heart-piece, is seriously ill. It suffers from the spirit of negation and from the humiliation of the dignity of human nature. Rousseau would curse his own maxims if he had lived to see the radical refutation of his theories in these years of the 20th century. The peoples had announced the "liberty" of the Great Revolution, but in the course of but 150 years they have in the name of the same liberty created a monster of cruel slavery and ungodliness, which was able to escape earthly justice, but not to elude the living God. have to pass before the probing eye of history. I do not doubt that the selected judges are striving to serve justice as they see it. But will not this problem indeed be beyond solution? The American chief prosecutor stated that in his country important trials seldom begin before one or two years have elapsed. I do not need to throw light upon the deeper core of truth contained in this practice. Would it be possible for human beings, torn between love and hate, justice and revenge, to conduct a trial immediately after the greatest human catastrophe ever known and constantly driven by the statutory demand asking for time-saving, swift proceedings, in such a way that they are entitled to the thanks of manking at a time when the waters of this second deluge will have receded into their former bed? crime and atonement would have been adhered to in the course of the present proceedings? independence of such nature as to feel subject to no other considerations than to conscience and to God Himself. first place in the mind of the governing class of the nation; Hitler had humiliated law to the rank of a prostitute of purpose. But this Tribunal intend to furnish proof to the world that allprofit for the peoples is based on law alone. And no other thought than unselfish justice could arouse more joy and hope within the heart of people of good will. the Charter, but I am asking whether any justice on earth has and indeed could not have been found, if Might acknowledged Reason so far as to grant the enemies a regular trial, but could not make up its mind to crown this tribute to Reason by appointing a truly international tribunal:
Nineteen nations appear to have approved of the legal basis of the Charter; we do not know this, but Mr. Justice Jackson indicated it -- it is far more difficult to apply the written law. intend to hold the entire German nation guilty, but the records of this Tribunal, which history will someday scrutinize attentively, contain nevertheless many things which, to us Germans, appear to be false and therefore, embittering. They unfortunately also contain repeatedly explicit questions of the French Prosecution; to what extent, for example, certain crimes against humanity both in and outside Germany have become known to the German people. Indeed, the French Prosecution has asked explicitly; "Could those atrocities remain, on the whole, unknown to the entire German nation, or have they come to its knowledge?" These and similar questions are not suitable for solving such a difficult and tragic problem with even the slightest regard for the truth. To the extent that evil, which always grows and manifests itself organically, gets the upper hand among a nation, to that extent every individual who has reached the age of reason bears some guilt for the catastrophes of his country. But even this guilt, lying in the sphere of metaphysics, never could become a collective guilt of a nation, unless every individual also in this nation had incurred an individual guilt. But who would be entitled establish such an individual guilt without examining thousands of individual circumstances? this is aimed at -- to establish the so-called national guilt for any crimes actually committed against peace, humanity, etc., during the past years on the part of the omnipotent state in whatever possible form. One should bear in mind most carefully the condition of the Reich before 1933.
This has been done sufficiently here and I do not speak about it. Hitler monopolized such deep-reaching concepts as the proverbial German diligence, homeliness, sense of family, willingness to make sacrifices, aristocracy of work and hundreds of other things. Millions believed it; millions did not. The best people did not abandon the hope, that they would be able to avert the tragedy foreboded by them. They flung themselves into the stream of events, collected the virtuous ones and fought, visibly or invisibly, against the bad ones. Can a plain, uneducated man in the street be blamed for not being ready to deny H itler,offhand every credibility as a man who knew how to pass as a seeker of truth, and who every time showed to peacelovers the highly extolled palm of peace? After the assumption of power large sectors of the German people could feel themselves at unison with many other peoples on earth. Therefore, it is not astonishing that gradually, with the approval or the tolerance of other countries, Hitler acquired the nimbus of a man unique in the century. Only the German who lived during the past years in Germany and did not scour from abroad, as with a telescope, the German space, is finally authorized to give information concerning the historical facts of an almost impenetrable method of secrecy, the psychosis of fear and the actual impossibility of changing the regime, and herewith to comply with Ranke's demand to historians, to establish "how it came to pass".
