In a subsequent decree Koch says he is blamed for having caused the closing of vocational schools; and he also says that Rosenberg ordered the General Commissioners to adopt a different school policy, thereby overstepping his authority as Reich Commissioner. Koch then concludes with a veiled threat that to him, as a veteran Gauleiter, the way to the Führer could not be barred. So much challenging criticism of Rosenberg, so much unintentional praise, and so much proof of the absolute decency of his behavior and the far-sighted and statesmanlike direction of his office as chief of the eastern administration!

One last document in the fight of Rosenberg against Koch is the report regarding Reich Commissioner Koch and the timber region of Zuman of 2 April 1943 (Document Number 032-PS), regarding which Rosenberg gave exhaustive information as a witness. In this very matter Rosenberg displayed his conscientiousness particularly clearly.

And now we have again to unroll another scene before our eyes, because the Prosecution attached specific importance to it: In July 1942, Bormann wrote a letter to Rosenberg; Rosenberg replied, and a third party, Dr. Markull, an associate of Rosenberg in his ministry, wrote a commentary regarding it. According to Dr. Markull’s representation the contents of Bormann’s letter, the original of which is not extant, was the following: the Slavs should work for us; if of no use to us, they ought to die; health provisions were superfluous; the fertility of the Slavs was undesirable, their education dangerous; it would do if they could count up to one hundred. Every educated person is a potential enemy. We could leave them their religion as an outlet. As sustenance they should receive only the barest necessities; we are the masters and we come first.

To that letter by the closest collaborator of Hitler there could be only one reply by Rosenberg: feigned consent and feigned compliance. In the inner circle of the eastern ministry there arose considerable apprehensions regarding this significant change in the attitude of its chief, apprehensions which were expressed in Dr. Markull’s memorandum of 5 September 1942. Rosenberg as a witness has stated that there cannot exist any doubt, when that document is read impartially, that he agreed only for the sake of pacifying Hitler and Bormann. Rosenberg wanted to insure himself against an attack from the Führer’s headquarters, which he anticipated with certainty because he allegedly did more for the eastern population than for the German people, because he required more physicians than there were available for sick Germans, et cetera.

The Markull memorandum is the truest possible bona fide reflection of Rosenberg’s personality and influence, since it shows the anxious subordinate trying to conjure up the spirit of his minister as he had come to know and to love him in his work, and to dispel an alien phantom who seemed to have taken his place. It is stated there that such a train of thought conformed with the policy of Reich Commissioner Koch, but not with the decrees of the Reich Minister and the conception of at least 80 percent of the District Commissioners and specialists who were counting on their minister and who considered that the eastern population should be treated decently and with understanding, for it evinced a surprisingly high capacity for culture, its efficiency in work was good, and we were about to waste a precious stock of gratitude, love, and confidence. The controversy between the minister and the Reich Commissioner was well known among the high authorities of the Reich, and it was no secret that the ministry was unable to carry out its policies in opposition to the Reich Commissioners, who considered the eastern ministry as entirely superfluous; the writings of Bormann would disavow the entire policy of the eastern minister up to now, and one was given the impression that Koch had been backed by Hitler in his opposition to the minister. Since its foundation the ministry had had to register an ever-increasing loss of power. The Higher SS and Police Leaders refused to render to the General Commissioners the normal honors such as reports, et cetera. One jurisdiction of the eastern minister after another was being taken away by other highest Reich offices; in the offices in Berlin it was openly said that the remodeling of the ministry into a mere operations staff was to be expected. On the other hand, the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, due to the personality of its leader, enjoyed the exceptional esteem of the public.

Dr. Markull implores the minister to stand by his original ideas, saying that the unfortunate master complex should be as much avoided as the opinion that the intelligentsia were alien to the masses. The influence of spiritual forces should be taken into consideration. Germany should prove a “righteous judge,” acknowledging the national and cultural rights of nations. Such had been the ideas of the minister before, and such they should remain.

Rosenberg’s attitude did not in fact change, since at that very time he was working on the great School Program (Schulverordnung). Later on he effected the reopening primarily of the medical faculties in colleges. And then came the conflict with the Führer in May 1943.

On 12 October 1944 Rosenberg tendered his resignation through Lammers to the Führer (Document Number Ro-14), because German eastern policy in general and the political psychological treatment of eastern nations in particular, were still contrary to the point of view which he had had from the very beginning, namely, his plan of autonomy for the eastern nations and the cultural development of their capacities as part of an all-European conception of a family of nations on the continent. He now inwardly broke down at seeing a great statesmanlike program destroyed. All he could do in regard to the policy of enslavement and looting which was going on in his country was merely to accept memoranda from his colleagues in the ministry, or at best indulge in a futile paper war with people like Koch. He had not been strong enough against the plans which benighted forces wanted to carry out in the East; and he was powerless against their influence, being in addition totally unaware at that time of all the police and military orders which were presented here to the Tribunal.

