With regard to the Defendant Keitel, it is said that from 1933 on he took active part in this conspiracy.
To prove its thesis the Prosecution stated:
(a) that the National Socialist program in itself, according to its wording and meaning, could be realized only by using force;
(b) that the Defendant Keitel recognized, or should have recognized this;
(c) that recognizing this he, together with the others, especially the co-defendants, planned and prepared aggressive wars.
As regards these statements, I would like to call the Tribunal’s attention, first of all, to the principal part of Mr. Justice Jackson’s bill of Indictment, in which he deals with the program of the Party. He mentions there a number of points of the program, about which he says:
“Naturally, these were all aims which were legally unimpeachable.”
At a different point he says:
“I do not criticize this policy; I wish it were generally recognized. Naturally, this acknowledging criticism is subject to the one limitation: As long as these aims would be achieved without an aggressive war.”
According to that, the Prosecution itself do not assume that the wording and meaning of the Party program were such that normal persons would recognize that these Party political aims could be realized by use of force only. I do not wish to repeat what in this connection was said by the individual defendants at their hearings in court. Especially convincing appeared to me what Dr. Schacht stated on this subject. He concludes his critical examination of the important points of the Party program with these words: