And in his speech in Marienburg on 30 April 1934 on the state of the German Order, he said that the National Socialist State must be “a monarchy on a republican foundation.” I quote:

In his speech on German law of 18 December 1934, Rosenberg stressed:

“In our eyes the Führer is never a tyrannical commander” (Document Book 1, Page 135). Only in such terms was a protest against the development of tyranny possible.

The development passed over Rosenberg and degenerated. Rosenberg himself learned this while acting as Minister for the East. Rosenberg was an idealist, but he was not the unscrupulous man who inspired the State and the Führer to commit crimes. I believe, therefore, that he should not be included in Mr. Justice Jackson’s Indictment (Page 8), where it says that Rosenberg belonged to those men in Germany who have been “the very symbols of race hatred, of the rule of terror and violence, of arrogance and cruel power.”

In looking through Rosenberg’s writings one finds, on the contrary, statements and expressions which give a decided impression of tolerance. He says, for example, in his Myth, of the national Church which he aspired to:

In his speech on ideology and dogma at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, he called for tolerance toward all denominations with a demand for “inner respect for every genuine denomination.” In his speech on German intellectual freedom of 6 July 1935 he also spoke up for the freedom of conscience. No document was presented which contained a request by Rosenberg for criminal persecution of one of his numerous ideological opponents, although he might easily have been prompted to do so by their sharp attacks on his opinions.

Further, the Prosecution accused him of promoting militarism. Rosenberg was indeed an admirer of the soldier’s profession and a soldierly attitude toward life, but he also admired the peasant’s standards as the basis of the national character. He advocated the creation of a people’s army, both as the outward expression of Germany’s capacity as a political ally and for the purpose of training and educating the people at home. However, he denies having contemplated world conquest. On this point I can refer to his speech on Germany’s Position in the World of 30 October 1933. There he offered peace to Russia on the occasion of the German withdrawal from the League of Nations (Document Book 1, Page 147). I shall quote this passage, for it also proves that National Socialism did not desire to interfere in the affairs of other countries:

In the same speech he emphasizes that the avowal of an ideology he describes as racial science is “not meant to be an expression of racial hatred, but an expression of racial respect” (Blood and Honor, Page 377).

Mr. Justice Jackson called Rosenberg’s nationalism a “wild” one. Rosenberg was passionate, but he wanted thereby to overcome class conflict in the nation, which threatened its existence. For a clearer understanding of the facts it may also be said ...

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, the Tribunal would like you to finish your speech before lunch, if you could possibly summarize some parts of it. I don’t know whether that is possible.

DR. THOMA: I shall try to do that, Mr. President.

I once more refer to Mr. Jackson’s statement that Rosenberg’s nationalism, or militarism, was “wild.” In this connection I should like to refer only to the fact that such nationalism was a compensatory symptom, which is easily found in a conquered country.

The accusation dealing with anti-Christianity and neopaganism is something which I have already mentioned, and I should just like to refer to it. I have dealt with the term “master race,” mentioning the fact that these words are not found in Rosenberg’s works at all.

Concerning the Party Program, I stated that Rosenberg did not draft it, but only supplied a commentary upon it, and that it is not a question of what is contained in the Party Program, but rather with what its effect was. I referred to the witness Funk, who stated that his first action and his first program as Minister of Economics had no reference at all to the Party Program, but was simply democratic and liberal.

The Party Program was adhered to neither in a positive nor a negative sense. The government was carried on just as in other states, on the basis of general necessity.

May it please the Tribunal, I shall turn to the charge that Rosenberg was the delegate of the Führer for the supervision of all education and spiritual ideology within the NSDAP. During the reading of the affidavit by Dr. Eppe I pointed to the fact that Rosenberg, as head of this office, had no executive power, and that Rosenberg interpreted the duties of his office in such a way that he published magazines on all cultural and scientific topics, especially the NS Monatshefte, the polemic political contents of which, after 1933, were more and more superseded by historical, scientific, and cultural subjects. On the basis of all the literature at our disposal it is not in accordance with the facts that Rosenberg interpreted his position as one from which to sow hatred. After 1933 he mainly endeavored to intensify and promote new definite talent. I have said in addition that this nonpolitical office concentrated its efforts on exercising a regulating and guiding influence on all noble and cultural values which manifested themselves.

May it please the Tribunal, I shall now turn to the topic: “Morality as a basis of the Indictment.” I should like to ask the High Tribunal, even though I do not propose to read this passage, to consider it as having been presented by me. I refer to Pages 82a through 82g, and I should like to ask the High Tribunal for permission not to read this matter and yet to have this matter considered as having been submitted in its entirety and read into the record. I shall now sum up ...

