Alfred Naujocks and the start of World War II

Who started World War II?  Well duh!  Germany started World War II, of course.  How could anyone not know that?  It was proved at Nuremberg, for Christ’s sakes.

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the Nuremberg trials:

The first and best known of these trials was the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the International Military Tribunal (IMT), which tried 22 of the most important captured leaders of Nazi Germany. Testimony was given from November 21, 1945 to October 1, 1946.

Note the date that testimony began: November 21, 1945

One of the charges against the “major war criminals” was Crimes against Peace, a new crime that had been made up by the Allies. The most serious Crime against Peace committed by the German war criminals was the unprovoked attack on Poland on September 1, 1939.

On the day of the attack, Hitler had gone on the radio in Berlin at 8 a.m. and said, “Since 5:45 a.m., we’ve been shooting back.”

What in the hell was he talking about?  Shooting back?  It was the Germans who fired the first shots.  Or was it?  This was something that had to be cleared up before the Nuremberg trial began.

Alfred Naujocks – German traitor in World War II

On November 20, 1945, a German traitor named Alfred Naujocks signed an affidavit in which he told all about how he had helped to perpetrate a fake attack on a radio station in Gleiwitz, a town on the German border with Poland. According to Naujocks, the Germans had staged this fake attack in order to have an excuse for starting World War II.

Naujocks had turned himself in to the Allies in October 1944. He was held in prison as a potential war criminal until World War II ended; then he was released.  Apparently no one thought about getting his story in writing in a sworn affidavit until just the day before testimony in the trial began.  Considering that Naujocks was a traitor who defected and went over to the side of the enemy, how much is his affidavit worth? Did he even write this affidavit himself?

There were 21 similar border incidents the night before the Germans attacked Poland, according to Wikipedia.  Were these incidents all faked?

The German people are famous for planning everything carefully; they leave nothing to chance.  You see, the Nazis anticipated that, in case they lost the war, the Allies might make up an ex post facto law called Crimes against Peace, so they wanted to be prepared to  prove that it was really Poland that had started the war by attacking a radio station the night before.

That’s why the Germans faked an attack by dressing up an inmate from a Nazi concentration camp in civilian clothes and planting his dead body outside the radio station while several Germans, dressed in Polish uniforms, went inside the station and terrorized the staff before one of them made a 3 minute speech in Polish over the radio.  The concentration camp prisoner had first been given a lethal injection to make sure that he didn’t survive, and was then shot several times.

Sorry, but I don’t buy this preposterous story.

What was the dead guy’s name? Is there a record of him being registered at any of the concentration camps? The attackers were wearing Polish uniforms, so why didn’t the Germans put a Polish uniform on the dead guy? Was this just an innocent bystander who was killed by real Polish soldiers when they attacked the radio station?

Of course, Naujocks never took the witness stand at Nuremberg, so he was never cross examined by the defense.  There were only 33 witnesses for the prosecution at the IMT; most of the testimony was by affidavit only, giving the defense no chance to cross examine.

The following quote is from the Nuremberg transcripts on December 20, 1945 when the Naujocks affidavit was read in court by prosecution attorney, Col. Story. Notice the date of the affidavit signed by Naujocks – November 20, 1945 – the day before testimony at the war crimes trial started.

COL. STOREY:

I now offer in evidence Document 2751-PS, which is Exhibit USA-482. It is an affidavit of Alfred Helmut Naujocks, dated November 20, 1945. This affidavit particularly refers to the actual occurrences in connection with the Polish border incident. I believe it was referred to by the Witness Lahousen when he was on the stand:

“I, Alfred Helmut Naujocks, being first duly sworn, depose and state as follows:

“1. I was a member of the SS from 1931 to 19 October 1944 and a member of the SD from its creation in 1934 to January 1941. I served as a member of the Waffen-SS from February 1941 until the middle of 1942. Later I served in the Economics Department of the Military Administration of Belgium from September 1942 to September 1944. I surrendered to the Allies on 19 October 1944.

“2. On or about 10 August 1939 the Chief of the Sipo and SD, Heydrich, personally ordered me to simulate an attack on the radio station near Gleiwitz, near the Polish border, and to make it appear that the attacking force consisted of Poles. Heydrich said: ‘Actual proof of these attacks of the Poles is needed for the foreign press, as well as for German propaganda purposes.’ I was directed to go to Gleiwitz with five or six SD men and wait there until I received a code word from Heydrich indicating that the attack should take place.

My instructions were to seize the radio station and to hold it long enough to permit a Polish-speaking German, who would be put at my disposal, to broadcast a speech in Polish. Heydrich told me that this speech should state that the time had come for the conflict between the Germans and the Poles and that the Poles should get together and strike down any Germans from whom they met resistance. Heydrich also told me at this time that he expected an attack on Poland by Germany in a few days.