When Rosenberg once reminded Hitler of the creation of a university in Kiev, Hitler apparently agreed; after Rosenberg had left and he was alone with Göring, Hitler said, “This fellow has too many worries. We have more important matters on our minds than universities in Kiev.” No episode can illustrate better than all the documents the one theme: Rosenberg and the reality in the East, and the other theme: Rosenberg as the alleged inspirer of Hitler.

As Rosenberg did not receive any reply to his request for resignation, he tried many times to talk to Hitler personally. It was all in vain.

On 11 December 1945 Mr. Dodd said:

And on 8 February 1946 General Rudenko said:

He said that Göring, Keitel, Rosenberg, and Sauckel were particularly responsible for the inhuman and barbaric instructions, directives and orders of the Hitler Government, whose purpose was the carrying out of the deportation of Soviet people into German slavery.

I have already spoken of the formal and individual responsibility of Rosenberg as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. I have already explained, too, that in the field of labor employment it was not Rosenberg but Sauckel who, as Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor, was the highest authority and the responsible person, by virtue of the Führer’s decree of 21 March 1942 (Document Number 580-PS). Thus Sauckel in this field was Rosenberg’s superior.

He wrote to Rosenberg on 3 October 1942 (Document Number 017-PS):

In his Program for the Allocation of Labor of 24 April 1942 (Document Number 016-PS), he emphasized that the state and local labor offices are in charge of all technical and administrative matters in connection with labor employment which come under the exclusive competence and responsibility of the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor. The defense of Sauckel is not my task. But may I point out that he also did not take over his great and difficult task with a feeling of hatred and intentions of enslavement. In his Program for the Allocation of Labor just mentioned he says, for instance:

On that point Sauckel and Rosenberg shared the same opinion.

Neither is it my task to state and to prove that many hundreds of thousands of foreign workers found good conditions in Germany, that in fact numberless persons were better off here than in their fatherland. I am only concerned with the bad conditions which have been charged to the Defendant Rosenberg.

I come now to the “Central Agency for Nationals of the Eastern Territories.”

Gentlemen of the Tribunal, several days ago I read the affidavit of Dr. Albert Beil. Essentially it contains an authoritative statement of whatever can be said about that subject. Therefore, I should like to omit this subject, “Central Agency for Nationals of the Eastern Territories,” and ask the Tribunal to consider it as having been presented.

2. Central Office for Nationals of the Eastern Territories.

As the war became more and more intensified in regard to totality and brutality, the German workers, and the Germans altogether, did anything but live in a grand style; they too, as far as they had not been drafted for the Army, were assigned to labor duties, had to do heavy work for long hours, were separated from their families, had frequently to be content with second-rate billets—especially because of the increasing number of houses damaged by air attacks—and they, too, were severely punished for refusal to work or defaulting.

The fact that the foreign workers were likewise victims of this totality and brutality of the war and, admittedly, in some respects even more so, does not incriminate Rosenberg either legally or morally. He established, within his ministry, the Central Office for Nationals of the Eastern Territories, which had neither police tasks nor any other competencies of an administrative nature but was concerned solely with the welfare of nationals of the Eastern Territories and which employed trustees taken from among the eastern nations. In the report of 30 September 1942 (Document Number 084-PS, US-199) this office points out several inadequacies: That the accommodation, treatment, food, and pay of the Eastern Workers called forth strong criticism; that, though actually the situation was much better now (deadline 1 October 1942), the conditions for Eastern Workers were on the whole still far from being satisfactory. Rosenberg is therefore asked to discuss the matter with Hitler in order to have Hitler himself take energetic measures; Himmler was to be made to rescind his general regulations concerning the treatment of Eastern Workers; the Party Chancellery and the Party to be reminded of their historical responsibility for the millions of former Soviet citizens now guided by Germany and instructed to co-operate in all matters concerning Eastern Workers in the Reich with the Reich Minister; finally it was suggested to extend the scope of the Central Office for Nationals of the Eastern Territories as quickly as possible, so as to enable it efficiently to look after the interests of the aliens from the occupied territories living in the Reich, being, so to speak, the projected arm of the East ministry and the representative of these people. In this sense, namely, in the sense of social care and humane welfare, the eastern ministry was active for the Eastern Workers.

To refute the charge that Rosenberg was active as protagonist of the system of hatred and barbarism, of denying human rights, and of enslavement, I must add the following. Rosenberg received further unfavorable reports, one being the report of 7 October 1942 about the bad treatment of Ukrainian skilled workers (Document Number 054-PS, US-198). Abuses in recruiting and during transportation were pointed out; the workers were frequently dragged out of their beds at night and locked up in cellars until the time of their departure; threats and blows by the rural militia were a matter of course; food brought from home was often taken by the militia; during transportation to Germany neglect and transgressions on the part of the escorting units occurred, et cetera.

