THE PRESIDENT: Yes; I wanted to know whether first of all we are on Page 31.
DR. FRITZ: He is referring in his statements which he is making now to the entire contents of the speech, Mr. President. The Prosecution had quoted only the very last paragraph of this speech.
[Turning to the defendant.] Please continue.
FRITZSCHE: In this polemic address I not only suggested investigating whether the guards of the U. S. Navy had been careless but I also advised checking into American politics, as to whether someone might not have been interested in the outbreak of the war. In this connection, I recalled that an investigating committee of the American Senate, 20 years after the first World War, had investigated the causes for entry of the United States in the war in 1917. I said verbatim, “This Senate committee proved that Wilson, when entering the war, knew that he was the victim of a few warmongers.” I deplored...
THE PRESIDENT: The investigation committee of the Americans about the entry into the last war? Isn’t he going rather far back?
DR. FRITZ: Mr. President, I believe that the defendant can stop at this point. He only wanted to show that the quotation of the last paragraph cited by the Prosecution in order to incriminate him was, torn from its contents. That is the fact he wanted to show, Mr. President.
[Turning to the defendant.] The second quotation used by the Prosecution is an excerpt from your radio speech of 18 March 1941. The Prosecution was of the opinion that this was also an incitement for the persecution of Jews, and they said, further, that it was proof of your propaganda with the term “master race.”
Mr. President, this speech of 18 March 1941 may be found in my Document Book Number 1, Pages 2 to 7.
[Turning to the defendant.] The Prosecution quoted only one paragraph from this speech. What can you tell us in this connection?
FRITZSCHE: I do not wish to read this quotation. I rather ask that you read it carefully yourself, and after you have read it you will see that I completely agreed with Mr. Roosevelt when he said that there was no master race. I endorsed the correctness of this sentence not only as it applied to the German people, but to Jewry as well. The Prosecution concluded from this sentence that it was a justification for acts committed in Jewish persecutions in the past and that it was a foreboding of more persecutions to come. I do not understand this conclusion; it has no basis whatsoever.