Let me say a few words about that secrecy. This trial has shown clearly that the state itself gathered all knowledge of such facts as would discredit its prestige and knew well how to guard it. The men under indictment here, who have been called conspirators -- or most of them at least -- have been the victims of that peculiar system of secrecy. for the biological destruction of the Jewish people, which for years tried, under the designation of a "final solution" to camouflage the terrible intentions.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kauffmann, it seems to the Tribunal a very long preamble to the defense of the defendant Kaltenbrunner, who has not been named at allyet in what you have said. Is it not time that you came to the case of the defendant whom you represent?
We are not trying a charge against the German people. We are trying the charges against the defendant. That is all we are trying.
DR. KAUFMANN: Mr. President, in the next few sentences I would have concluded that, but I would like you to understand that in the core of my case there is the serious word "humanity", and I believe that I am the only one of theDefense Counsel who intends to go more deeply into that subject, and I ask that I be permitted to make these few statements. I shall come to the case Kaltenbrunner very quickly.
THE PRESIDENT: On page 8 you have a headline which is, "The Development of the History of the Intellectual Pursuit in Europe." That seems rather far from who matters which the Tribunal has got to consider.
DR. KAUFMANN: Mr. President, may I remind you this question has been discussed by the Prosecution and especially by M. de Menthe. I do not believe that I can carry out my task if I take these tremendous crimes only as facts. An opportunity must be given to give a short description -and it is very short. After a few pages. I come back to the case of Kaltenbrunner, and my plea will be the shortest one, at any rate, which will be presented here.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr.Kaufmann, the Tribunal proposes, as far as it can, to decide the cases which it has get to decide in accordance with law and not with the sort of very general, very vague and misty philosophical doctrine with which you appear to be dealing in the first twelve pages of your speech, and, therefore, they would very much prefer that you should not read these passages. If you insist upon doing so -- there it is, but the Tribunal, as I say, do not think that they are relevant to the case of the defendant Kaltenbrunner. They would much prefer that you would begin at page 13, where you really come to the defendant's case.
DR. KAUFMANN: Mr. President, of course, it is extremely difficult for me to present a plea now which is very much condensed already and to condense it even more. It is really difficult. I hope that the Tribunal will appreciate that.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kaufmann, there has been nothing condensed in what you have read up to the present. It has been all of the most general type.
DR. KAUFMANN: May I read a few sentences then about the Defense?
THE PRESIDENT: Could you summarize the general nature of what you wish to say before you come to the defendant Kaltenbrunner?
DR. KAUFMANN: Yes, I shall try it. I will read only a few sentences in an important chapter which concerns the task of the Defense. I say that the Defense has been established by the Charter, and I deal with the question of how, in the face of such excesses, a Defense can still realize its task. I say further that in this trial, error and truth are mysteriously mixed, probably more so than they ever were in a great trial of law. To try to establish the truth makes the Defense Counsel an assistant of theCourt, and justification exists for the Defense to doubt not only the credibility of the witnesses but also the documents. It justifies the Defense Counsel to state that such reports, although they may be admitted by the Charter in evidence, can only be accepted with serious objections, because none of the defendants or defendants' Counsel or neutral observers could have any information on the way they were brought about.
of the law, but I believe also within the framework of power. tion for peace and happiness, elevate the representative of a terrible heresy to the position of their Fuehrer, I might say to a demiged; this Fuehrer abusing the faith of his followers in the grossest imaginable way; this people then in the bondage of a slave not being able to find the strength for a timely open resistance and tumbling into the hugh abyss of annihilation of its entire racial, political, spiritual and economic existence. All of this, in the truest sense of the word, is tragic. Had the individual man in the street, the mother in the home, and her sons and daughters, been asked to choose between peace or war, never voluntarily would they have drawn the lot of war. The unsatisfactory element of this trial is the absence of the man-
THE PRESIDENT: Are you now reading from some part of your document?
DR. KAUFFMANN: I am reading a few sentences, Mr. President. This is at page 7 of the German text.
THE PRESIDENT: Can't you summarize the argument you are presenting?
DR. KAUFFMANN: Mr. President, I would appreciate it if I could be told once more whether the Tribunal does not wish at all that I read the ideological background so that I may put some light on it for the understanding of these crimes against humanity, crime against the peace. If the Tribunal states that it desires that I not make any such statements at all, then of course I shall follow the wishes of the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Dr. Kauffmann, if you think it is necessary for you to read this passage you may do so; but, as I have indicated to you, the Tribunal think it is very remote indeed from any question which they have to consider.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Thank you very much. Then I shall skip a few pages and shall only present, for five pages, the subject which I have just mentioned.
