FRITZSCHE: I was not anti-Semitic in the idea of a noisy anti-Semitism. The Prosecution has asserted that all defendants—that is, including myself—had shouted, “Germany awake and Judaism shall die.” I will state under oath that I never raised this cry or one similar. I was not anti-Semitic in the sense of either the radical theories or methods beginning with Theodor Fritsch to Julius Streicher.
The Prosecution has stated that even the Defendant Streicher, the main anti-Jewish agitator of all times, could hardly have excelled Fritzsche when it came to libels against the Jews. I protest against this statement. I do not believe that I deserve any such accusation. Never did I give out any propaganda dealing with ritual murders, cabala, and the so-called secrets of the Elders of Zion. At all times of my life I considered them machinations of a rather primitive agitation. For humanitarian reasons, I regret that I have to make a further statement, but I cannot refrain from making this statement in the interests of truth.
My co-workers and I, in the press and on the radio, without exception I would say, rejected Der Stürmer radically. I personally, during a period of 13 years of regular newspaper comments, never quoted this paper. Der Stürmer was not quoted in the German press either. The editors did not belong to the journalists’ union and the publisher did not belong to the publishers’ organization during my term of office. How things were later on, I do not know.
As I have already stated in my affidavit, I tried twice to ban Der Stürmer. However, I did not succeed. Then it was proposed that I censor Der Stürmer. However, I declined the offer. I wanted to prohibit the publishing of Der Stürmer, not just because the mere verbatim reproduction of a page of the newspaper Der Stürmer was the most effective anti-German propaganda which ever existed, but I wanted to ban Der Stürmer simply for reasons of good taste. I wanted to prohibit it as a source of radicalism against which I fought wherever I met it.
The great secret for the sudden increase in the circulation of Der Stürmer after 1933 to half a million, already referred to in this Court, lay in the same cause as the secret of the sudden increase of such organizations as the SA.
The Party in 1933 had blocked the influx of new members, and a great many people tried to get in somehow, if not directly with the Party, then with some organization connected with the Party, such as, perhaps, the SA. Or they tried to show sympathy with National Socialist ideas by subscribing to Der Stürmer and displaying it. Therefore, in that sense, I was not anti-Semitic.
But I was anti-Semitic in this sense: I wanted a restriction of the predominant influence of Jewry in German politics, economy, and culture, such as was manifested after the first World War. I wanted a restriction based on the ratio of Jews to Germans. I proclaimed publicly this view of mine on occasions, but I did not exploit these views in extensive systematic propaganda.
Those anti-Semitic statements with which I am charged by the Prosecution have a different connection. The facts are as follows: After the outbreak of the war I referred frequently to the fact that Jewish emigrants immediately after 1933, were the first ones to emphasize that a war against the National Socialist German State was necessary; for instance, Emil Ludwig or George Bernhard or the Pariser Tageblatt. As far as I recall, this was the only connection in which I made anti-Semitic statements of any kind. I cannot say this without asking to be permitted to emphasize one more point. Only in these proceedings here did I learn that in the autumn of 1939 there was more at stake than just one city and a road through the Corridor; that in truth and in fact, a new partition of Poland had already been prepared at least, and only here in these proceedings did I learn that Hitler had confirmed in a dreadful manner the warnings of the Jews against him by an order to murder them. If I had known both of these things at that time, then I would have pictured the role of Jewish propaganda before the outbreak of the war quite differently.
DR. FRITZ: Mr. President, in this connection I should like to refer to the document which has already been submitted, Document Number Fritzsche-2, the affidavit by Dr. Scharping, with reference to Pages 9 to 11. This document is found in my Document Book Number 2; however, I do not know whether this document book has been submitted to the High Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, it has.