agencies" (1395-PS), and the law of 1 August 1934 consolidating the positions of Chief of State and Leader of the Party (2003-PS; see 3119-PS).

The success of this series of measures was accurately described by Frick himself in the following terms:

"In National Socialist Germany, leadership is in the hands of an organized community, the National Socialist Party; and as the latter represents the will of the nation, the policy adopted by it in harmony with the vital interests of the nation is, at the same time, the policy adopted by the country *." (3258-PS)

(4) Consolidation of power in Reich Cabinet. Frick's next task was to consolidate the executive and legislative control thus achieved. First he drafted the law of 24 March 1933, which gave the Reich Cabinet the power to legislate by decree. This law marked the end of parliamentary government in Germany (2001-PS).

As a further step in the same direction, Frick prepared a series of laws which destroyed all autonomous State and local government. Through these laws, all governmental power in Germany was consolidated in the Reich Cabinet. Administration of these laws was placed in the hands of Frick. These enactments include the Temporary Law for the Coordination of the States with the Reich, of 31 March 1933 (2004-PS); the Law for the Coordination of the States with the Reich, of 7 April 1933 (2005-PS); the law of 30 January 1934 transferring the sovereignty of the states to the Reich; the first ordinance under the law of 30 January 1934 subjecting state legislation to Reich approval, 2 February 1934; the second Reich Governor Law of 30 January 1935; the German Municipality Act of 30 January 1935 (2008PS); and the law of 14 February 1934 abolishing the Reichsrat. (see 3119-PS; 2380-PS).

Frick drafted the laws which abolished the independence of the

civil service, including functionaries of the Reich and the States, judges, and university teachers. As Reichsminister of the Interior, he was charged with the administration of these laws. Among these laws was the Civil Service Act of 7 April 1933, paragraphs 3 and 4 of which provided for the elimination of civil servants on the basis of religious or political beliefs (1397PS; see 3119–PS).

This complete subjection of the civil servants to the Nazicontrolled Ministry of Interior was well illustrated by an order of Frick demanding a report on civil servants who had failed to vote in the Reichstag elections of 29 March 1936 (D-43).

(5) Establishment of the Police State. Having thus taken possession of the entire government machinery, Frick organized a huge Reich police in order to maintain the conspirators' power against all opposition.

It should be emphasized that before this time there was no unified Reich police system; each individual German State had a police force of its own. Even then, Frick had complete control over the police forces, through the Reich Governor Act which subjected the State governments to the authority of the Reich government, in the person of the Reich Minister of the Interior (2005-PS; L-82).

The decisive change-over to centralized totalitarianism was effected by the Act of 17 June 1936 (RGB1, 1936, Part I, p. 487), which was signed by Frick and Hitler (2073-PS). Section 1 of this decree reads as follows:

"For the unification of police duties in the Reich, a Chief of German Police is instituted in the German Ministry of the Interior, to whom is assigned the direction and conduct of all police affairs." (2073-PS)

Section 2 shows that it was Frick and Hitler, the signers of the decree, who appointed Himmler as Chief of the German Police. Paragraph 2, section 2 of the decree states that Himmler was "subordinated individually and directly to the Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior" (2073-PS). In other words, Frick not only appointed Himmler but himself became, pursuant to this decree, the supreme commander of the Reich police system in his capacity as Reich and Prussian Minister of the Interior.

The official chart of the German police system (1852-PS; see Chart Number 16) clearly shows the position of Reichminister of the Interior Frick as the head of the entire German police system.

This includes the notorious RSHA, of which Kaltenbrunner became chief under Frick in January 1943 (3119–PS).

Frick used this newly created authority for the promotion of the Nazi conspiracy. By his decree of 12 February 1936 he established in detail the jurisdiction of the Secret State Police (Gestapo), especially over the concentration camps and in the field of political police information (2108-PS).

By his decree of 20 September 1936, published in the Ministerial Gazette of the Reich (Ministerialblatt des Reichs-und Preussischen Ministerium des Innern), 1936, page 1343, (2245PS), Frick reserved for himself the authority to appoint inspectors of security police and ordered their close cooperation with the Party and with the Army. Furthermore, in an ordinance dated 18 March 1938 (RGB1, 1938, Part I, page 262) (1437-PS) concerning the reunion of Austria with the Reich, Frick authorized Himmler to take security measures in Austria without regard to previous legal limitations. Similarly, in his Decree of 11 November 1938 Frick ordered that all authorities cooperate closely with the SD and RSHA under Himmler (1638–PS).

Frick's direct control over Himmler's Reich police can also be shown in numerous other instances. It is necessary only to mention Himmler's order of 26 June 1936 by which he authorized Reinhard Heydrich, Chief of the SD, and Kurt Daluege, Chief of the regular police, to sign "By order of the Minister of the Interior" (1551-PS; 1680-PS).

As a result, the Police and part of Himmler's SS became in fact merged under Frick's jurisdiction. An order by Hitler dated 17 August 1938 regulated the functions of the SS, which "have entered into close connection with the duties of the German police" in the Ministry of Interior (647-PS; see 1637-PS).

Similarly, Frick gave direct orders to the State Gestapo offices. Thus on 6 November 1934 Frick issued an order addressed, among others, to the Prussian Gestapo, prohibiting the publication of Protestant church announcements (1498-PS), and also issued a secret circular addressed, among others, to the Prussian Gestapo, subjecting Catholic youth organizations to severe restrictions (1482-PS).

It is not necessary here to repeat the evidence concerning the criminal activities of the German police, over which Frick had supreme authority. Reference is made to Chapter XI on Concentration Camps, Chapter XII on Persecution of the Jews, Section 6, Chapter VII on Persecution of the Church, and Chapter XV on the criminal organizations, such as the SA, SS, the Gestapo, and SD. Frick's personal familiarity with these illegal activities

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