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, all the speech will be taken as being presented to the Tribunal. By your summarizing it, you are not excluding it from the record of the Tribunal. The Tribunal will take note of it all.

DR. THOMA: Thank you, Mr. President.

I shall now sum up in conclusion, and I should like to point out the following:

... that he is to be understood as a phenomenon of psychic compensation, as often appears in a conquered people. In addition, Germany, situated in the middle of Europe, was always exposed to so many political and military dangers that military circles in Germany, particularly after the entrance into the Ruhr in 1923, were necessarily particularly sensitive on national questions. As a German Balt he was brought up in a national way of feeling that led him to expect more of self-assertion and mobilization for defense than of the disappointments resulting from the international negotiations carried on up to that time. He was always ready for an understanding based on equal representation (Document Number 003-PS, Exhibit Number USA-603).

Rosenberg has been further reproached with anti-Christianity and neopaganism. It is true that this reproach was not brought against his theory, but in connection with the persecution of the Christian religion in all its forms which later resulted. Rosenberg was an opponent of Christianity in its—as he sees them—present historical forms, just as he was of Jewry. In place of Christianity he strove for an idealistically, racially, and ethnically, conditioned religion, an emotional religion of blood and soil.

He thereby attacked both Christianity and Jewry theoretically, and hoped that the Christian Churches would gradually become extinct among the German people; yet it will always have to be admitted that Rosenberg staged no violent persecution. He carried on this battle with intellectual weapons. Here, too, since he expected freedom of conscience for himself, he advocated freedom of conscience for others, and pointed out that with his Myth and his new religiousness he did not wish to confuse Church believers but to create new spiritual ties for those, too, who had ceased to be believers in the Church.

The term “master race,” to my knowledge, does not appear in Rosenberg’s writings, nor does it fit into Rosenberg’s ideology, which proceeds from the race as a general law. Therefore, Rosenberg speaks of the Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric race, in relation to races which are biologically different, not in the sense of an arrogant judgment as to value, but in the sense of racial facts, in the sense of honoring the entire human race of Europe.

As far as the Party Program is concerned, despite the assertions of the Prosecution, it was not he, Rosenberg, who designed it. Like so many other things, the meaning and action of the Party Program has also been overestimated and exaggerated. It was one of the first deeds of the National Socialist Government to design a reconstruction program, of which the Defendant Funk said that almost any other liberal or democratic government could accept it also. In place of breaking up capital investment, the reinstatement of a sound money and credit system was demanded. I could go on quoting a number of examples, for instance the program of aliens’ status for Jews, which was not carried out. The Party Program was never adhered to subsequently either in the positive or the negative sense. Rules were simply enacted as in other states, too, based on the necessities of the moment.

The entire ideology of the journalist and author Rosenberg becomes intensified and is rendered more menacing to peace, according to the Prosecution, by the fact that Rosenberg was nominated the deputy of the Führer for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological education of the NSDAP. How did this assignment come about and what were the circumstances concerning it? On the basis of his previous experience in the educational work of the Party, its organizational leader asked Rosenberg whether he would not undertake a common intellectual project. Rosenberg answered in the affirmative, if the Führer so desired. Thereupon, on 24 January 1934, the Führer appointed him chief of that office. It was a Party office and had nothing to do with the schools, as is erroneously assumed. The office had no right to issue directives to Reich offices; even any correspondence with them had to be sent via the Party Chancellery. Neither did it have any right to suppress books, et cetera. Even a right to issue directives to the Party was not granted, the more so since the branch school directors were also subordinated to the Reich leaders (SA, SS, HJ). Therefore, from the very beginning Rosenberg did not consider his work as representing the tasks of an intellectual police, but as an executive and unifying work, as the central point of the expression and realization of the factual and personal power of conviction and initiative.

He had no offices in the various Gaue, not even individual representatives; he agreed to the Gau education leader as his deputy at the same time, in order to maintain a connection with practical education in the country.

The office had many things to review in the course of time, yet it remained limited in extent. It became subdivided into various spheres of work; teaching and education proper, cultivation of literature, the arts, cultural and general problems. About twice a year, for the purpose of comparing tuition experiences, Rosenberg called together the so-called “Working Community for the Instruction of the Entire Movement.”