That begins with a heading and then continues: and consequences, may be viewed, regardless from what side-
THE PRESIDENT: (Interposing): What page are you on?
DR. KAUFFMANN: It is at page 9 of my document book, and the heading is "Development of the history of intellectual pursuits in Europe."
THE PRESIDENT: Go on.
DR. KAUFFMANN: I continue: It may be viewed from the perspective of the historic spectacle of German history, or from the supposedly constrained course of economic forces, from the sociological separation of its people, from the racial character conditions of the German, or from the mistakes which the other brothers and sisters of the family of nations, living in the same house, committed in the political sphere. but always it brings to light only partial knowledge and partial truth. The deepest and, at the same time, the most fatal reason for the phenomenon Hitler lies in the metaphysical domain. Anyone, however, who looks at the world and its aspects only from the viewpoint of economic problems, may arrive at the belief that the war--the first as well as the second World War-- could have been avoided through a reasonable distribution of the wealth of the earth. Regarded by themselves alone, economic reasons are never able to change the face of the earth. Therefore, the change of the standards of living of the German people, their deterioration, the demoralization of the national soul by the Treaty of Versailles, inflation, enormous unemployment and others became rather the outward cause for Hitler.
Still it is possible that catastrophes might be delayed by years or decades if certain outward living conditions make the mutual relationship of the nations and people apparently happy. At no time, however, can a wrong idea be extinguished through economic disposition alone and be deprived of its destructiveness for the individual a d for the nations, unless the people overcome and replace these ideas by spiritually better ones.
"In the manner in which the name of God is used by the people and nations," says the famous Donoso Cortes, "lies the solution of the most feared problem." mission of the nations, of the races, for the great changes in history, for the rise and downfall of empires, for conquests and wars, for the different characteristics of the nations, yes, even for their changing fortunes. Socialism intellectually. He spoke of the sin against the spirit, from which all crimes originated. He called National Socialism a coarser Darwin. fall of which was incalculable and unpresdictable. He was the exponent of an ideology which was atheistic and materialistic, to the last degree. Socialism is eliminated through the complete defeat of Germany, and although the world is now free of the German threat, proclaimed by all nations, there has been he change for the better. No peace has filled our hearts, no rest has come to army corner of human existence.
It is true, the collapse of a powerful state with all its physical and spiritual forces will send out waves for a long time, as the sea is stirred into motion when a large stone is thrown into the calm water.
But what happens at present in Europe, and in the world, is much more, indeed it is something quite different from the mere ebbing away of such an occurrence. the deep; they are fed by mysterious and constantly emerging forces. These are those restless ideas, aiming at the disaster of nations, of which I spoke. And nothing could give me the lie when I maintain that everybody, victor and vanquiched, is living in the middle of a crisis which disturbes the conscience of the individual and the nations as a monstrous, apparently inevitable nightmare, and which, beyond the punishment of guilty individuals, causes us to look out for those ways and means which can spare humanity from an even greater catastrophe.
In his "Confessions of a Revolutionary", Proudhon, the clear-sighted socialist wrote the memorable words: "Every great political problem also always has within itself a theological one." He coined this phrase one hundred years ago. It is most timely that the American General MacArthur, at the signing of the Japanese surrender agreement is said to have repeated these deep words in their essential meaning, by saying: "If we do not create a better and greater system, death will be at our door. The problem is, fundamentally speaking, a religious one".
The changes in religious values determine history. They are the strongest motive powers in the cultural process of humanity. Permit me to show you in a few, rather large strokes, the intellectual and historical forebears of National Socialism.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kaufmann, it is one o'clock, and I must say that the last two pages which you have read seem to me to have absolutely nothing to do with crimes against humanity or with any case with which we have got to deal.
I suggest to you that the next popes, headed "Remaiisance, Subjectivism, French Revolution, Liberalism, National Socialism" are equally completely unlikely to have any influence at all upon the minds of the Tribunal.
(A recess was taken until 1400 hours).
(The Tribunal reconvened at 1400 hours)
DR. KAUFFMANN: Mr. President, I am going to leave out the section headed "Renaissance, Subjectivism, French Revolution, liberalism, National Socialism." The contents of that can be summarized in two or three sentences, and I merely beg you to take cognizance of it. I have pointed put that the causes in all these unfortunate movements were the spiritual attitude such as that of anthrocentric humanism as described by Jacques Maritain.