Rosenberg had no authority whatsoever to intervene in those matters, yet he tried to do so in a letter of 21 December 1942 to Sauckel; Rosenberg first emphasized his fundamental accord with Sauckel; but after a few tactical and polite clichés, he complained seriously and urgently about the methods used in the employment of labor. I quote:

Rosenberg further states that he empowered the Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine to make use, so far as required, of his sovereign rights and to give attention to the elimination of recruiting methods which were running counter to the interests of warfare and war economy in the occupied territories. He, Rosenberg, and the Reich Commissioners could not help being surprised that in numerous instances measures, which should have been previously agreed upon with the civilian authorities, were first learned of through the police or other offices. Without co-ordination of their mutual wishes Rosenberg was unfortunately unable to accept the joint responsibility for consequences resulting from these reported conditions. In conclusion Rosenberg expressed the wish to put an early end to such conditions for the sake of their common interest.

Rosenberg also tried personal consultations with Sauckel and got Sauckel to promise that he would do everything to bring about a fair solution of all these questions (conference of 14 April 1942). It was beyond Rosenberg’s power and authority to do more. His secret opponent, supported by higher authorities, was Reich Commissioner Koch, who was indeed one of the chief culprits responsible for the cruel methods of recruiting and employment of Eastern Workers, and whose influence Rosenberg was unable to counteract.

When the prosecutor (Brudno, on 9 January 1946) charges the defendant with protesting against these methods not for humanitarian reasons but out of political expediency, I can only say that in my opinion one cannot, without some sound reasons, simply maintain that the Defendant Rosenberg is devoid of any human qualities.

As an example of the defendant’s particular bestiality, the so-called “Hay Action” has been repeatedly pointed out by the Prosecution (Document Number 031-PS). It concerned the intention of Army Group Center to evacuate 40,000 to 50,000 juveniles from the area of operations, as they represented a considerable burden to the area of operations and were besides, for the most part, without any parental supervision. Villages for children were to be established behind the front lines under native supervision; one of these villages had already proven its value. It was hoped that through the Organization Todt, being a particularly appropriate organization due to its technical and other possibilities, the juveniles might, in the main, be placed at the disposal of German handicraft as apprentices, in order to employ them as skilled workers after 2 years’ training. At first Rosenberg, as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, was against this because he feared that the action might be considered as a deportation of children, while on the other hand, the juveniles did not represent a considerable increase of military strength. The chief of the political operations staff approached Rosenberg again, stating that Army Group Center attached particular importance to the fact that the children should enter the Reich, not by authority of the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor, but through the agency of the Reich Minister for the East, as it was felt that only then could they be assured of correct treatment. The Army Group wanted the action to be carried out under the most correct conditions and asked for special regulations to be issued with regard to mail facilities between them and their parents, et cetera. In the event of a possible reoccupation of the territory the eastern ministry could then let the children go back. Together with their parents they would certainly form a positive political element during the subsequent reconstruction of the territory.

Finally, as reason for the second request addressed to the minister, it was stated in addition that the children, to be sure, would not essentially contribute to strengthening the military power of the enemy but that the important factor in this case was the long-range weakening of his biological strength; not only the Reichsführer SS but also the Führer had expressed themselves to this effect. Rosenberg finally gave his consent to this action.

With regard to this it may be said: This concerned a field which was not at all within the jurisdiction of Rosenberg’s administration; he did not want to destroy a foreign element, even if biological weakening was given him as a reason—a reason which he himself did not recognize. Instead he wanted to have the children educated and trained and bring them and their parents back to their homes later on. That is virtually contrary to the crime with which the defendant is charged. Later on, in the late summer of 1944, Rosenberg visited the Junkers plant in Dessau where approximately 4,700 young White Ruthenian craftsmen were employed and also visited a White Ruthenian children’s camp. The clothing of the workmen was irreproachable; they were industrious, enjoyed the best treatment, and got along very well with the German workers. As Rosenberg was able to see for himself, the young people were taught languages and mathematics by Russian teachers. The children were cared for in their forest camp by White Ruthenian mothers and women teachers. The figure of 40,000 moreover, was never attained, in fact, barely half of it.

The attempt of the Prosecution in this instance to appeal especially to considerations of humanity in order to discredit the defendant cannot be successful in my estimation. For this very example compels me to point out the following in particular: We were in the midst of a war which was being conducted with terrible intensity on both sides. Is not war in itself “monstrous bestiality”? The “weakening of the biological strength of nations” is truly a fitting expression for the goal and purpose of the whole war, for that is what the thoughts and efforts of both belligerent parties are aimed at. It would surely be unthinkable that one should forget this in judging the actions of the defendants and that one should wish to hold the defendants responsible not only for unleashing the war, but in addition, for the fact that war in its very essence constitutes a great crime on the part of mankind, both against itself and against the laws of life.

