“Question: ‘So you take the position that any official could at any time withdraw if he thought that the moral obligation was such that he felt he could not go on?’
“Answer: ‘Quite.’
“Question: ‘In other words, you feel that the members of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht who were responsible for carrying into execution Hitler’s plan are equally guilty with him?’
“Answer: ‘That is a very hard question you put to me, Sir, and I answer, “yes”.’ ”
You gave those answers, did you not? Did you give those answers?
SCHACHT: Yes, and I should like to give an explanation of this, if the Tribunal permits it. If Hitler ever had given me an immoral order, I should have refused to execute it. That is what I said about the generals also, and I uphold this statement which you have just read.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I am through with him, Your Honor, except that I would like to note the exhibit numbers. The petition to Hindenburg referred to yesterday is 3901-PS, and will become Exhibit USA-837. The Von Blomberg interrogation of October 1945 is Exhibit USA-838.
DR. HANS LATERNSER: (Counsel for General Staff and High Command of the German Armed Forces): Mr. President, I request that the statement of the Defendant Schacht insofar as it was cited and becomes part of the minutes be stricken from the record. The question, as I understood it, was whether he considered the General Staff to be just as guilty as Hitler. This question was answered in the affirmative by the Defendant Schacht in this examination. The question and the answer—the question to begin with is inadmissible and likewise the answer because a witness cannot pass judgment on this. That is the task of the Court. And for this reason I request that this testimony be stricken from the record.
MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: May it please the Tribunal, I do not, of course, offer this opinion of Schacht’s as evidence against the General Staff or against any individual soldier on trial. The evidence, I think, was as to the credibility of Schacht and as to his position. I do not think that his opinion regarding the guilt of anybody else would be evidence against that other person; I think that his opinion on this matter is evidence against himself in the matter of credibility.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Dr. Dix.