As a witness Rosenberg himself declared (Volume XI, Page 461) that he had opposed propaganda advocating withdrawal from the Church and had never called for state and police measures against his opponents in the fields of theology and research, and particularly that he had never used the Police for suppressing those who were opponents of his book The Myth of the 20th Century. In December 1941, as Reich Minister for the Occupied Eastern Territories, he issued an edict for Church toleration (Documents Number 1517-PS and 294-PS). Rosenberg had nothing to do with arrests, the deportation of priests, and persecution of the Church. He had no part either in the negotiations with the Vatican over the Concordat or in the assignment of the Protestant Reich Bishop; neither did he take any part in measures which were hostile to the Church, and which were later carried out by the Police. He never participated in any other administrative or legislative anticlerical measures.
In my opinion it is quite impossible, for lack of documentary evidence, to construe from what Rosenberg thought and said about religious and philosophical matters—which I will quote presently—that he conspired toward a political suppression of religion by force. The only document (Number 130-PS) pointing in this direction was withdrawn by the American Prosecution itself before I was obliged to draw attention to its being a pamphlet directed against Rosenberg.
His book The Myth of the 20th Century, which is allegedly written for the reshaping of the denominations in the direction of a Germanic Christianity, is moreover chiefly addressed to those who had already broken with the Church. “No consciously responsible German,” says Rosenberg at one place in it, “should suggest withdrawal from the Churches to those who are still believing members thereof” (Document Number Rosenberg-7, Document Book 1, Page 122), and once again: “Science would never have the power to dethrone true religion” (see as above, Page 125). His writings are not addressed to the faithful churchgoers of today in order to hinder them in the course of their chosen spiritual life, but to those who have already discarded their religious faith (Document Number Rosenberg-7, Document Book 1, Page 125). In his speeches he upheld the view that the Party is not entitled to establish norms in metaphysical matters which contest immortality, et cetera. After he had been assigned to supervise ideological education, he said explicitly in his Berlin speech of 22 February 1934: “No National Socialist is allowed to engage in religious discussions while wearing the uniform of his Movement,” and he declared at the same time that “all well-disposed persons should strive for the pacification of the entire political and spiritual life in Germany” (Document Number Rosenberg-7(a), Document Book 1, Page 130). That in this respect, too, things developed along different lines is not due to the desire or influence of Rosenberg.
Moreover, I need make only brief allusion to the fact that it is a question of the 1000-year-old problem of relations between the clerical and so-called temporal powers. The struggle of emperors, kings, and popes in the Middle Ages; the French Revolution with the shooting of priests; Bismarck’s clerical controversies; the secular legislation of the French Republic under Combes; all those were things, which from the standpoint of the Churches ...
Mr. President, may I make a brief statement by way of explanation? I wanted to say that I have concluded this topic, that I do not wish to concern myself with the problem of Church persecutions any further. I have finished with it. I am coming to the topic of ideology and general politics.
Ideology and education have been nothing but a means of obtaining power and consolidating that power; uniformity of thinking has played an important part in the program of the conspiracy; the formation of the Armed Forces has only been possible in conjunction with the ideological education of the nation and Party—so says the Prosecution (Brudno, on 9 January 1946). And continuing its attacks against Rosenberg, the Prosecution proceeds by saying that Rosenberg’s ideas formed the foundation of the National Socialist movement, and that Rosenberg’s contribution in formulating and spreading the National Socialist ideology gave foundation to the conspiracy by shaping its “philosophical technique.”
I think that one will have to take care, in judging Rosenberg’s case, not to yield to certain primitive ways of thinking and become a victim of them: First of all an exaggeration of the conception of ideology and the inexact use of that concept. At best it was a political philosophy which was hand in glove with Hitler’s political measures and which Hitler himself preached in his book Mein Kampf, but it was not an ideology in an all-embracing sense. It is true that National Socialism endeavored to create a spiritual philosophy and an ideology of its own, but it had not reached that stage yet by far. Rosenberg’s book The Myth of the 20th Century is an attempt in that direction, being a personal confession, without any suggestion of political measures. Therefore, his philosophy cannot have formed the ideological basis of National Socialism. In addition there is a total lack of proof that a straight spiritual line, a clear spiritual causal connection, exists between the conceptions of Rosenberg and the alleged and actual crimes.
If one goes to the trouble of looking through the book, The Myth of the 20th Century, one will immediately observe that though there is some philosophizing in the National Socialist way, it would be, however, pure fiction to affirm that there is any dogmatic formulation of a tangible program in this book, or that it is a foundation for the activities of the responsible leaders of the Reich in this World War. Another mistake of National Socialism was perhaps the boundless unification and simplification: people were made uniform; thinking was made uniform; only one uniform type of German was left. There was also alleged to be only one National Socialist way of thinking, and only National Socialist ideology. But in spite of this, as we see today, the leaders were frequently of different opinions on essential questions. I will recall the question of the policy in the East. Here too, there seems to be danger of accepting this way of thinking, of observing everything through the spectacles of uniformity, and of saying: One idea, one philosophy, one responsibility, one crime, one punishment. Such a simplification, apart from its primitive nature, would certainly also constitute a great injustice toward the Defendant Rosenberg.
Finally, when one hears how the Prosecution attacks “Germanic Christianity,” the “heathen blood myth,” making much of Rosenberg’s expression, “the Nordic blood is the mystery which has superseded and overpowered the old sacraments,” one feels inclined to close one’s eyes for a moment and to picture oneself attending a session of the Inquisition in the Middle Ages where they are about to sentence Rosenberg to the stake as a heretic. Yet nothing must be farther from the Tribunal’s mind than to harbor thoughts of intolerance, since here, in spite of all attempts by some of the prosecutors, it is not ideologies but crimes which are involved.
In the Defendant Rosenberg’s case it is a question of whether by his teachings he was guilty of preparing and promoting crimes. The Prosecution has brought forth arguments to this end, but have not proved it, while I can prove the opposite merely by pointing to Rosenberg’s activities in the East. Had he been the bearer and apostle of a criminal idea, he would have had an opportunity, such as no criminal has ever yet had in world history, to indulge in criminal activities. I have stated explicitly that in his case it was just the opposite. So when the bearer and apostle of an idea himself has the greatest of opportunities and yet in practice himself behaves morally, then his teachings cannot be criminal and immoral either. Above all, he cannot then be punished as a criminal on the basis of his teachings. What criminally degenerate persons practiced as alleged National Socialism cannot be laid to the charge of Rosenberg. Moreover, Rosenberg’s speeches in three volumes, which express what he taught in the course of 8 years, bear witness to the honorable nature of his endeavors.