The Prosecution contends that Rosenberg is guilty also insofar as it was he who issued the inhuman and barbaric decrees which aimed at carrying out the deportation of Soviet people into German slavery. This causes me to discuss the question as to whether the compulsory labor decree of 19 December 1941 and Rosenberg’s other decrees concerning compulsory labor for the inhabitants of the Eastern Territories, were contrary to international law.

The Eastern Territories administered by Rosenberg were militarily occupied during the war. Through this occupatio bellica Germany realized complete domination and had the same sovereignty as over her own territory. While according to previous conceptions of international law the occupying power could act arbitrarily without consideration of rights and laws, the recent evolution of international law eliminated the principle of force and brought victory to the principles of humanity and culture. Therefore the formerly unlimited might of the occupying power was altered to limited rights. The Hague Rules of Land Warfare stipulated in particular the legal obligations of the occupying power.

On the other hand, it is not true to say that the Rules of Land Warfare specify only certain privileges for the occupying power. They merely set a limit to the basically unlimited right of the occupying power to exercise all powers deriving from territorial sovereignty over an occupied territory.

THE PRESIDENT: Would that be a convenient time to break off?

[The Tribunal adjourned until 10 July 1946 at 1000 hours.]

Morning Session

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will sit in closed session this afternoon and will not sit in open session after 1 o’clock.

DR. THOMA: Mr. President, may it please the Tribunal, with regard to the question of the justification of the decree concerning the compulsory labor service of the inhabitants of the Eastern Territories, I should like to continue on Page 33.

Thus the following principle recognized by international law is indicated:

Measures undertaken by an occupying power in occupied territory are legal as long as they are not in opposition to a proven stipulation of the international rules of warfare. The occupying power is therefore assumed to be entitled to the full exercise of all powers derived from territorial sovereignty over an occupied territory. According to the uniform opinion of experts on international law the occupying power acts by virtue of an original law of its own, guaranteed and defined as to content solely by international law, in the interest of its own conduct of the war as well as for the protection of the civil population in the occupied territory. I quote Heyland from Handbuch des Völkerrechts.

In view of Article 52 of the Hague Rules of Land Warfare the right to conscript labor in the occupied territory is acknowledged. It is stipulated here that labor services may be demanded from the inhabitants of the occupied territory; the demand must be limited to the requirements of the occupation forces; it must be in proportion to the resources of the country and must be of such a nature as not to compel the population to participate in military operations against their own country. In these stipulations I cannot discern any prohibition of labor conscription in occupied territories; on the contrary, I consider that an approval of compulsory labor service can be clearly deduced from them. The employment of such labor in war industry is undoubtedly in accordance with the requirements of the occupation forces and, in my estimation, it is equally beyond doubt that this constitutes no commitment to military operations. The Rules of Land Warfare contain no stipulations as to whether labor service may be demanded only in the home country or whether the conscript may be transported into the native land of the occupying power for the purpose of rendering labor services there. Thus, the general principle holds good that the occupying power is assumed to be entitled to exercise to the utmost extent all powers deriving from territorial sovereignty.

If one takes the correct view that the international rules of warfare should tend to humanize war by limiting the rights of the belligerents and that the trend in this direction should be continued, one must consider on the other hand that the stern reality of war tends toward the opposite direction.

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, the Tribunal would like to know whether it is your contention that the Hague Rules authorize the deportation of men, women, or children to another country for the purpose of labor service.

DR. THOMA: Mr. President, I propose to speak about the interpretation of the Hague Rules of Land Warfare and I am dealing here with the question as to whether it is permissible to transport inhabitants of the country in order to meet the requirements of the occupying forces. I have stated my position here that laborers can also be transported into the country of the occupying power. About children, of course, I have said nothing. I did not say anything about Jews either. I only spoke about persons able to work, who were required to work in accordance with the necessities of the occupying power, and I said it was admissible for them to be transported into the home country of the occupying power. I leave this problem to the discernment of the Tribunal.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal would like to have any authorities in international law which you have to cite for that proposition.

DR. THOMA: Mr. President, I shall mention some more quotations, more detailed scientific quotations concerning this problem. I have already quoted in that regard. I have repeatedly quoted Heyland’s Handbuch des Völkerrechts, published by Stier-Somlo, and I shall give more quotations.

THE PRESIDENT: Will you tell me what language that book is in?

DR. THOMA: In German, Mr. President; it is the Handbuch des Völkerrechts, published by Stier-Somlo, 1923.

