GEN. RUDENKO: That is to say, on the basis of lies and slander?
FRITZSCHE: No. Please let me apologize, but your way of putting it does not appear to be quite factual enough.
GEN. RUDENKO: You will persist then in denying that German propaganda used methods of slander and lies; you do deny this?
FRITZSCHE: Yes, certainly, I deny it, based on my thorough knowledge of German propaganda; and I should like you to permit me to give you a very brief explanation in this connection.
GEN. RUDENKO: Please, will you give an explanation, but directly, to my question?
FRITZSCHE: But of course. Looking at it today, it was the misfortune of the German people that its propaganda, particularly with regard to those details which can be checked and controlled, was so clean that it was completely overlooked that in its three basic principles there were three fundamental mistakes. I cannot be more explicit.
GEN. RUDENKO: What kind of mistakes are you speaking about?
FRITZSCHE: The first, the trust in Adolf Hitler’s humaneness, which was destroyed by the order to murder 5 million people; the second, the trust in the ethical purity of the system, which was destroyed by the orders to apply torture; and the third, the absolute trust in Adolf Hitler’s peaceful intentions, shaken by what has been brought up in this courtroom.
GEN. RUDENKO: Well, we shall revert to these questions later when we speak about your personal participation in the conducting of the German propaganda. I should like to ask you now the following: Of course you were aware that in the OKW there was a special section for propaganda, which was subordinate directly to Defendant Jodl?
FRITZSCHE: That was known to me, but you are mistaken if you are under the impression that that department was under Defendant Jodl. It was under the jurisdiction of General Von Wedel and he was succeeded by Standartenführer Gunter d’Alquen.