Is Kaltenbrunner Guilty? of the defendant, Dr. Kaltenbrunner. The fatherland was already bleeding from a thousand wounds of its sensitive soul and of its gigantic power. Is this man guilty. He has pleaded not guilty and yet guilty. Let us see which is the truth. was, in comparison with the other defendants at this trial, a man who was hardly known in Germany, at any rate the one who had hardly any association with either the German public or the high officials of the regime. In those days when the military, economic and political fate of the German people had begun to roll with crazy velocity towards the abyss, hate and abhorrence of the executive were at their climax, the more so, as the paralyzing sensation of the hopelessness of any resistance against the terror of the regime had disappeared; people had then definitely turned away from the legend of invincibility preached by propaganda. Suddenly, so to speak, and without the existence of any special ability nor of any application, Kaltenbrunner was drawn into the not of the greatest accomplice of the greatest murderer, from his secluded, and, nothwithstanding the Austrian Anschluss - from the viewpoint of international criminal law - untainted life. And here I add, he came from Austria. I would say born alomst on V-day, and he was drawn into this murder -- not voluntarily, on the contrary, against his repeated resistance, and against his exertions to be ordered to the fighting front.
I can well understand that I will be answered, that I should in view of the sea of blood and tears,refrain from illuminating the phsiognomy of this man's soul and character.
But deep in my heart - and I beg not to be misunderstand - I am, while exercising my profession as a counsel, even of such a man, moved by the universal thesis of the great Augustine hardly intelligible for the present godless generation: "Hate error, but love man." Love? Indeed, in so far as it should pervade justice; buecause justice without this nobility of love becomes plain revenge, which the prosecution explicitly contends to disavow. Therefore, for the sake of this justice, I am to show you that Kaltenbrunner is not the type as repeatedly described by the prosecution, namely the "little Hitler", his "confidant" the "second Heydrich." Dr. Gisevius, hasmade him out to be here in such an altogether negative manner, in fact from hearsay only. The defendant Jodl has testified before you that Kaltenbrunner did not belong to Hitler's confidants who always got together with him after the daily situation conferences in the Fuehrer headquarters. And the witness, Dr. Mildner, has stated on the basis of direct observation, without his testimony having been doubted by the prosecution:
"From my own observation lean confirm: I know the defendant Kaltenbrunner personally. In his private life he was an irreproachable man. In my opinion he was promoted from Higher SS and Police Chief to Chief of the Security Police and of the SD, because Himmler after the death of his principal rival Heydrich, in June 1942, did not want any man anymore or did not tolerate anybody under him who could have endangered him in his position. The defendant Kaltenbrunner was no doubt the least dangerous man for Himmler. Kaltenbrunner was not ambitious to bring his influence to bear through special deeds and to push finally Himmler aside. He was not hungry for power. It is wrong to call him the "little Himmler." The witnesses Eberstein, Wanek and Dr. Hottl have expressed themselves in the same manner. the RSHA, yes, he did indeed take it over to thefullest extent.
Today this man suffers a great deal under thecatastrophe ofhis people and under theuneasiness of his conscience; nothing is more understandable than that Dr. Kaltenbrunner, knowingly or unknowingly, can no longer face the fact that he actually was in charge of an agency under theburden of which rocks would talk if that could have been possible; personality and character of this man will have to be judged differently from the way the prosecution has been doing this.
normal civil virtues, could take an office under his control, which became the very sum total of human slavery of the 20th century,, as far as Germany is concerned. There may be two reasons for taking over this office, nevertheless: One is based on the fact that Dr. Kaltenbrunner, although closely connected with the political and cultural interests of his Austrian homeland; supported National Socialism in its large scope. Because before he turned into the sidepath with his secrets, he marched with thousands and hundred of thousands of other Germans, who desired nothing else than a solution from the unstable conditions prevailing at that time, on that wide road into which theeye of the entire world had insight. Therefore, he was, without a doubt a follower of anti-semitism, however, only in the sense of the necessity for retrograding the flooding of the German race with alien elements, he condemned just as harshly the mad crimes of physical annihilation of the Jewish race, as Dr. Hoettl definitely stated.
Kaltenbrunner surely affirmed also Hitler's personality as far as it did not, by and by become apparent in its absolutely misanthropic and thereby un-German nature. Also fundamentally he approved, as he himself admitted during his interrogation, measures which implied, more or less sever compulsion, as for example, the organization of labor education camps. Therefore, no sensible person will want to question the fact that he deemed the establishment of concentration camps quite proper, at least as provisional measure especially during the war as this had been the case for a long time on the other side of the German border. The establishment of concentration camps, or however one wishes to call those places, at mentioning of which thelistener involuntarily is reminded of words by Dante, is unfortunately not unknown to many states. History knows of them from South Africa for some decades, from Russia, England and America during this war, for the admission among others, of persons who for reasons of conscience do not want to serve with arms. In Bavaria, in the land in which the tribunal presently sits, these sort of camps are also known; known is also the so-called "automatic" arrest for certain groups of Germans. Under the heading: "Political Fundamentals" in item B-5 of the text of mutual declaration of the three leading statesmen about the Potsdam Conference of 17 July, 1945, the statement is contained that, among others, all persons who are dangerous for the occupation orits aims shall be arrested or interned.
The necessity of camps of this sort is thereby recognized. I myself hate the organization of human slavery, but I state openly, that these institutions lie on the way which when followed to the end can and will bring suffering to persons of a different opinion, then desired by the state. By this the crimes in the German concentration camps shall not in the least be diminished. As far as Kaltenbrunner is concerned this man, according to my conviction and as can be affirmed by many witnesses, is in his character and his attitude, apparent since 1943, basically a national socialistic leading personality, who only with disgust took notice of the general trend, of the continually growing wave of terror and enslavement in Germany. For this reason I deem it important to point to the statement of the witness Eigruber, according to which the statement of the prosecution is wrong, that Kaltenbrunner established Mauthausen.
Himmler, about which he testified. Thereby Kaltenbrunner was but prepared to take over the agencies of the domestic and foreign intelligence service, namely in the direction of absorbing and connecting the political intelligence service with the hitherto military one of Admiral Canaris. No doubt it is true the witnesses Waneck, Dr Hoettl, Dr Mildner and Ohlendorf and also the defendant himself have testified that Himmler in making allowance for Kaltenbrunner's wished, from the murder of Heydrich, interpolated himself into the executive body, so that nothing of some importance took place in any executive field in Germany without himmler haying had the final word and thus issuing the decisive order. Kaltenbrunner with Himmler in the following words, which I shall quote because of their importance: "When material problems arose Kaltenbrunner frequently remarked that he had come to an understanding with Himmler to work rather in the field of the foreign political intelligence service and that Himmler himself wanted to take more influence in the executive functions. To my knowledge Himmler agreed to these adjustments, the more so as he believed that he could depend on Kaltenbrunner's political instinct in foreign affairs, as this was apparent from various remarks made by Himmler." V arious witnesses testified that Kaltenbrunner predominantly and from inner necessity actually made himself over to the Intelligence service in domestic and foreign countries and more aid more approached an influence on domestic and foreign politics he was hoping for. I am calling attention to Waneck, Dr. Hoettl, but then also to the defendant Jodl and Seyss-Inquart and Fritsche. Dr. Hoettl testified: "In my opinion Kaltenbrunner never completely mastered the large agency of the Reichssicherheitshaputamt and, from lack of interest for police and executive problems, occupied himself far more with the intelligence servce and with the influence on the entire policy. This he considered his real domain." From the testimony by Generaloberst Jodl I am stressing the following sentences: "Before Kaltenbrunner took over the intelligence service from Canaris he sent to me, from time to time, very good reports from the Southeaster territory, through which I first noticed his experience in the intelligence service.
