THE PRESIDENT: What I said was that I had already corrected the erroneous view, which is expressed in this paragraph in your speech, that it is the practice of the Prosecution to conceal anything they know which, may tend in favor of the accused.
DR. NELTE: Mr. President, on this very spot Mr. Justice Jackson stated, “We cannot serve two masters,” when he replied to the statement that according to German criminal law the Prosecution would also have to produce material in favor of the defendants. What I am stating here is not said in order to raise any type of accusation against the Prosecution. On the contrary, from the point of view for which they stood they have done everything that was possible. I merely wanted to clarify my point of view as defendant’s counsel and say why...
THE PRESIDENT: The only reason I interrupted you was because of the sentence in your speech, “They made clear their definitely one-sided standpoint.” In the second paragraph, the second sentence of that paragraph, you say,
“Thus, in contrast to the principle of objective accusation which dominates the German criminal proceedings, they made clear”—that is, the Prosecution made clear—“their definitely one-sided standpoint in an Indictment...”
DR. NELTE: I said “one-sided”—that contrary to the governing principle of German criminal procedure, which is objective indictment, it has made clear its definitely one-sided standpoint of indictment which obliges the Defense to submit all circumstances and considerations which are indispensable for an objective administration of justice.
THE PRESIDENT: Go on. It may be a different translation.
DR. NELTE: For this purpose, it is first necessary to clarify certain concepts which are needed for the perception of responsibility and guilt. As far as concepts of international and constitutional law are concerned, they have been examined and presented by Professor Dr. Jahrreiss.
With regard to the sphere of the soldier I should like to make some fundamental statements. There have been repeated references here to the concepts of soldierly conduct, obedience, loyalty, performance of duty, and patriotism. It is my belief that all men recognize these concepts to be good. But it is permissible to say that not all of these concepts are unequivocal. Thus are opposed: “best soldierly conduct” and “militarism,” “natural obedience” and “contemptible blind subservience,” “the categorical imperative of the performance of duty” and “the exaggerated sense of responsibility,” “the deep love for one’s country” and “chauvinism.”
We see that all these concepts can run through the scale of good and evil. The origin and the essence of these concepts are everywhere the same, but the forms they take on through tradition and education and by the effects thereof vary greatly. However, if this is the case, who then should differentiate and decide whether the feeling is still in the realm of good or has already reached the sphere of evil?
We are all of us living in a world whose century-old striving has aimed at the creation of order. Order is certainly a relative concept, too, but it is everywhere the establishment of the relationship of human beings to each other which guarantees the best possible means of living peacefully side by side in view of the intrinsic character of each country.