Present-day warfare is no longer what it was in 1907. War has developed into total war, a life-and-death struggle of annihilation, in which the very last physical and moral forces of the nation are mobilized, and the loss of which, as is shown by the example of Germany, means unconditional surrender and the total destruction of her existence as a State.

Can one maintain, in view of this fact, that Germany, in this struggle of life and death, should not have been granted the basic right of self-preservation recognized by international law?

I refer to Strupp, Handbuch des Völkerrechts, published by Stier-Somlo, Stuttgart 1920, Part III, “Violations of International Law,” Page 128 et sequentes.

There is no doubt that the very existence of the State was at stake; that is, it was an emergency which justified the compulsory employment of labor, even if it had not been permissible according to international law. It is inherent in that great anomaly called war that, as soon as the state of war has been proclaimed, international law is in a large measure set aside in the interest of the objective of the war, the overpowering of the enemy.

I quote Strupp, as above, Page 172.

In connection with the chapter concerning the eastern administration, I should like, without pointing out specifically all that the defendant has said during his testimony concerning accusations of the Soviet Prosecution, in particular the reports of the state commissions and the Molotov reports (Documents USSR-39, 41, 51, 89, and record of 16 April 1946), to express a hope that the factual corrections made by the defendant will be duly evaluated by the Tribunal.

Now I come to a new subject: Contrary to the assumption of the Prosecution, Rosenberg was in no instance the instigator of a persecution of Jews, any more than he was one of the leaders and originators of the policy adopted by the Party and the Reich, as the Prosecution claims (Walsh, on 13 December 1945, Volume III, Page 539). Rosenberg was certainly a convinced anti-Semite and expressed his conviction and the reasons for it both verbally and in writing. However, in his case anti-Semitism was not the most outstanding of his activities. In his book Blood and Honor, speeches and essays between 1919 and 1933, out of 64 speeches, for example, only one had a title referring to Jewry. The same applies to the other two volumes of his speeches. He felt his spiritual ancestors to be the mystic Meister Ekkehart, Goethe, Lagarde, and Houston Stewart Chamberlain; anti-Semitism was for him a negative element, and his chief and most positive efforts were directed toward the proclamation of a new German intellectual attitude, and a new German culture. Because he found this endangered after 1918, he became an opponent of Jewry. Even such different personalities as Von Papen, Von Neurath, and Raeder now confess to their belief that the penetration of the Jewish element into the whole of public life was so great that a change had to be brought about. It strikes me as very important, however, that the nature of Rosenberg’s anti-Semitism was intellectual above all. For example, at the Party Rally of 1933 he explicitly mentioned a “chivalrous solution” of the Jewish question. We never heard Rosenberg use expressions like “We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them; we shall take measures that will insure success. We must abandon all feelings of sympathy.” The Prosecution itself quotes the following as an expression of the program Rosenberg set up for himself (Volume III, Page 529):

GENERAL R. A. RUDENKO (Chief Prosecutor for the U.S.S.R.): Mr. President, rather reluctantly I interrupt counsel for the defense, and I do not like to take the time of the Tribunal, but what I just heard is going beyond any permissible limits. When the defendants sitting in the dock tried to express their Fascist views, this was deemed inappropriate and cut short by the Tribunal.

I think that it is absolutely inadmissible that defense counsel should use this place to promote antihuman propaganda; I cannot understand the contention of the lawyer who alleges the existence of a noble, spiritual anti-Semitism which Rosenberg advocates and that Rosenberg’s belief in gathering all Jews in ghettos was chivalrous. Please note that the lawyer is not quoting any Nazi leader but expresses his own opinion, and I protest against the use of the International Military Tribunal for the spreading of Fascist propaganda. I ask the Tribunal to consider this objection of mine and to take appropriate action.

DR. THOMA: May it please the Tribunal—may I make an answer to that?

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, we don’t think it is necessary to trouble you. The Tribunal thinks—there may be, of course, differences of opinion as to the use of words in the course of your argument, but they see no reason for stopping you in the argument that you are presenting to the Tribunal.

DR. THOMA: Thank you, My Lord.

May it please the Tribunal, after what General Rudenko has said, I should like to make one statement. In my speech I have tried to argue upon the statements of the Prosecution and nothing else. I would like to say something else. The words “chivalrous solution of the Jewish question” were not my expression; I just quoted that as a statement made by Rosenberg a long time before he came into this Court. The Prosecution quotes the following as Rosenberg’s statement of a program: “The Jewish question...” and so on; I have already read that.

It was not a mere question of chance that Rosenberg did not take part in, the boycotting of Jews in 1933, that he was not called upon to work out the laws against the Jews in 1933, 1934, 1935, and so on (expatriation, prohibition of marriages, withdrawal of the right to vote, expulsion from all important positions and offices). Above all, he never took part in the action of 1938 against the Jews, nor in the destruction of synagogues, nor in anti-Semitic demonstrations. Neither was he the instigator in the background who sent out, or ordered, lesser people to commit certain actions. To be sure, Rosenberg was a true follower of Hitler, who took up Hitler’s slogans and passed them on. For example, the motto, “The Jewish question will be solved only when the last Jew has left Germany and the European continent,” and once the slogan of “Extermination of Jewry.”

