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"The men of the NSKK have considerably contributed to the liberation of the Sudetenland by the Fuehrer and have thus gained undying merit, not only for the Germans in the Sudetenland, but for the entire German people as a whole." (2804-PS)

Further evidence of actual military use of the NSKK is given in the following passage from "Deutschland im Kampf" written by Ministerialdirigent A. J. Berndt of the Reich Propaganda Ministry and Lt. Col. von Wedel of the German Army High Command, in the issue of June 1940:

"The NSKK is playing a decisive part in the carrying out of considerable war-important tasks on the Inner Front, one of which is traffic. ** Among the tasks of the NSKK are pre-military training, education, and schooling and motorized transport. Thus, for instance, the conducting of the entire transport system of the TODT Organization on the West Wall and the traffic in the Western War Theater are in the hands of the NSKK." (2810-PS)

(5) The National Socialist Aviation Corps (NSFK). The NSFK was another organization affiliated with the NSDAP used by the Nazi conspirators for military purposes. It was the great training school for the Luftwaffe.

"In the endeavor to assure for the German Luftwaffe a numerically strong and well prepared reserve, and to strengthen in the German people the conviction that Germany must retain its head-start in all spheres of aviation, the NSFK was founded by the Fuehrer on 17 April 1937

"The NSFK at the time of its creation, was given the following tasks by the Reichsmarshal:

"1. Pre-military aviation training of the new blood for the Luftwaffe.

"2. The keeping in training of the reservists of the aviation
troops.

"3. The combining and directing of all German air sports.
"4. Promotion and extension of the aviation idea among the
German people.

"These tasks are so great that the cooperation of tens of
thousands of active members is necessary to make carrying
them out possible, so that the Luftwaffe may be able at any
time to count on their fulfillment according to plan.”
(2811-PS)

The paramount military purpose of the NSFK is clearly indi

cated in the following admission by Generalleutnant Friedrich Christiansen, Korpsfuehrer of the NSFK:

"Schooled in character, trained physically as a flier, and as a soldier, the member-to-be of the Luftwaffe leaves the NSFK." (2813-PS)

(6) The Reichsarbeitdienst (RAD) (The Reich Labor Service). The Reich Labor Service was also subverted to military purposes by the Nazi conspirators.

Membership in the RAD was made compulsory for both young men and women on 26 June 1935.

"All young Germans of either sex between 18-25 years of age are obligated to serve their people in the Reich Labor Service. As the schooling of the Nation, it has as its object this education of the German Youth to National Socialist Ideology.

"The Reich Labor Service for men is, thanks to its military nature, closely-knit units, and its particular education and training an ever-ready, powerful tool of the National Socialist Reich." (2805-PS)

The tens of thousands of members of the RAD were militarily trained and ready for action when Germany launched her campaigns of aggression. Actual military use of the men of the RAD is clearly shown in the 1 June 1943 edition of "Fuehren und Erziehen" (Leadership and Education), the official magazine of the Reich Labor Service. A photograph depicts a Labor Service man repairing a bridge at the front, across which four infantrymen are proceeding, and is titled as follows:

"The young crews who have gone through the educational
institutions of the Reich Labor Service today represent the
most active nucleus of our Army.
Our photograph

shows labor men who in the East are preparing the way for
infantry shock troops by repairing a bridge. Thus also the
men of the Reich Labor Service are today one of the exam-
ples of eternal German soldierdom." (2806-PS)

The military uses of the RAD are further described in the following letter written by Goering to Reich Labor Service Leader Konstantin Hierl:

"After the victorious termination of the campaign in Poland, I cannot but convey to you my sincere thanks for and unreserved recognition of the help rendered by the Reich Labor Service in the carrying out of the operations of the Luftwaffe. In guarding Army airfields, in clearing and quickly repairing former enemy airports, in road construction and

in bringing up supplies, everywhere your men have done a real job and have thus contributed considerably to the successes of the German Luftwaffe." (2807-PS)