In it were represented the educational deputies of the political leadership and its various subdivisions. They reported on their work and expressed their suggestions. On the basis of these suggestions, Rosenberg frequently lectured in the Gaue on appropriate topics, and likewise induced his collaborators to handle such questions in all the subdivisions. These are the two educational meetings which the Prosecution mentioned by reason of their alleged “broad influence on the community schools” as an indication of criminal activity (Volume V, Page 48). This generally executive work found expression particularly in the periodicals of the offices of Rosenberg’s department; primarily in the N. S. Monatshefte, which after 1933 acquired a gradually increasing polemical political content in the interest of handling historical, cultural, and scientific topics. Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich achieved special significance by simply offering the most beautiful examples in the way of contemporary plastic art, excellently presented without discussion. The Bücher Kunde offered a monthly cross section of writings and literary contributions. The monthly periodical Musik devoted itself above all to serious art, the cultivation of the German classics, and without any pettiness toward new creations. The journal Germanisches Erbe published contributions on research in early history, the Deutsche Volkskunde was devoted to games, folk songs, peasant customs. Deutsche Dramaturgie described the ambitions and problems of the contemporary theater.

Besides this there were special exhibitions of the lifework of great artists in Rosenberg’s exhibition building in Berlin, and book exhibitions in various cities.

It is simply not true if the Prosecution declares that Rosenberg used his assignment to disseminate hatred. The essence of his entire work after 1933 went toward a profounder and large-scale promotion of new positive talents.

Political polemics in these seven years had almost entirely disappeared. But for the difficulties in the language, one would find, in glancing through the journals and speeches, an honest great effort, whether Rosenberg spoke to youth or to the technicians, teachers, lawyers, workers, professors, women, at meetings of historians, or before the Northern Society.

The heads of his offices were instrumental in publishing and promoting valuable works of art: Classics of music, history of the German ancestry, world political libraries, development of German peasantry, and others. In the present impassioned days one is not interested to know of this side of somebody’s lifework, and therefore I only touch upon it; but I wish to emphasize that it was just that which seemed to Rosenberg, since 1933, to constitute the essential part of his work, and similarly he intended to devote himself in his old age entirely to scientific-cultural research and teaching. I shall permit myself a few more words about this later.

Contrary to some opinions which at first appeared necessary, although some Individuals may perhaps have looked upon them as rather petty, Rosenberg advocated at the universities of Munich and Halle the right of examining new problems of our times as well as the independence of scientific thinking. He declared that we would have to “feel that we were the intellectual brothers of all those who once in mediaeval times raised the flag for this free research” (Document Book 1, Page 134). Against certain attempts to identify certain scientific physical theories with the Party, he protested in an official declaration which rejected this danger of hairsplitting. “It is not the task of the National Socialist movement,” he said in a speech about Copernicus and Kant on 19 February 1939, “to make any regulations for research other than necessarily connected with our philosophy of life” (Document Book 1, Page 173).

When a certain trend toward mass statistics, peak figures for the number of visitors, et cetera, developed in the otherwise desirable progress achieved by the German Labor Front, he made a determined stand in favor of emphasis on the personal element. He rejected this idea of “mass production” in an address to youth with the words: “One cannot receive art and culture like mass-produced, ready-made clothes in a department store” (Document Book 1, Page 155). Today poisoning of this youth is imputed to him, but on the contrary he asked (Document Book 1, Page 161) for comprehension in teaching on the part of everybody to whose care young people are entrusted, and he decidedly rejected any orders in the intellectual field.

With regard to any form of collectivism, as has already been mentioned, he impressed on youth the importance of comradeship, but emphasized the personal element and the right to solitude. When on the grounds of certain occurrences many voices criticized the teaching class, Rosenberg began to fear lest general discrimination against the profession might develop. He took a stand against this danger in two speeches: at a great meeting in October 1934 at Leipzig, and later at the conference of the N.S. Teacher’s League at Bayreuth (Document Book 1, Page 162), where he declared that the National Socialist movement would step in and see that the teaching class be respected, just as it would have done for all other professions.

By these brief allusions I mean to say that Rosenberg, as a regulating and leading intellectual force, advocated high cultural values and the rights of personality in a manner rendered convincing by his attitude and motives. Throughout the whole Party it was no secret that this activity involved profound opposition to the Propaganda Minister. Rosenberg from the very beginning considered it a calamity that culture and propaganda should be associated in one ministry. For him art was a creed, propaganda a form of tactics.

As things at first could not be changed, Rosenberg emphasized his attitude to the outside world by not attending a single annual meeting of the Reich Chamber of Culture, in the firm hope that at some later day another conception would win through.