...I had the impression, this man knows his business; I now received currently reports from Kaltenbrunner, the same as before from Canaris; not only the actual reports from agents but from time to time he sent to me, I almost want to say, a political survey on the basis of his individual reports fromagents. I noticed especially these conddensed reports on the entire political situation abroad because they revealed, as never before under Canaris, a frank, sobriety, and the seriousness of our entire military position." The results therefore, which I must read from the evidence, is as follows: Kaltenbrunner on the basis of the separation of the intelligence service from the executive police functions desired by him actually hold a position in the Reichssicherheitshauptamt which was principally aimed at the intelligence service and its continuous development. I had this intelligence comprised in the meantime, in Europe, from Stalingrad to Leningrad, and on to the Balkans. Kaltenbrunner was the most capable of all the authorities who in Germany wished to find a place for the enemy nation. That was the lifework of this man as he himself wished it to be for the duration of the war. Personally he lived in small economic circumstances and it is the truth when I say, that he steps off the stage of political life just as poor as he ascended it. The witness Waneck once made the statement, characteristic for Kaltenbrunner, that he, Kaltenbrunner, will retire completely from office after the war and return to the land as a peasant. the political and military events this man did not observe theborder-line has desired by himself. His obedience toward Hitler and therfore also toward Himmler had submitted to the apparent necessity in the years 1943/45, to guarantee the stability of the inner-German relations through police compulsion Thereby he became involved in guilt; it is clear, that he can count on a milder judgement of his guilt before the world conscience only if he could have produced evidence that he actually undertook a strict separation from section (Amt) IV of the Secret State Police rightly called demoniacal, if he had in no way participated in the ideas and methods, whic, as I believe, eventually led to the institution o f this trial. I cannot deny that he did not undertake this separation. Nothing is clearly proven in this direction, even his own testimony speaks against him. Thus his statement before the should like to define as the thesis of his guilt:
Question: "Do you realize that very special accusations have been brought against you? The prosecution accuses you of crimes against the peace as well as of your role of an intellectual principal or of a participator in committing crimes against humanity and against the laws of war. Finally the prosecution has connected your name with the terrorism of the Gestapo and with the cruelties in the concentration camps. I now ask you: Do you assume the responsibility for these points of accusation in such manner as they are outlined and familiar to you?" And Kaltenbrunner answers: "First of all I should liketo state to the court that I am fully aware of the serious nature of the accusations brought against me, I know that the hatred of the world is directed against me, since I am the only one here, because a Himmler, a Mueller, a Pohl are no longer alive, to answer to the world and to the court . . . . I want to state at the very beginning, that from the time of my appointment as chief of the Central Reich-Security-Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt) I assumed the responsibility for every wrong committed within the jurisdiction of this agency as far as it occurred under my actual command, and I thus knew or should have known of these occurrences." Thus the duty of the defense is automatically divided by asking the questions: 1. What did Kaltenbrunner do, good and evil, from his appointment as chief of the Reichssicherheitshuaptamt on 1 February 1943? 2. To what extent can it justly be said that in the essential points he did not possess sufficient knowledge about all the crimes against humanity and against the laws of war? 3. In how far can his guilt be established from the viewpoint that he should have known about the serious crimes against International Law in which Section (Amt) IV of the Reichssicheheitshauptamt (Secret State Police) was directly or indirectly involved? 1. What has Kaltenbrunner done? In this connection, I am passing over the accusation brought against him by the prosecution for his participation in the events of the occupation of Austria and Czecho-Slovakia; no matter with what energy he followed his goal to see his Austrian homeland incorporated into the German Reich, and to the end of this realization use the SS forces under his co mmand; this aim can not have been a criminal one according to the world-c onscience.
Just as little could one, because of the forcible means at that time employed to accomplish the annexation of Austria, which was historically due and desired by millions, reach a verdict of guilt.
Kaltenbrunner was still much too insignificant a man for that. Economic distress - Anschluss movement - National Socialism: This was the way of the majority of the Austrian people, not the National-Socialist ideology; for Hitler himself was from the standpoint of Austrianism a spiritual and political renegade. Yet the Austrian Anschluss movement was a peoples' movement before National Socialism had reached any importance in Germany. Austria wanted to protest against the Versailles and St. Germain ruling, which forbade the Anschluss, by holding a plebiscite in each "Land". After 90% had voted in Tyrol and Salzburg, the victorious powers threatened to discontinue the shipment of food supplies. Hitler's seizure of power paralyzed the desire for Anschluss among those not of the party, but the distress in Austria become still more acute and isolated during the DollfussSchuschnigg regime. The incorporation into the Greater-German sphere of economics, where the removal of mass-unemployment seemed to be the source of hope, appeared to the greatly distressed Austrian people as the only way out. The wave of enthusiasm which on 10 October 1938 went through all of Austria was real. To try and deny this today would be to falsify history. The Anschluss, and not the Dollfuss-Schuschnigg government, was based on democracy. Just as little can one, I believe, according to the reasons mentioned above, reach a verdict of guilty for Kaltenbrunner because of his alleged activity in the question of Czechoslovakia. In my opinion the question of guilt and expiation becomes acute only for the time after 1 February 1943. The indignation of the German people over one of the most infamous terroristic measures, the taking into protective custody, had already before this date become immense. Is it correct to say that Kaltenbrunner himself, of whom many orders for protective custody bearing his signature are in evidence before the court, inwardly abhorred this type of suppression of human liberties ?
