All these assertions in the verdict are correct and are based on numerous and reliable depositions. It remains only incomprehensible why “these hundred or so higher officers” who have caused the world and their own country so much suffering should not be acknowledged a criminal organization.
The verdict advances the following reasons for the decision, reasons quite contradictory to the facts:
a) That the crimes were committed by representatives of the General Staff and of the OKW as private individuals and not as members of a criminal conspiracy.
b) That the General Staff and the OKW were merely weapons in the hands of the conspirators and interpreters or executors of the conspirators’ will.
Considerable evidence disputes such conclusions.
1. The leading representatives of the General Staff and of the OKW, along with a small circle of the higher Hitlerite officials, were called upon by the conspirators to participate in the development and the realization of the plans of aggression, not as passive functionaries, but as active participants in the conspiracy against peace and humanity.
Without their advice and active cooperation, Hitler could not have solved these problems.
In the majority of cases their opinion was decisive. It is impossible to imagine how the aggressive plans of Hitler’s Germany could have been realized had it not been for the full support given him by the leading staff members of the armed forces.
Least of all did Hitler conceal his criminal plans and motivations from the leaders of the High Command.
For instance, while preparing for the attack on Poland, as early as 29 May 1939, at a conference with the high military commanders of the new Reich Chancellery, he stated: