“Letters from the front, film reporters, propaganda companies attached to the German Army wherever it advanced, P. K. reporters, and soldiers on leave confirm: In this battle in the East it is not one ideology fighting against another, not one political system against another, but culture, civilization, and human dignity have revolted against devilish principles of an underworld.”
FRITZSCHE: I should like to state the following: With this statement I was neither calling for ruthless measures against the population of the Soviet Union, nor did I want to vilify the people of the Soviet Union. I refer to the full text of the speech of 5 July. I do not wish to read this speech, but I should like permission to sum it up briefly.
DR. FRITZ: Mr. President, in my Document Book 1—I do not know whether the Tribunal already has it—I have all the radio speeches...
THE PRESIDENT: No, we haven’t got it.
DR. FRITZ: I have all these radio speeches of the Defendant Fritzsche from which the Prosecution quoted passages against him in my document book in their full text.
THE PRESIDENT: It has just been handed up to me. What page is it?
DR. FRITZ: Pages 8 to 13, the radio speech of 5 July 1941.
[Turning to the defendant.] Will you continue?
FRITZSCHE: I ask for permission to sum up the contents very briefly.
I spoke of the reports which the German public received about what German soldiers had seen in their advance in the Soviet Union, especially in connection with prisoners in the prisons in various cities. I did not describe these things once more; I only recalled them from the reports which had been given out at the time. From them I drew the conclusion that now one saw how necessary the fight was against a system under which such atrocities were possible. For the peoples of the Soviet Union I expressly used words of compassion and sympathy.