“In the most chivalrous way, the German Government has excluded from the percentage stipulations those Jews who have fought for Germany at the front, or who have lost a son or a father in the war” (Document Book 1, Page 153a).
In his speech at the Kroll Opera House Rosenberg gave the reason for this measure, saying that there was no intention thereby to discriminate against a whole people, but that it was necessary for our younger German generation, who for years had had to starve or beg, now to be able to obtain bread and work too. But despite his strong opposition to the Jews he did not want the “extermination” of Jewry, but advocated as the nearest aim the political expatriation of Jews, that is, through classifying them by law as aliens and giving them protection as such. In addition, he granted to the Jews a percentage access to nonpolitical professions, which still by far exceeded the actual percentage of Jews in the German population. Of course, his final aim was the total emigration of the Jews from Aryan nations. He had no understanding and appreciation of how great a loss to the Aryan nations themselves such an emigration would be in cultural, economic, and political respects. But one will have to admit that he believed that such an emigration would prove useful for the Jews themselves, first, because they would be set free from all anti-Semitic attacks, and also, because in their own settlement area they might live unhampered and according to their own ways.
The dreadful development which the Jewish question took under Hitler, which he justified as being a reaction against the policy pursued by emigrants, was never more regretted by anyone than by Rosenberg himself, who blames himself for not having protested against the attitude of Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels as firmly as he protested against Koch’s actions in the Ukraine. Nor does Rosenberg hesitate to admit that his suggestion to Hitler to shoot 100 Jews instead of 100 Frenchmen after the recurring murders of German soldiers was an injustice born of a momentary feeling—despite his belief in its formal admissibility—because, from the purely human standpoint, the real basis for such a suggestion was lacking, namely, the active participation of those Jews.
I have returned to this case again, as in my opinion it is the only instance where Rosenberg desired retribution by the death of Jews. On the other hand, one must insist with the greatest emphasis that there is no proof of Rosenberg’s having been aware of the extermination of five million Jews. The Prosecution accuses him of making preparations for an anti-Semitic congress as late as 1944, which did not take place only because of the course of the war. What point could such a congress have had, had Rosenberg known that the majority of the Jews in Europe had been exterminated already?
Rosenberg had no faith in democracy, because in Germany it led to a splitting up into numerous parties and a constant change of government, and finally made the formation of an efficient government impossible. Another reason for his not having faith in democracy was that non-German democratic powers did not stand by their democratic principles in certain cases where they might have been of benefit to Germany, for instance in 1919, when Austria was willing to be incorporated in Germany, and later on at the plebiscite in Upper Silesia. But Rosenberg did not for that reason turn toward tyranny. In connection with Paragraph 25 of the Party Program he said in his comments, on Page 46:
“This central power”—referring in this case to the Führer’s power—“should have as advisers representatives of the people as well as those councils which had evolved in the course of time” (Document Book 3, Page 6).
And in his speech in Marienburg on 30 April 1934 on the state of the German Order, he said that the National Socialist State must be “a monarchy on a republican foundation.” I quote:
“From that standpoint the State will not become a deified end in itself, neither will its leader become a Caesar, a God, or a deputy of God” (Document Book 1, Page 131).
In his speech on German law of 18 December 1934, Rosenberg stressed:
“In our eyes the Führer is never a tyrannical commander” (Document Book 1, Page 135). Only in such terms was a protest against the development of tyranny possible.