MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Do you want to explain to the Tribunal how you could cause the death of Adolf Hitler without also causing the death of the head of the German State?
SCHACHT: There is no difference because unfortunately that man was the head of the German nation.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You say you never broke the oath?
SCHACHT: I do not know what you want to express by that. Certainly I did not keep the oath which I took to Hitler because Hitler unfortunately was a criminal, a perjurer, and there was no true head of State. I do not know what you mean by “breaking the oath,” but I did not keep my oath to him and I am proud of it.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: So you were administering to your employees an oath which you at that moment were breaking and intended to break?
SCHACHT: Again you confuse different periods of time, Mr. Justice. That was in March 1938 when as you have heard me say before, I still was in doubt, and therefore it was not clear to me yet what kind of a man Hitler was. Only when in the course of 1938 I observed that Hitler was possibly walking into a war, did I break the oath.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: When did you find him walking into a war?
SCHACHT: In the course of 1938 when, judging from the events, I gradually became convinced that Hitler might steer into a war, that is to say, intentionally. Then only did I break my oath.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Well, you stated yesterday that you started to sabotage the government in 1936 and 1937.
SCHACHT: Yes, because I did not want excessive armament.