May I refer to just a few sentences from his interrogations ?
Question : "Did you know that protective custody was at all permissible and was used frequently ?"
Answer : "As I have related, I discussed the idea of "Protective Custody" with Himmler already in 1942. But I believe, already before this time I had corresponded quite extensively on this subject with him, as well as once also with Thierack.
I consider protective custody, as applied in Germany, only in a smaller number of cases a necessity of state, or better, a measure such as is justified by war.
For the rest I often, and well founded according to the history of law, voiced my opinion and turned against this conception and against the application of any protective custody in principle. I had several discussion about it with Himmler and with Hitler also. I had publicly taken my stand against it at a meeting of prosecutors, in 1944, because I have always been of the opinion that a man's freedom is one of his highest possessions and only the lawful sentence of a regular court of justice rooted in the constitution may limit or take away this freedom. would have spared the German people and the world from untold suffering, and the non-observance of which constitutes the guilt of this man, who, in spite of his right perception, suited his actions to the so-called necessity of the State. He thereby, against his own will and knowledge, became subject to the principle of hatred, which sooner or later will always shake or shatter the foundations of the strongest state. "Right is what benefits the people", Hitler had proclaimed. I well believe that Kaltenbrunner today deeply regrets to have adhered too long to this maxim, and without putting up sufficient resistance. original signature of Kaltenbrunner in connection with orders for protective custody, and I do not think it incredible when Kaltenbrunner deposes that never did he himself put into effect such an order for protective custody by his signature, nevertheless, in view of the tragical results due to so many of these orders, I do not need to say even one word as to whether he is entirely blameless or is much less to blame because these orders had perhaps been signed without his knowledge; then of course the question arises immediately how such an occurrence could be possible in, it is true, an extraordinarily large office.Be that as it may; in affairs of such depth and such tragic outcome one does not feel inclined to make any difference between knowledge and ignorance due to negligence because one wants to hold everyone occupying a post in an office responsible for what happens there. This recognition is also the meaning of Kaltenbrunner's statement regarding his fundamental responsability as cited above. Where the happiness and fate of living men are involved it is impossible to retreat under the pretext of ignorance in order to avoid punishment, at best for the purpose of mitigation of sentence.
The defendant knows this too. Orders for protective custody were the ominous harbingers of the concentration-camps. And I am not giving out a secret when I say that the responsibility for issuing orders for protective custody includes the beginning of responsibility for the fate of those held in the concentration camps. I could never admit that Dr. Kaltenbrunner may have known of the excesses suffering of the thousands who languished in the camps; for, as soon as the gates of the concentration camps were closed, there began the exclusive influence of that other office, the frequently mentioned central department for economy and administration. Instead of referring to many statements of witnesses to this point, I refer to the one of the witness Dr. Hoettl who, when asked about subordination in rank, replied :"The concentration-camps were exclusively under the command of the SS-Central office for economy and administration, hence not under the central RSHA main office and there were not under Kaltenbrunner. In this sphere he had no authority of command and no competency." Other witnesses have said that of necessity Kaltenbrunner should have had knowledge of the sad conditions in the concentration camps, but there is no doubt that the commandants of the concentration-camps themselves deliberately concealed penal excesses of the guards even from their superiors. It is furthermore a fact, that the conditions found by the Allies upon their arrival were almost exclusively the results of the catastrophic military and economic situation during the last weeks of the war and which the world mistakenly took for general conditions of former times. The above statement is fully verified by the statements of the camp-commandant of Auschwitz, Hoess, who, because of his later activity in the system of concentration camps of the central office for economy and administration, had made an accurate survey. For Hoess there exists no inward reason whatsoever to give a false testimony. A person like him, who has sent millions of men to their deaths, comes no longer under the authority of human judges and considerations. Hoess stated : "The so-called mistreatment and tortures in the concentration camps were not, as assumed, a method. They were rather excesses of individual leaders, sub-leaders, and men who laid violent hands upon the inmates." These elements themselves were, according to the statement of Hoess, taken to task for that. I believe I need not go into any more details of how, according to various witnesses, visitors of the concentration camps were impressed and surprised by the good condition, cleanliness and order in the camps, and therefore non suspicion was aroused as to special sufferings of the inmates, put it would be worse than bad taste if I contested the fact that a chief of the intelligence service, if only on the basis of foreign news of atrocities, should not have felt the responsibility in the interest of humanity to clear up any doubts arising along that line.