I should like to ask first that I be supplied with a German translation of the statement which the Prosecution has made on the future course of the Trial, so that I can express my views on it. I do not represent here just one person but millions of people who will, after the Trial, come forward with all sorts of accusations against me, possibly even justified accusations. My own responsibility, as well as that of my colleagues who represent the organizations, is immense. I should therefore like to request, as a matter of principle, that anything which is presented in this Trial at all be submitted to me in the German language, because I am not in a position to have whole volumes of documents translated into German from one day to the next—documents which could quite easily be given to me in the German original. This is a circumstance which makes it dreadfully hard for me, as well as for a number of my colleagues, to follow the Trial at all.
Of the incriminatory evidence against the organizations, I have previously gathered little in the proceedings up to now. Since, according to today’s statements, however, the evidence against the organizations is to be presented shortly, I should like to ask emphatically that, if we are to continue to represent the organizations, the proceedings be conducted in such a way that, in a technical respect, too, we shall be in a position to carry on the defense in a responsible manner.
THE PRESIDENT: As you know or have been told, only those parts of documents which are read before the Tribunal are treated as being in evidence and therefore you hear through your earphones everything that is in evidence read to you in German. You know also that there are two copies of the documents in your Information Center which are in German. So much for that. That has been the procedure up to now.
In order to meet the legitimate wishes of German counsel, the proposal which Mr. Justice Jackson has just made is perfectly simple, as I understand it, and it is this:
That the question of the criminality of these organizations should not be argued before the evidence is put in; that the United States counsel should put in their evidence first, and that they hope to put the majority of it in evidence before the Christmas recess, but that the German counsel (defendants’ counsel) shall be at liberty at any time, up to the time the United States case is finished, to make objection to any part of the evidence on these criminal organizations. Is that not clear?
HERR BÖHM: Yes, that is clear.
THE PRESIDENT: Have you any objection to that procedure?
HERR BÖHM: Yes. The procedure as suggested is clear, but I think it is highly inadequate. I have as yet had no opportunity to get into my hands either of the two copies, which are said to be downstairs in Room 54, maybe because two copies are not sufficient for the purposes of 25 lawyers, especially if these copies are placed in Room 54 at 10:30 in the morning, when the session starts at 10:00 o’clock. It would not even suffice if these two copies for 25 of us were placed into our room on the day before, since it is not possible for all of us to make satisfactory use of these two copies in so short a time. Arrangements should therefore be made—just how the Prosecution will make them, I cannot say—to enable us to know at the proper time—and I emphasize again, in the German language—what the Prosecution expects of us, so that our work may be of avail to the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: What you have just stated is a general objection to the procedure which has been adopted up to now and has nothing to do with the procedure which has been suggested by Mr. Justice Jackson with reference to these criminal organizations. His suggestion was that argument on the law of the criminal issue or the criminal nature of these organizations should be postponed until the evidence was put in and that the right of Counsel for the Defense should be to make objection at any stage or, rather, to defer their objections until the evidence had been put in; and it was hoped that the evidence would be completed or nearly completed by the Christmas recess. What you say about the general procedure may be considered by the Tribunal.
So far as the particular question is concerned, namely, the question of the procedure suggested by Mr. Justice Jackson, have you any objection to that?