(7) The TODT Organization (OT). The TODT Organization, or OT, was another NSDAP affiliate used to further the militaristic aims of the Nazi conspirators. The OT, originally an offshootof the RAD, was created as a separate entity in June 1938 when Dr. Fritz Todt was charged with the construction of the Siegfried Line or West Wall. The military employment of the OT is clearly shown in the following passage from "Maenner der OT", which was published by the Photographic Office of the Reich Propaganda Office:

"No sooner had the greatest and most modern fortifications
of the world, the West Wall, been completed by the workers
of the OT, when these very same workers were called upon
by the Fuehrer to prove their worth also in direct front serv-
ice
and they thus helped *
* to achieve
the greatest victory in history. When the great offensive in
the west began, the brown workers' columns of the TODT
organization followed immediately behind them. After the
armistice with France had been signed, an entirely new situ-
ation developed for the TODT organization. Its columns had
pushed deep into enemy country. Not seldom did they have
direct contact with the enemy their losses in dead and
wounded and the Iron Cross awards are heroic proof of that.
While, as the foremost construction workers of the German
Reich, they had already proved their worth when building
the West Wall, they were now able to perfect what they had
learned in the fight against the British world enemy. From
the Channel coast to the Atlantic Ocean, the front technicians
and front workers of the OT now proceeded to create the
prerequisites for a successful fight against England."
(2808-PS)

Though the OT was in its origin technically a civilian organization, it subsequently became a para-military body which, before and during the war, cooperated fully with the German Army. On 2 July 1940, a directive was issued from the German High Command appointing a liaison officer.

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to establish the closest liaison and cooperation of the respective military offices with the main construction work of the TODT Organization." (2812-PS) This militarization of the OT is further shown in the following passage from "Nationalsozialistische Monatschefte" for 1942:

"From the Autobahn workers was developed the 'Organization TODT' a body of hundreds of thousands of workers who

help the Wehrmacht everywhere in eliminating obstacles, building bridges and erecting fortifications and shelters. The front soldier and the front worker stand side by side. Together they have shed their blood in this war and together they have won victories. Long-range guns on the Channel coast, U-boat bases on the Atlantic, and now the East will render the 'OT' immortal for all times to come." (2809-PS) A letter from Fritz Sauckel to Hitler, dated 17 May 1943, states that the OT had supplied 248,200 workers by March 1943 for the completion of the Atlantic Wall, and praises the OT for its excellent work in this regard. (407-VIII-PS)

By 1938, all phases of German life had been mobilized for the accomplishment of militant aims.

Hitler declared to the Reichstag on 20 February 1938:

"Only now we have succeeded in setting before us the great tasks and in possessing the material things which are the prerequisites for the realization of great creative plans in all fields of our national existence. Thus, National Socialism has made up within a few years for what centuries before it had omitted.

*

"National Socialism has given the German people that lead-
ership which as party not only mobilizes the nation but also
organizes it, so that on the basis of the natural principle of
selection, the continuance of a stable political leadership is
safeguarded forever
* National Socialism
possesses Germany entirely and completely since the day
when, five years ago, I left the house in Wilhelmplatz as
Reich Chancellor. There is no institution in this state which
is not National Socialist. Above all, however, the National
Socialist Party in these five years not only has made the na-
tion National Socialist, but also has given itself that perfect
organizational structure which guarantees its permanence
for all future. The greatest guarantee of the National Social-
ist revolution lies in the complete domination of the Reich
and all its institutions and organizations, internally and ex-
ternally, by the National Socialist Party. Its protection
against the world abroad, however, lies in its new National
Socialist armed forces.

*

* * *

*

"In this Reich, anybody who has a responsible position is a
National Socialist.
Every institution of this Reich
is under the orders of the supreme political leadership.
** * The party leads the Reich politically, the armed
forces defend it militarily. **
There is nobody in any
responsible position in this state who doubts that I am the
authorized leader of this Reich." (2715-PS)

LEGAL REFERENCES AND LIST OF DOCUMENTS RELATING TO MILITARIZATION OF NAZI ORGANIZATIONS

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