It was not a mere question of chance that Rosenberg did not take part in, the boycotting of Jews in 1933, that he was not called upon to work out the laws against the Jews in 1933, 1934, 1935, and so on (expatriation, prohibition of marriages, withdrawal of the right to vote, expulsion from all important positions and offices). Above all, he never took part in the action of 1938 against the Jews, nor in the destruction of synagogues, nor in anti-Semitic demonstrations. Neither was he the instigator in the background who sent out, or ordered, lesser people to commit certain actions. To be sure, Rosenberg was a true follower of Hitler, who took up Hitler’s slogans and passed them on. For example, the motto, “The Jewish question will be solved only when the last Jew has left Germany and the European continent,” and once the slogan of “Extermination of Jewry.”
Exaggerated expressions were always part of the National Socialist weapons of propaganda. A Hitler speech was hardly imaginable without insults to his internal or external political opponents, or without threats of extermination. Every one of Hitler’s speeches was echoed a million times by Goebbels down to the last speaker of the Party in a small country inn. The same sentences and words which Hitler had used were repeated, and not only in all the political speeches, but in the German press as well, in all the editorials and essays, until, weeks or months later, a new speech was given which brought about a new echo of a similar kind.
Rosenberg was no exception. He repeated, as everyone did, all of Hitler’s slogans, including that of the “solution of the Jewish question,” and once also that of the “extermination of Jewry.” Apparently, like Hitler’s other supporters, he gave as much or as little thought to the fact that in reality none of those phrases were clear but that they had a sinister double meaning and, while they might have meant real expulsion, they might also have implied the physical annihilation and murder of the Jews.
May I remind the Tribunal at this point that Rosenberg, during his testimony, made a reference to a speech of the British Prime Minister in the House of Commons in September 1943, in which speech it was stated that Prussian militarism and National Socialism had to be exterminated root and branch. No German interpreted that literally, and I believe no one interpreted it to mean that German soldiers and the National Socialism had to be exterminated physically.
Aside from the knowledge and will of the German people, and aside from the knowledge and will of the majority of the leadership of the Party—that is to say, known only to Bormann, Himmler, and Eichmann—there was hatched and carried out, from 1941 onward, a mass crime which surpassed all human concepts of reason and morality. The “Jewish question” was developed even further and brought to a so-called “final solution.”
The Tribunal will have to decide the question whether Rosenberg, the specially characteristic exponent of the Party, the Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, is also responsible for the murder of the Jews, and particularly for the murder of Jews in the East; that is, is he a murderer of Jews? Or must it be recognized and admitted that, although he stands but a hair’s breadth from the abyss, it was, after all, external circumstances which led up to it all, and that these circumstances were outside his sphere of responsibility and guilt?
I believe I can say that Rosenberg never aimed, either openly or in secret, at the physical extermination of the Jews. His reserve and moderation were certainly no mere tactics. The slipping of anti-Semitism into crime took place without his knowledge or will. The fact in itself that he preached anti-Semitism justifies his punishment as the murderer of Jews as little as one could hold Rousseau and Mirabeau responsible for the subsequent horrors of the French Revolution.
Furthermore, no matter how much the first impression might lead to it, criminal guilt on his part cannot be deduced from his position as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories. As already stated, the “responsible minister” cannot simply be held responsible for criminal acts committed in his sphere or his territory. Criminal responsibility, according to the German Penal Code, Paragraph 357, exists only if an official knowingly assents to the criminal actions of his subordinates, and if—the commentaries furnish this supplement—the superior is in a position to prevent the action.
I should like to take up the question of his responsibility on the grounds of the documents submitted for this purpose.
(1) The action taken against the Jews at Sluzk (Document Number 1104-PS).