“3. I went to Gleiwitz and waited there a fortnight. Then I requested permission of Heydrich to return to Berlin but was told to stay in Gleiwitz. Between the 25th and 31st of August I went to see Heinrich Muller, head of the Gestapo, who was then nearby at Oppeln. In my presence Muller discussed with a man named Mehlhorn plans for another border incident, in which it should be made to appear that Polish soldiers were attacking German troops …. Germans in the approximate strength of a company were to be used. Muller stated that he had 12 or 13 condemned criminals who were to be dressed in Polish uniforms and left dead on the ground at the scene of the incident to show that they had been killed while attacking. For this purpose they were to be given fatal injections by a doctor employed by Heydrich. Then they were also to be given gunshot wounds. After the assault members of the press and other persons were to be taken to the spot of the incident. A police report was subsequently to be prepared.

“4. Muller told me that he had an order from Heydrich to make one of those criminals available to me for the action at Gleiwitz. The code name by which he referred to these criminals was ‘Canned Goods.’

“5. The incident at Gleiwitz in which I participated was carried out on the evening preceding the German attack on Poland. As I recall, war broke out on the 1st of September 1939. At noon on the 31st of August I received by telephone from Heydrich the code word for the attack which was to take place at 8 o’clock that evening. Heydrich said, ‘In order to carry out this attack, report to Muller for “Canned Goods.”‘ I did this and gave Muller instructions to deliver the man near the radio station. I received this man and had him laid down at the entrance to the station. He was alive, but he was completely unconscious. I tried to open his eyes. I could not recognize by his eyes that he was alive, only by his breathing. I did not see the shot wounds, but a lot of blood was smeared across his face. He was in civilian clothes.

“6. We seized the radio station as ordered, broadcast a speech of 3 to 4 minutes over an emergency transmitter, fired some pistol shots, and left.”

And then “sworn to and subscribed to before Lieutenant Martin”.

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The following quote is from the transcripts of the Nuremberg IMT on August 27, 1946 when Dr. Hans Gawlik spoke for the defense:

DR. HANS GAWLIK (Counsel for the SD):

I shall now turn to Section B: Crimes against Peace (Statement of Evidence V of the English trial brief against the Gestapo and SD).

As a crime against peace the SD is accused of having staged so-called border incidents before the outbreak of the war to give Hitler an excuse for starting the war. The Prosecution, however, referred to only one border incident in which the SD is alleged to have participated. That is the alleged attack on the Gleiwitz radio station.

In this connection the Prosecution made reference to the affidavit of Alfred Naujocks of 20 November 1945. This is Prosecution Document 2751-PS. The deponent of Document 2751-PS, Alfred Naujocks, was heard before the Commission. On that occasion he declared that the execution of the attack on the Gleiwitz radio station was not included in the aims and purposes of Aemter III and VI.

The witness further testified that no sections of Aemter III and VI were used for the execution of that border incident in Gleiwitz and that the men who with him attacked the Gleiwitz station did not belong to the SD, Amt III.

The witness also stated that by the term “SD men” in his affidavit of 20 November 1945 he did not mean the members of any definite office of the RSHA; but common usage of the term “SD men” referred to RSHA members of all offices which were subordinate to Heydrich.

The witness further stated that he was charged with the execution of the border incident at Gleiwitz, not because he belonged to Amt VI and worked there, but that exclusively personal reasons were responsible for that decision. The witness testified that on the basis of the conversation he had had with Heydrich he had gained the impression that Heydrich would have given him that assignment even if he had not been a member of Amt VI and the SS. The order for the execution of this assignment reached the witness Naujocks not through the official channels of the chiefs of Aemter III or VI. The chiefs of Aemter III and VI had no knowledge of this action.

The members of the SD, Amt III and Amt VI, had no knowledge that the attack was carried out by Naujocks, a member of Amt VI. Particularly the members of the SD-Leitabschnitt which was in charge of Gleiwitz, and the outpost of the SD, had no knowledge of this activity and could not have had, because Naujocks had been forbidden to get in touch with any members of the SD whatsoever in that territory.

The statements of this witness have been reaffirmed by the witness Somman and through Affidavit Number SD-11, deposed by Dr. Marx.

I also submitted 215 affidavits for the office of the RSHA as well as for all territories of the SD-Leitabschnitte and the SD-Abschnitte, particularly for those situated in the regions of Katowice, Danzig, and Saxony. Those affidavits testify that the members of the SD during the critical time had no knowledge of the faked border incidents or the participation of the SD in them.