Many things Rosenberg said did not fail to have their effect and certainly prevented some harmful actions, but more, and probably the most important, did not succeed because the legislative and executive powers in the State lay in quite different hands, and these finally, due to the war and in spite of the will to sacrifice, brought about not the development of the National Socialist idea but its degeneration. Moreover, this happened to an extent which Rosenberg could not foresee.

It was seen that the foundations for the spiritual education of the Party were not sufficient, and round about 1935 there developed a wish to create a serious place for research and study. This desire led to the idea later known as “high school,” which was intended to take the form of an academy. Rosenberg considered the creation of this academy as a task for his old age. Since it would have taken years to provide tuition material and to choose suitable personnel, the Führer authorized Rosenberg at the end of January 1940 to carry on the preparatory work he had started on official orders. Thus, contrary to what the Prosecution asserts, (Volume V, Page 48) the “high school” had nothing to do with Rosenberg’s “Einsatzstab,” which was not even planned at that time.

Mr. Justice Jackson, in his fundamental speech of 21 November 1945, expressed the desire, that this Trial should appear to posterity as the fulfillment of the human yearning for justice. Mr. Jackson furthermore declared that he had brought the Indictment because of conduct which according to its plan and intention meant injustice from the moral and the legal standpoint. In his report of 7 June 1945 Mr. Justice Jackson outlined that by this Trial those actions are to be punished which since time immemorial have been considered as crimes and are designated as such in any civilized legislation. The most difficult problem, the greatest task, and the most tremendous responsibility for the Tribunal lies concentrated in this single point: What is justice in this Trial?

We have no code of laws, we have, however astonishing it may sound, not even any fixed moral concepts for the relations of nations among each other in peace and war. Therefore the Prosecution had to be satisfied with the general terms “civilized conception of justice,” “traditional conception of legality,” “conception of legality built on sound common sense with regard to justice”; they have spoken of “human and divine laws” (Volume VII, Page 78); the Hague Land Warfare Rules refer in their preamble to the “laws of humanity” and to the “demands of the public conscience.”

The basis of justice is without any doubt a morality, the moral law; thus if we wish to determine what injustice among nations is, what is contrary to the idea of justice among nations according to international law, then we must broach the question of morality. The answer will be: everything is moral which our conscience accepts as being moral.

But what is the original cause of moral discrimination: desire and happiness of the individual; or progress, improvement, preservation of the life of an individual, of a people, of humanity; or virtue; or duty?

How can we recognize what is good and what is bad? By intuition, or by experience, or by authoritarian and religious education? What is good and bad in the actions of a State, what is good and bad in the mutual relationship between nations? Does a difference exist between national morals and private morals? Can the State commit any injustice at all? From Saint Augustine through Machiavelli and Nietzsche to Hegel, Tolstoy, and the pacifist thinkers, yearning humanity has received the most different answers to this question.

And furthermore: Have fixed moral laws existed since time immemorial or have changes in the ideals of nations brought about changes in morals, too? What is the situation with regard to this today?

I have already said once that, according to my opinion, war itself is a brutality and a great crime of humanity against itself and the laws of life. An essentially different question is whether this conviction has already entered the conscience of humanity. We consider ourselves far above the moral level of former nations and ages, and are, for example, surprised to find that the highest representatives of Greek morality such as Plato and Aristotle consider abandoning of children and slavery to be absolutely right, or that in certain parts of East Africa even today only robbery and murder give a man the stamp of heroism; on the other hand it is absolutely compatible with our present-day idea of morality that human beings are killed by hundreds of thousands in war and that the products of human welfare and culture are wantonly destroyed. Neither in a moral nor in a legal sense is this considered as unjust.

If the Prosecution now charges the defendant with a wrong in the moral or legal sense, it is its duty to present the prerequisites for a punishment of the defendant, in such a way as to convince the Court, for, according to the hitherto existing moral concepts of nations, killing in war is not murder within the meaning of the penal codes of the individual countries, and the measures of a sovereign country in war or in peace have never been interpreted as an offense within the meaning of these penal codes or as punishable and immoral acts by the legal convictions of civilized humanity. Christianity teaches us to return good for evil and to love one’s enemies; this has been a world religion for 2,000 years, but many people today will laugh outright if one should venture to claim certain principles for the relations of nations between each other. In the face of the yearning of humanity the Prosecution now desires to aid its progress, even if only step by step, in this direction; it seeks to achieve the end that “unequivocal rules” shall emerge from this Trial; its mistake however, is that it wants to explain “traditional opinions of justice” and civil criminal laws as the contents of a public conscience which hardly exists any longer, compliance with which cannot in any case be demanded retroactively of the defendants.