Exaggerated expressions were always part of the National Socialist weapons of propaganda. A Hitler speech was hardly imaginable without insults to his internal or external political opponents, or without threats of extermination. Every one of Hitler’s speeches was echoed a million times by Goebbels down to the last speaker of the Party in a small country inn. The same sentences and words which Hitler had used were repeated, and not only in all the political speeches, but in the German press as well, in all the editorials and essays, until, weeks or months later, a new speech was given which brought about a new echo of a similar kind.

Rosenberg was no exception. He repeated, as everyone did, all of Hitler’s slogans, including that of the “solution of the Jewish question,” and once also that of the “extermination of Jewry.” Apparently, like Hitler’s other supporters, he gave as much or as little thought to the fact that in reality none of those phrases were clear but that they had a sinister double meaning and, while they might have meant real expulsion, they might also have implied the physical annihilation and murder of the Jews.

May I remind the Tribunal at this point that Rosenberg, during his testimony, made a reference to a speech of the British Prime Minister in the House of Commons in September 1943, in which speech it was stated that Prussian militarism and National Socialism had to be exterminated root and branch. No German interpreted that literally, and I believe no one interpreted it to mean that German soldiers and the National Socialism had to be exterminated physically.

Aside from the knowledge and will of the German people, and aside from the knowledge and will of the majority of the leadership of the Party—that is to say, known only to Bormann, Himmler, and Eichmann—there was hatched and carried out, from 1941 onward, a mass crime which surpassed all human concepts of reason and morality. The “Jewish question” was developed even further and brought to a so-called “final solution.”

The Tribunal will have to decide the question whether Rosenberg, the specially characteristic exponent of the Party, the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, is also responsible for the murder of the Jews, and particularly for the murder of Jews in the East; that is, is he a murderer of Jews? Or must it be recognized and admitted that, although he stands but a hair’s breadth from the abyss, it was, after all, external circumstances which led up to it all, and that these circumstances were outside his sphere of responsibility and guilt?

I believe I can say that Rosenberg never aimed, either openly or in secret, at the physical extermination of the Jews. His reserve and moderation were certainly no mere tactics. The slipping of anti-Semitism into crime took place without his knowledge or will. The fact in itself that he preached anti-Semitism justifies his punishment as the murderer of Jews as little as one could hold Rousseau and Mirabeau responsible for the subsequent horrors of the French Revolution.

Furthermore, no matter how much the first impression might lead to it, criminal guilt on his part cannot be deduced from his position as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. As already stated, the “responsible minister” cannot simply be held responsible for criminal acts committed in his sphere or his territory. Criminal responsibility, according to the German Penal Code, Paragraph 357, exists only if an official knowingly assents to the criminal actions of his subordinates, and if—the commentaries furnish this supplement—the superior is in a position to prevent the action.

I should like to take up the question of his responsibility on the grounds of the documents submitted for this purpose.

(1) The action taken against the Jews at Sluzk (Document Number 1104-PS).

On 27 October 1941, a horrible slaughter of Jews took place in Sluzk, committed by the four companies of a police battalion, because the commander received an order from his superior to clear the city of all Jews without exception. The district commissioner immediately made vigorous protests, demanded that the action be stopped at once, and gun in hand kept the police officers in check as far as he was able. He reported to the General Commissioner of White Ruthenia, Kube, at Minsk, and the latter suggested to the Reich Commissioner Ostland, Lohse, that the officers implicated be punished for this “unheard-of bestiality.” He in turn reported to the Reich Minister for the East, with the request that immediate measures be taken at higher levels. The Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories sent the entire report to Heydrich, the Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, requesting further action. Due to an ingenious system according to which the Police were not responsible to the competent administrative chief and were not even obliged to report, Rosenberg could not take any further steps either in this or in similar cases. He was not head of the Police, and could only hope that the transmission of the report to Heydrich would be sufficient to stop what he considered to be regional excesses of the Police.

It can be seen from the indignation of all the administrative offices over the reported incidents that none of them knew that it was no question of excesses, but of an action ordered by Heydrich and Himmler. Even though Rosenberg violently disliked Heydrich and Himmler, not even he could suspect anything of this kind.

