You will understand that the Defendant Keitel attaches particular importance to the production of evidence to the effect that he is not responsible for these terrible occurrences, and, further, that when such things came to his knowledge he took steps to have them cleared up in order that the actual offenders might be brought to account. It is an indisputable fact that Keitel had no direct part in these crimes. Any responsibility and guilt attaching to the defendant can therefore be derived only from his official position. No orders of any kind bearing Keitel’s signature have been submitted by the Prosecution, so that, whoever is guilty, Keitel is not, at any rate, among those directly responsible.
The terrible sufferings inflicted on a large number of French villages are recorded in the notes of General Bérard dated 6 July and 3 August 1944. I pointed out, when this document was submitted, that the submission of these complaints alone—that is, unaccompanied by the replies, which are also in the hands of the Prosecution—cannot convey an objective picture of the actual facts, on which to base a pronouncement on the guilt of the Defendant Keitel. As the Defendant Keitel, not being empowered to issue orders in the matter, cannot possibly be taken into consideration as the originator of the orders which led to the complaint, any responsibility and guilt on Keitel’s part can therefore be based only on the fact that he did not cause the necessary steps to be taken on receiving information from the German Armistice Commission. What Keitel did or did not do can be gathered only from the reply notes and from the directives issued by the OKW to the German Armistice Commission.
Here, too, the Defendant Keitel would have been unable to provide proof to the contrary, had not the French Prosecution themselves submitted a document, F-673, which was intended to furnish proof of Keitel’s individual guilt. This document was already read by the French Prosecution at the session of 31 January 1946:
“High Command of the Armed Forces; F. H. Qu., 5 March 1945; Secret.
“WFST./Qu. 2 (I) No. 01487/45 g.
“Subject: Alleged Killing of French Nationals without Trial.
“German Armistice Commission; Group Wa/Ib No. 5/45 g.
“1) German Armistice Commission; 2) Commander-in-chief West.
“Received: 17 March 1945.
“In August 1944 the French delegation of the German Armistice Commission addressed a memorandum to D. W. St. K. (German Armistice Commission) describing in detail incidents leading to the alleged shooting without justification of Frenchmen during the period of 9 to 23 June 1944. Statements made in the French note were almost entirely made in such detail that an examination by Germany was possible without any difficulty.