It is certainly very true that a profound change is commencing today in the moral thinking of humanity, a regeneration of the moral law of nations, and that this Trial before the High Tribunal marks the beginning of this new era. However, it appears to me very doubtful whether it is proper to impress a new kind of justice upon the conscience of mankind by making an example of the defendants.

It is easy to speak of human and divine laws, or of the demands of public conscience, but we become greatly embarrassed for an answer to the question: What is the substance and content of private morality, when is an act immoral according to private morality? In their concern over what is good or evil, some rely on religion, others have been taught wisdom by experience and education, still others find an explanation in the philosophers.

The State has in recent times taken up the moral education of its citizens in increasing measure, not only through criminal laws but also through “political education” or whatever other name is used for it. Not only did the National Socialist State have a great advantage here over the liberal states, but so do all totalitarian states of the world: They have hammered moral principles into the minds of their citizens, both of a private and public nature. They have proclaimed moral ultimate values, such as fidelity, honor, and obedience. By this means reflection concerning private and public morals is made easier for the individual citizens and they are obliged by force to uphold these ultimate values in the prescribed form. The German people, who had become tired and resigned as a result of continual warlike disputes and religious upheavals, willingly followed National Socialism, even when the latter’s ethics were exalted to a faith; it took this leap into the unknown, not with the idea of being taught by this means to deceive people, to enslave them, to rob them, to kill them, to torture them (see Volume VII, Page 78), but because it was in search of moral elevation, an authoritative moral leadership in its material and spiritual distress, and because nothing else was offered to it, especially not by a liberal world conscience which did not know how to make the fundamental principle of humanity a reality. The National Socialist ethical conceptions were taught to Germans as summum bonum, as the highest idea, and they believed the idea to be moral and good. Then National Socialism came into conflict not only with ideologies, but also with the plans of power of other states, because it could not find the formula which would include not only perfection and life for Germany, but also the interests and justice for all nations of the world. To try to construe out of such inadequacy of a national ethical idea, however inefficient, a punishable action, a conspiracy, is not admissible in my opinion, if only because uniformly acknowledged national morality has not yet developed, and unlimited national egotism has not yet been dethroned and is still considered the highest moral instance of the State.

It might be objected that the Germans should only have followed the teachings of their great philosopher Kant in thought and action, according to his “categorical imperative”: Act in such a way that the maxim of your will could always serve as a principle for general legislation! Then they would and should have recognized the moral instability of National Socialist teachings. To that I can answer with the words of the great English philosopher, John Locke, who says on the question of what is good or evil in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding; Book 2, Chapter XXVIII, Paragraph 6: “God has ordained it in such a manner that certain activities produce general happiness, preserve society, and even reward the doer. Man has discovered this, and has established it as a practical rule. With that rule are connected certain rewards and punishments either by God Himself (reward and punishment of infinite size and duration in the Beyond) or by mortals (legal penalties, social approval or condemnation, loss of honor); good and evil which are not the natural effect and results of the actions themselves. Then men look to those rules or laws, be they divine or made by the State, and the laws of usage or of private opinion, and measure their actions by them. They judge the moral value of their actions according to whether they conform with the rules or not. Moral good or evil therefore amounts only to conforming or not conforming our action with a law which by the will and power of the legislator determines for us what is good and evil.”

Therefore good and evil has been and still is today what the authorities want or do not want. Christianity for centuries has been preaching not only to Germans but to all nations of the world: “Let every man be subject to the authority above him.” And the authorities do not move beyond conscience and morality so long as the expansion of national egotism is not opposed by clear laws and commandments and irrefutable legal convictions.

The highest good, summum bonum, in international morals of nations has not yet been mandatorily codified. There does not exist any authoritative idea for the community of nations. Instead of discussions on individual ethics and individual criminality, the Prosecution should have submitted its accepted principles and criteria as international common law, which was not done.

Therefore, with regard to the standpoint of the prosecuting authorities as to the personal responsibility of acting statesmen, I feel impelled to look upon this as a totally new philosophy and one which is very dangerous in its consequences.