(2) Also from October 1941 dates Document 3663-PS in which the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, for whom Dr. Leibbrandt signed, calls for a report by the Reich Commissioner Ostland, because a complaint has been made by the Reich Security Main Office that the Reich Commissioner Ostland had prohibited executions of Jews in Libau. To this the addressee replied:

This is followed by a request for further instructions. Regarding this document—which is signed by the departmental chief Leibbrandt, and which in no way points to any knowledge on the part of the Defendant Rosenberg—I wish to make the following provisional brief statement:

It is not conceived as a reproach by the Reich Minister for the East because the executions of Jews were discontinued, but it simply represents the transmittal of a complaint by the Reich Security Main Office, adding a request to report. It is to be presumed that the reason for the complaint was that the Reich Commissioner Ostland encroached on the competency of the Reich Security Main Office and the demand for a report was presumably issued in that sense. In a letter of 18 December 1941, the Reich Minister, in a letter also signed “By order: Bräutigam,” asked the Reich Commissioner Ostland to settle directly any questions which might arise with the Higher SS and Police Leader.

To identify the letter “R” as Rosenberg’s initial, because the Prosecution obviously was more than doubtful about Rosenberg’s knowledge of matters, turned out to be equally unfortunate. This “R” is not Rosenberg’s.

(3) Document Number 3428-PS concerns a letter of the General Commissioner for White Ruthenia to the Reich Commissioner for the East. It is a shocking document about the mass extermination of Jews in White Ruthenia; however, there is nothing of interest in it for the case against Rosenberg, because those horrible events could be attributed to him only if he knew of them, and in neglect of his duty failed to intervene. There is no actual proof to found a supposition of such knowledge. The claim that these documents were found in Rosenberg’s possession cannot be in accordance with the actual facts, for they show the Reich Commissioner in Riga as the addressee.

(4) In the “Memorandum for the Führer of 18 December 1941” (Document Number 001-PS) the defendant suggested the following, which I must quote literally:

It is not my task here to discuss how far it is admissible to shoot hostages, but one thing is certain, that Rosenberg was convinced such a measure was admissible. In that case, however, his suggestion must be considered in that light, and can by no means be judged as an independent incitement to murder. Besides, the suggestion had no results. In his reply of 31 December 1941, Lammers, acting on behalf of the Führer, merely referred to the suggestion of utilizing the furniture and fittings from Jewish houses, and not to the shooting of hostages. Therefore, Rosenberg made no more reference to it.

At this point I should like to interpolate the following: The French prosecutor charged Rosenberg, when the latter was in the witness box, with the fact that this was murder. Gentlemen of the Tribunal, it was not murder, because no execution took place. But neither was it incitement to murder. One can only incite someone who still has to be persuaded. However, if the man who commits the act is already prepared for anything, is an omni modo facturus, then he can be incited no more, and there only remains the offense of a suggestion of a criminal act, which, according to German law, must be judged as an offense to receive only slight punishment, because it has had no consequence.

Just at this point I should like to recall that Rosenberg testified as a witness that on one occasion a court sentenced a district commissioner in the East to death for having extorted valuables from a Jewish family, and that that sentence was carried out. Please do not consider it an improper argument of the defense when I say: Does that not prove that Rosenberg abhorred criminal acts against the Jews?

(5) Document Number Rosenberg-135, Exhibit Number USSR-289, refers to the report of the General Commissioner of White Ruthenia in Minsk, dated 1 June 1943, on the subject of what happened in the prison of Minsk as regards gold fillings. This was addressed to the Reich Commissioner Ostland, who forwarded the report on 18 June 1943 with the utmost indignation. At his hearing before the Tribunal on 16 April 1946 the defendant already made a statement on this point. I should like to repeat this briefly now: The defendant had returned on 22 June 1943 from an official visit to the Ukraine and found a pile of notices about conferences, a number of letters, and above all the Führer decree from the middle of June 1943, in which Rosenberg was instructed to limit himself to the fundamentals of lawmaking and not to bother about details. Herr Rosenberg did not read the letter concerned, but he has to surmise—he cannot remember this—that the letter was explained to him by his office, and presumably in the course of the reading he was informed of many documents and learned that there was again serious trouble between the Police and the civilian administration, and it is probable that Rosenberg said: Turn that over for investigation to Gauleiter Meyer or to the liaison officer. Otherwise the terrible details would certainly have remained in Rosenberg’s memory.

Nobody doubts for a moment that the horrible crimes shown in these documents and all the other frightful things not covered in the documents, but which actually happened, call for atonement. Nobody doubts that not only the lesser henchmen acting on higher orders shall be punished, but also above all those who issued the orders, and those responsible for the crimes. Rosenberg did not issue an order to murder Jews; that much is clear. Is he, in spite of this, responsible for the frightful murders?

There is no trace of the defendant’s handwriting on any of the murder documents. Nor has it been determined in any case that he knew anything about what went on. Can we condemn Rosenberg on the basis of his presumed and probable knowledge? Rosenberg has by no means the intention of playing a false and cowardly game of hide-and-seek behind his advisers and officials. But let us remember how cunningly the so-called executions of the Jews were kept secret, not only from the public, but even from Hitler’s closest collaborators.

