 The United States of America present count one of the indictment that all the defendants participated as organizers or accomplices in a common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The aims of this conspiracy were open and notorious. The aims of this conspiracy were open and notorious. It was far different from any other conspiracy ever unfolded before a court of justice, pistol shots, and then wildfires. The heart left as old boy experiences where he lived. Its history is the history of the Nazi Party, which grew from the brawling streets of Munich in the 20s. And from the beginning, Adolf Hitler and his followers were committed to the use of any means, whether or not they were legal or honorable. Their aim was the highest degree of control over the German community. Their intentions were blatantly put forth in Mein Kampf and the Party program. They preached their favorite doctrine up and down the land. They said that persons of a so-called German blood were a master race entitled to subjugate or even exterminate other races. They said that the Germans should be ruled under the Führerprinzip or leadership principle by which each sub-leader owed unconditional obedience to his superior and so on right up to Adolf Hitler. They said that war was a noble and necessary activity of Germany, and they said that the Nazi Party alone had the right to rule Germany and the right to destroy the Party's enemies based on fraud, deceit, intimidation, and coercion, culminating finally in terror and flame. Into that flame went the democratic constitution of the Weimar Republic and the freedom of the German people for the fires set by the Nazis extended to the very Reichstag. Hans Gisevius, a witness who formerly held a high position in the Berlin police administration, tells of his investigation of the Reichstag fire. To speak briefly and to state the facts, first of all we ascertained that quite generally Hitler had stated the wish for a large-scale propaganda campaign. Goebbels took on the job of making the necessary proposals, and it was Goebbels who first thought of setting the Reichstag on fire. A group of ten reliable as a man was made ready, and now Goebbels was informed about every detail of the plan. It was expected from Goebbels, and he gave his assurances that he would do so, that the police would be instructed while still suffering from shock to take up a false trail. Using the Reichstag fire as a pretext for seizing power, the Nazi conspirators lost no time in tearing Germany away from a policy of peace. Late in 1933, they led their nation out of the disarmament conference, quit the League of Nations, and embarked on a course of secret rearmament. By 1934, the new armaments program designed by defendants Göring, Schacht, and Funk was going full blast. German industry was again turning out the tools of war. The Krupp plants hummed, and one year later, Göring could announce, from the strong foundation of the National Socialist Ideology, today rises once again the German armed forces. A few days later, General von Blomberg announced the new law for compulsory military service. The law was signed by defendants Göring, Hess, Frank, Frick, Schacht, and von Neuerach. The training began. In spring of 1936, the Nazis sent their new troops marching into the Rheinland. Mein Führer, on March 7th, 1936, soldiers of the Army, which was created by order of the Führer, crossed the sacred river of German history and occupied their former garrisons. They pledged the Führer whatever decisions he may make, unbreakable faith and obedience, and they vowed to follow him and to prove their sincerity by their never-ending love for Germany. The columns grew longer. The sound of boots grew louder on the streets of Nürnberg. What Hitler said, the German people is not a people which welcomes a war today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. That is not in the character of the German. He is by nature not only peaceful and peace-loving, but above all, conciliatory. He wants to work. Our country are millions of peasants. They want to tell their fields. They want to bring in their harbors. They're millions of workers. They want to perform their work. But the Nazi conspirators in the name of Laban's realm continued to plot new aggressions against peace. In November 1937, Hitler called a special meeting with defendants Göring, von Neurat and Rader, and Generals von Blomberg and von Fritsch. The meeting was secret, but Lieutenant Colonel Hausbach, Hitler's personal agitant, faithfully recorded Hitler's words. The German question can be solved only by way of force. For the improvement of our military political position, it must be our first aim, in every case of entanglement by war, to conquer Czechoslovakia and Austria simultaneously. The annexation of the two states to Germany militarily and politically would constitute a considerable relief. This meeting set the stage for Nazi expansion, and Act I came only three months later, at Berchtesgaden, where Defendant von Papen finally engineered a meeting between Schuschnik, the Austrian Chancellor, and Hitler and defendants Keitel and von Ribbentrop. Guido Schmidt, who was Austrian Foreign Minister at the time, also attended the meeting, and now he takes the witness stand. Did Hitler demand that Seiß-Inquart be made Minister of Security? That was one of the demands on their program. Were there also demands made with regard to currency exchange and customs? There were demands of an economic nature of every kind. Hitler told you that you had until February 15th to accept his terms, didn't he? And he told you that if you didn't do so, he would use force? The ultimatum, as Hitler stated it, was that he intended, as early as February, to march into Austria and that for the last time he was prepared to postpone it. Faced by these threats, the Austrians carried out all Hitler's demands, but the Nazi conspirators weren't satisfied.