Apart from the misdeeds of the individual, which do not satisfy even the minimum of moral conceptions, the ethical conceptions of National Socialism and the actions resulting from them, insofar as they are an expression of National Socialist ethics, cannot be subjected to the judgment of a human forum, since they are an event of world history. And the fate and guilt of the Defendant Rosenberg likewise cannot be judged conclusively within the framework of this Trial. As to the question of deciding the criminal guilt of the defendant, that is the hard task of the High Tribunal; but his potential historical guilt cannot and will not be judged by the Tribunal. Rosenberg, like all persons of historical importance, has acted according to his character and spirit, thereby perhaps becoming guilty in the eyes of history. The more freedom of action a given personality has in his will, the clearer the importance of conditions and the one-sidedness of all human activities becomes, and out of an insignificant guilt there grows, particularly in historical personalities, an enormous power which decides the fate of many, and which remains a gloomy foreboding for whoever lets it loose.

Goethe once said: “The doer never has a conscience; no one feels his conscience but the observer.” But this maxim can never mean that a person must not move and act to the best of his knowledge and conscience, and particularly for his country’s sake. And we all know that in reality nobody is capable of attaining the good he is striving for. Just as his knowledge, so will his actions always be incomplete: Any action we accomplish as free beings is an infringement on the operating forces of the universe, which we are never able to assess.

Rosenberg was caught up in the destiny of his nation in a period of severe foreign political oppression and internal dissension. He struggled for cultural purity, social justice, and national dignity, and rejected vehemently all elements which did not admit these high values or consciously attacked them in an irreverent manner. With respect to foreign policy he stood for an agreement between the four central powers of the European continent, in full realization of the grave consequences of a lost war. He acted in all loyalty and respect toward a personality who appeared to give political shape and increasing power to his ideals. After the political victory at home, Rosenberg proposed that the polemics and other aspects of the period of struggle be subdued. He stood for a chivalrous solution of the existing Jewish problem, for spiritual and cultural instruction of the Party on a high plane and, contrary to the statements of the Prosecution, he opposed any form of religious persecution. He can hardly be reproached for emphasizing a definite religious-philosophical conviction of his own.

The practical application of many of his views was practiced to an increasing degree by authoritative agencies of the Party, although later they were disregarded, especially after the outbreak of the war. Finally, as has been discovered now, they were often turned into the opposite of what Rosenberg fought for.

Until 17 July 1941 Rosenberg was excluded from participation in any national legislation. Considered from the point of view of personal responsibility, all his speeches and writings up to that time come within the scope of unofficial journalistic activity which every politician and writer must admittedly be free to engage in—a freedom which the Tribunal has fundamentally acknowledged with regard to all utterances by the statesmen of other countries during the unofficial period of their career. It seems to be all the more significant that Rosenberg as a private citizen did not call for war or for the commission of any inhuman or violent acts.

As Minister for the East he advocated a generous solution in accordance with the understandable national and cultural aspirations of the eastern European peoples. He fought for this concept as long as there were any prospects for its realization. Ultimately realizing that Hitler refused to be persuaded, he requested his dismissal. The fact that Rosenberg could not prevent many outrages from happening in the East cannot be charged against him in the criminal sense. Neither the Armed Forces nor the Police nor the Allocation of Labor were subject to his authority. Whenever injustices or excesses came to his knowledge, he did everything he could to counteract them.

For almost a whole year, Rosenberg endeavored to keep labor recruiting on a voluntary basis. Later, when several age groups were drafted, he protested against every abuse by executive agencies and always demanded redress. Quite apart from the legitimate requirements of the occupation power, his labor legislation for the Eastern Territories was necessary for the establishment of order and the repression of arbitrary measures as well as of dangerous idleness, increasing sabotage, and the growing number of murders. There was a war on and it was a war area, not a postarmistice period, much less one following final capitulation.

So far as he was informed of things and commanded any influence, Rosenberg fought for his convictions. The fact that adverse powers became stronger than he was cannot be brought up as a charge against him. One cannot punish offenses, and at the same time punish those who revolted against them. In view of the terrible extermination orders which have now been disclosed, it is certainly possible to raise the point whether Rosenberg could not have exerted much stronger opposition. To expect this would, however, suppose an earlier knowledge of things which he only learned about after the collapse. Should he be charged with any carelessness it must not be forgotten that he felt it to be his duty to serve the Reich engaged in the struggle for its existence, and that terrible injuries were also inflicted upon the German nation, injuries which Rosenberg was equally unable to recognize as war necessities.

His official tasks, as for example the duties of the Einsatzstab in the West and East, were carried out by Rosenberg without compromising his personal integrity. The requisitioning of artistic and cultural objects he always carried out provisionally, subject to final decisions by the supreme authority and, as far as was at all possible, with proper identification of the proprietor. Moreover, in the use of unclaimed furniture for the benefit of air-raid victims in Germany, provision was made for the subsequent indemnification of the owners based upon a precise inventory.