Is it not possible, and even credible, that they were playing a game of hide-and-seek even with Rosenberg? The thoughts and intentions of none of the other NSDAP leaders were revealed so openly and clearly to all the world as particularly those of the author Rosenberg. Of none other could one be so sure that he would turn with indignation from inhuman and criminal acts.

But let us go one step further and assume that Rosenberg had full knowledge of this greatest crime. It is not proved, but one could imagine it and surmise it. Is he then responsible, too? Peculiar, even subtle, as we well know, was the departmental authority, and the responsibility which went with it, in the eastern countries. The entire police system had been taken from Rosenberg’s sphere of influence, at the highest level of which was Himmler, and under him Heydrich. Of their orders and measures Rosenberg naturally had no knowledge and no idea.

The lower echelons of police leaders and police agencies were in effect subordinate and responsible to their police superiors and no one else. It was quite immaterial whether or not Rosenberg knew anything of the measures taken by the Police; he could change them as little as any other of his fellow citizens in the Third Reich. One might say: Yes, he could have remonstrated with Himmler or Hitler; he could have resigned. Of course, he could have done so. The decisive point, however, is not whether he could have done it; the question is whether he would have achieved anything by doing so—that is to say, whether he could have prevented the execution; for only in such a case could his responsibility be affirmed on the basis of his failure to act, and only in such a case could one speak of causality without which criminal responsibility is unthinkable.

One might further claim, still under the assumption of Rosenberg’s knowledge of matters, that Rosenberg could at least have taken steps against the Reich commissioners, who were obviously involved in these matters. We know that the administrative organization and the dividing up of final authority in the East were vague, to say the least. The Reich commissioners were sovereign masters in their own territory, who had the final decision in the shooting of hostages and in other retaliatory measures of far-reaching consequence. And what was the actual extent of their authority? In case the Reich Commissioner was dissatisfied with Rosenberg—and mostly he was dissatisfied—he went to Hitler. Does anyone really believe that if Rosenberg disagreed with Koch as regards the execution of Jews, he would have been upheld by Hitler if he had approached him? Here again, there is a lack of that causality which is indispensable for a legal condemnation.

I come now to the Einsatzstab Rosenberg, the Operational Staff Rosenberg.

No less than three prosecutors have taken the stand in this Trial against Rosenberg, and have accused him of wholesale stealing of objects of art and science in the East and West (Storey, 18 December 1945; Gerthoffer, 6 February 1946; Smirnov, 15 February 1946). First I must take exception to some obvious exaggerations and injustices, that is, the assertion that the activities of the special staff in the West extended to public and private property without distinction (Volume VII, Page 55), and that the objects of art Germany appropriated amount to more than the combined treasures of the Metropolitan Museum in New York, of the British Museum in London, of the Louvre in Paris, and of the Tretjakov Gallery. Further, I must declare the statement incorrect that the “looting program” of Rosenberg was intended to rob the occupied countries of their entire centuries-old possessions of art and science. Finally, the Prosecution contrasts Rosenberg’s actions to the looting of art treasures in former wars. It says that while egotism, conceit, taste, and personal inclination used to be the underlying motives of such looting, the National Socialists primarily had the criminal intention of storing up reserves of valuables (Volume VII, Page 65). I think it unnecessary to refer to the looting of art treasures in former times as far back as Napoleon, because the concepts of international law and regulations have changed in the meantime, but I should like to mention two things:

First, how many of the most famous objects of art in the most famous galleries of the world got there through the channels of war and how many got there in a peaceful way?

Second, I am prepared to accept the fact that the Prosecution denies Rosenberg’s delight in art, or joy in the possession of art treasures as a possible motive for his actions, because Rosenberg was no robber, no plunderer, of art. He had no intention of appropriating the objects of art for himself or for someone else.

What were the actual facts? Rosenberg’s operational staff was active in the East and in the West. It had two tasks: First, to search libraries, archives, et cetera, for material suitable for the proposed “university” of the Party, to confiscate this material and take it away for the purpose of research, and secondly, to seize objects of cultural value which were in the possession of or which belonged to Jews, or which had no owner or were of a doubtful origin. The Prosecution says: “The true and only motive, the true and only purpose of this ‘seizure’ was robbery and looting; there could be no question of intentions of mere ‘safeguarding.’ ”

On 20 August 1941 Rosenberg wrote to the Reich Commissioner Ostland that he wished distinctly to prohibit the transfer of any kind of art treasure from any place whatsoever without the approval of the Reich Commissioner (Document Number 1015(c)-PS). On 30 September 1942 the Commander-in-Chief of the Army issued an order (Document Number 1015(n)-PS) in agreement with Rosenberg to the following effect: