And lastly, a quotation from the National Zeitung of the 27th of April 1941, which is Document Number M-102 and becomes GB-254. My Lord, it appears on Page 4 of the trial brief. I quote from these passages, set out simply to save the Tribunal’s time in referring to the document book. It does appear on Page 12 of the document book if the Tribunal desires to refer to the full extract:
“A long while ago—it was still before the outbreak of the war—Rudolf Hess was once called the ‘Conscience of the Party.’ If we ask why the Führer’s Deputy was given this undoubtedly honorable title, the reason for this is plain to see. There is no aspect of our public life which is not the concern of the Führer’s Deputy. So enormously many-sided and diverse is his work and sphere of duty that it cannot be outlined in a few words; and it lies in the nature of the duties laid on the Führer’s Deputy that the public at large hears little of the work of Rudolf Hess. Few know that many government measures taken, especially in the sphere of war economy and the Party, which meet with such hearty approbation when they are proclaimed because they voice true public feeling, can be traced back to the direct initiation of the Führer’s Deputy.”
Perhaps I ought to remind the Tribunal that in the decree appointing a Secret Cabinet Council, that council was appointed by Hitler to advise him in the conduct of foreign policy. The Tribunal will find attached to that document book a few photos. They are of little importance. They were really to emphasize or remind the Tribunal of the film that was shown earlier in the course of these proceedings, when, it will be remembered, the Defendant Hess appeared in practically every scene of that film “The Rise to Power of the Nazi Party.” These photographs are not actually photographs from that film; they are somewhat similar and I produce an affidavit with them to state they were taken by Hitler’s own private photographer. That affidavit becomes Document Number GB-255.
That, then, is the evidence of his position and of his authority; and perhaps I might be allowed to make one short submission upon that. I make it in respect of this Defendant Hess, although it is perhaps a submission which can be made in respect of every one of these defendants.
The Prosecution has presented these cases against the individual defendants in the form of a collection of the documents which directly refer and which directly connect these defendants with specific instances of participation in the various crimes that were committed by the German people. My Lord, it will be my submission that it is sufficient to justify and bring home the conviction of this man and his colleagues to produce simply evidence of their positions in the Nazi State and the control of that State and also the general evidence of the crimes which were committed by the German people. It is only perhaps now, at this late stage in the trial, as day by day the extent and scope of those crimes is becoming clearer, that we realize that they cannot have happened by themselves. Crimes on that scale must be organized, co-ordinated, and directed. If the government of Nazi Germany, or the government of any country, is not the organization which directed and co-ordinated, what is? If the members of the German nation who are committing those crimes are not people responsible for them, then, in my submission, one is entitled to ask, Who is?
My Lord, there can be no question that these men had knowledge. Again, as the picture unfolds, it will be my submission that everybody in Germany must have had knowledge of what was going on; and if everybody had knowledge, then, my submission is, these men must certainly have had knowledge; and I would urge upon this Tribunal the fact that the conviction of these men does not rely upon the mere chance of how many documents happened to have been captured bearing their signatures. It might well have been that no documents at all had been captured. But, in the submission of the Prosecution, these men could equally well and equally justifiably have been proved guilty in the part they took, beyond any kind of doubt, upon the evidence of the positions that they held and the evidence of the scope and extent of the crimes that were committed by the people they controlled.
My Lord, that is my submission, and in view of that, I would perhaps deal briefly, for the convenience of the Tribunal, with the small matters, the many matters, which do directly connect him with, as I say, almost every aspect of the crimes and life of Nazi Germany.
I turn to Page 6 of the trial brief. . . .
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for the Defendant Rudolf Hess): The prosecuting attorney just mentioned a sworn statement. I cannot find this sworn statement either in the document book or in his trial brief. I can, consequently, take no position in regard to this sworn statement, nor, especially, can I go into the question as to whether there is any objection to the statement as regards the terms of the Charter. I request the prosecuting attorney to present me with this sworn statement.
THE PRESIDENT: We couldn’t hear the rest of the translation through. Well, go on!