In considering his entire personality we see that Rosenberg followed with faith and devotion an ideal of social justice combined with national dignity. He fought for it openly and honorably, went to prison, and risked his life for it. He did not step in only when National Socialism afforded the opportunity to begin a career, but at a time when it was dangerous and asked only for sacrifice. In his speeches after 1933 he took his stand in favor of deeper spiritual formation, a new cultural education, personality values, and respect for every form of honest work. He accepted the gloomy days of that time as unfortunate but inevitable accompanying phenomena of a revolution otherwise acclaimed as having passed without bloodshed, without having in fact learned of the secret details. He fully believed that good forces and ideas would prevail over these other human imperfections. During the war he was at the service of the Reich in accordance with his duty.

For 25 years, throughout the revolution and the events of the war, he maintained his personal integrity and untainted character. He had to witness with deep sorrow that a great idea, in the hands of those possessed with the lust for power, was gradually abused, and in 1944, at Party meetings, he protested against this abuse of power entrusted to its holders. During this Trial he had to his dismay and horror to look upon the evidence of the degeneration of his life’s ideal; but he knows that his aspirations and the aspirations of many millions of other Germans have been honorable and decent. Today he still adheres to his honorable, honest, and humanly irreproachable conduct and, full of sorrow for the wounds inflicted upon all nations and for the downfall of the Reich, he awaits the sentence of a just Tribunal.

[The Tribunal adjourned until 11 July 1946 at 1000 hours.]

Morning Session

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn this afternoon at four o’clock to sit in closed session.

Dr. Seidl, will you present the case of the Defendant Frank?

DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for Defendant Frank): Mr. President, My Lords. The Defendant Dr. Hans Frank is accused in the Indictment of having utilized his posts in Party and State, his personal influence, and his relation with the Führer, for the purpose of supporting the seizure of power by the National Socialists and the consolidation of their control over Germany. He is also accused of having approved, led, and taken part in the War Crimes mentioned in Count Three of the Indictment, as well as in the Crimes against Humanity mentioned in Count Four, particularly in the war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the course of the administration of occupied territories.

As I have already explained in the case of the Defendant Hess, the Indictment fails to adduce any facts in substantiation of these accusations. It is similar in the case of the Defendant Frank; here again the Indictment contains no statement of factual details to substantiate the accusations. Like all the other defendants, the Defendant Frank is accused of having taken part in a common plan which is alleged to have had as its object the planning and waging of wars of aggression and the commission in the course of these wars of crimes which infringe upon the laws and customs of war.

The evidence has shown that the Defendant Frank joined the National Socialist Party in the year 1928. Both before and after the assumption of power by the National Socialists he was concerned almost exclusively with legal questions. The Reich Law Department was under his control as Reichsleiter of the Party until the year 1942. After Adolf Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor, Frank became the Bavarian Minister of Justice. In the same year he was appointed Reich commissioner for the co-ordination of legal institutions. This task consisted in the main of transferring to the Reich Ministry of Justice the functions of the administrative legal departments of the component states of the Reich. That was completed by the year 1934. When the affairs of the Bavarian Ministry of Justice had been transferred to the Reich, the office of the Defendant Frank as Bavarian Minister of Justice came to an end. In December 1934 he was appointed Reich Minister without Portfolio. In addition he became, from 1934 onward, President of the Academy for German Law, which he himself had founded, and President of the International Chamber of Law. Finally, he was the Leader of the National Socialist Lawyers Association.

This list of the various posts held by the Defendant Frank in Party and State would alone be sufficient to show that his work was almost exclusively concerned with legal matters. His tasks were in the main confined to the execution of Point 19 of the Party Program, which demanded a German common law. And in actual fact almost all speeches and publications by the Defendant Frank, both before and after the assumption of power by the National Socialists, dealt with legal questions in the widest sense of the term.

In the course of his examination in the witness box, the Defendant Frank testified that he had done everything he could to bring Adolf Hitler to power and to carry out the ideas and the program of the National Socialist Party. But whatever the defendant undertook in this respect was done openly.

The aims of the National Socialists before they assumed power can be expressed in a few words: Liberation of the German people from the shackles of the Versailles Treaty; elimination of the mass unemployment which had arisen in consequence of that treaty and the unreasonable reparations policy of Germany’s former enemies; counteraction against the symptoms of degeneracy—political, economic, social, and moral—connected with that unemployment; and finally, the restoration of the sovereignty of the Reich in all spheres.

The Prosecution was unable to produce any evidence to show that the revision of the Versailles Treaty was, if necessary, to be carried out by violent means and by war. The political, military, and economic situation in which Germany found herself before the assumption of power—a situation in which it could only be a question of eliminating the terrible consequences of the economic collapse and of enabling seven million unemployed again to play their part in the economic process—could not but make any serious thought of a war of aggression appear futile.

Moreover, the evidence brought forth nothing to show the existence of the common plan as stated in Count One of the Indictment, as far as one understands thereby a definite and concrete plan among a narrow uniform circle of persons. The evidence, in particular the testimony given by the witness Dr. Lammers and the defendant himself in the witness box, has shown on the contrary that Frank did not belong to the circle of Hitler’s closer collaborators. The Prosecution was unable to present to the Tribunal a single document dealing with important political or military decisions with which the Defendant Frank was connected. In particular, the Defendant Frank was not present at any of the conferences with Hitler which the Prosecution considers especially important in proving the alleged common plan, the minutes of which conferences the Prosecution has submitted as Exhibits, Numbers USA-25 to 34.

The only statute which is important in this connection is the Law on the Reintroduction of General Conscription of 16 March 1935. The facts have already been explained, and will be further enlarged upon, which led to the promulgation of that law and why it cannot be looked upon as an infringement of the Versailles Treaty. The Defendant Frank signed that law in his capacity as Reich Minister, as did all the other members of the Reich Government. That law, which had as its object the restoration—at least in the military sphere—of the sovereignty of the German Reich, did no harm to any other nation. Nor did the content of that law, or the circumstances which led to its enactment, admit the conclusion that it was part of a common plan with the object of launching a war of aggression.

The German people had been obliged to realize, during the preceding 17 years, that the voice of a nation without military power, and in particular a nation in Germany’s geographical and military situation, cannot make itself heard in the concert of nations if it has not at its disposal adequate instruments of power. The Government of the Reich faced the consequences of this realization after equality of rights had been promised the German people over and over again for 14 years and that promise had not been kept, and in particular after it had become clear in the years 1933 and 1934 that the Disarmament Conference would not be capable of fulfilling its appointed functions. For the rest, I refer to the proclamation of the Reich Government to the German people, which was issued in connection with the publication of that law.

Further, the work of the Defendant Frank, even after the assumption of power and up to the beginning of the war, was confined almost exclusively to the execution of tasks connected with the leadership of the Academy for German Law and the National Socialist Lawyers Association. The objects of the Academy for German Law are apparent from the law concerning its establishment of 11 July 1933. It was intended to encourage the reform of German legal procedure and, in close and constant co-operation with the appropriate legislative authorities, to put the National Socialist program into practice in the whole sphere of law. The academy was under the supervision of the Reich Minister of Justice and the Reich Minister of the Interior. The function of the academy was to prepare drafts of statutes; legislation itself was exclusively restricted to the Reich ministries for the various departments.

One of the tasks of the academy was to exercise the functions of the legal committees of the former Reichstag. In actual fact the work of the academy was done almost exclusively in its numerous committees, which had been established by the defendant. Acceptance into the academy was not dependent on membership in the Party. Most of the members of the academy were legal scholars and eminent legal practitioners who were not Party members. Moreover, it is well known that the Academy for German Law kept up close relations with similar establishments abroad and that numerous foreign scholars gave lectures in the academy. These facts entirely exclude the assumption that the academy could have played any important part in the common plan alleged by the Prosecution. The same is true of the position of the Defendant Frank as leader of the National Socialist Lawyers Association.

Adolf Hitler’s attitude toward the conception of a State founded on law, insofar as any doubt could still have been entertained about it, has become perfectly clear through the evidence presented at this Trial. Hitler was a revolutionary and a man of violence. He looked on law as an impeding and disturbing factor in the realization of his plans in the realm of power politics. Incidentally, he left no doubt about this attitude of his and discussed the subject of the State founded on law in a number of speeches. He was always very reserved in his dealings with lawyers, and for this reason alone it was impossible from the outset that any close association could have developed between him and the Defendant Frank. The Defendant Frank considered it his life’s work to see the conception of the State founded on law realized in the National Socialist Reich and, above all, to safeguard the independence of the judiciary.

The Defendant Frank proclaimed these principles as late as 1939, before the outbreak of war, in a great speech he made before 25,000 lawyers at the final meeting of the Congress of German Law at Leipzig. Among other things he declared on that occasion: