It might be objected that the Germans should only have followed the teachings of their great philosopher Kant in thought and action, according to his “categorical imperative”: Act in such a way that the maxim of your will could always serve as a principle for general legislation! Then they would and should have recognized the moral instability of National Socialist teachings. To that I can answer with the words of the great English philosopher, John Locke, who says on the question of what is good or evil in his Essay Concerning Human Understanding; Book 2, Chapter XXVIII, Paragraph 6: “God has ordained it in such a manner that certain activities produce general happiness, preserve society, and even reward the doer. Man has discovered this, and has established it as a practical rule. With that rule are connected certain rewards and punishments either by God Himself (reward and punishment of infinite size and duration in the Beyond) or by mortals (legal penalties, social approval or condemnation, loss of honor); good and evil which are not the natural effect and results of the actions themselves. Then men look to those rules or laws, be they divine or made by the State, and the laws of usage or of private opinion, and measure their actions by them. They judge the moral value of their actions according to whether they conform with the rules or not. Moral good or evil therefore amounts only to conforming or not conforming our action with a law which by the will and power of the legislator determines for us what is good and evil.”
Therefore good and evil has been and still is today what the authorities want or do not want. Christianity for centuries has been preaching not only to Germans but to all nations of the world: “Let every man be subject to the authority above him.” And the authorities do not move beyond conscience and morality so long as the expansion of national egotism is not opposed by clear laws and commandments and irrefutable legal convictions.
The highest good, summum bonum, in international morals of nations has not yet been mandatorily codified. There does not exist any authoritative idea for the community of nations. Instead of discussions on individual ethics and individual criminality, the Prosecution should have submitted its accepted principles and criteria as international common law, which was not done.
Therefore, with regard to the standpoint of the prosecuting authorities as to the personal responsibility of acting statesmen, I feel impelled to look upon this as a totally new philosophy and one which is very dangerous in its consequences.
Apart from the misdeeds of the individual, which do not satisfy even the minimum of moral conceptions, the ethical conceptions of National Socialism and the actions resulting from them, insofar as they are an expression of National Socialist ethics, cannot be subjected to the judgment of a human forum, since they are an event of world history. And the fate and guilt of the Defendant Rosenberg likewise cannot be judged conclusively within the framework of this Trial. As to the question of deciding the criminal guilt of the defendant, that is the hard task of the High Tribunal; but his potential historical guilt cannot and will not be judged by the Tribunal. Rosenberg, like all persons of historical importance, has acted according to his character and spirit, thereby perhaps becoming guilty in the eyes of history. The more freedom of action a given personality has in his will, the clearer the importance of conditions and the one-sidedness of all human activities becomes, and out of an insignificant guilt there grows, particularly in historical personalities, an enormous power which decides the fate of many, and which remains a gloomy foreboding for whoever lets it loose.
Goethe once said: “The doer never has a conscience; no one feels his conscience but the observer.” But this maxim can never mean that a person must not move and act to the best of his knowledge and conscience, and particularly for his country’s sake. And we all know that in reality nobody is capable of attaining the good he is striving for. Just as his knowledge, so will his actions always be incomplete: Any action we accomplish as free beings is an infringement on the operating forces of the universe, which we are never able to assess.
Rosenberg was caught up in the destiny of his nation in a period of severe foreign political oppression and internal dissension. He struggled for cultural purity, social justice, and national dignity, and rejected vehemently all elements which did not admit these high values or consciously attacked them in an irreverent manner. With respect to foreign policy he stood for an agreement between the four central powers of the European continent, in full realization of the grave consequences of a lost war. He acted in all loyalty and respect toward a personality who appeared to give political shape and increasing power to his ideals. After the political victory at home, Rosenberg proposed that the polemics and other aspects of the period of struggle be subdued. He stood for a chivalrous solution of the existing Jewish problem, for spiritual and cultural instruction of the Party on a high plane and, contrary to the statements of the Prosecution, he opposed any form of religious persecution. He can hardly be reproached for emphasizing a definite religious-philosophical conviction of his own.
The practical application of many of his views was practiced to an increasing degree by authoritative agencies of the Party, although later they were disregarded, especially after the outbreak of the war. Finally, as has been discovered now, they were often turned into the opposite of what Rosenberg fought for.
Until 17 July 1941 Rosenberg was excluded from participation in any national legislation. Considered from the point of view of personal responsibility, all his speeches and writings up to that time come within the scope of unofficial journalistic activity which every politician and writer must admittedly be free to engage in—a freedom which the Tribunal has fundamentally acknowledged with regard to all utterances by the statesmen of other countries during the unofficial period of their career. It seems to be all the more significant that Rosenberg as a private citizen did not call for war or for the commission of any inhuman or violent acts.
As Minister for the East he advocated a generous solution in accordance with the understandable national and cultural aspirations of the eastern European peoples. He fought for this concept as long as there were any prospects for its realization. Ultimately realizing that Hitler refused to be persuaded, he requested his dismissal. The fact that Rosenberg could not prevent many outrages from happening in the East cannot be charged against him in the criminal sense. Neither the Armed Forces nor the Police nor the Allocation of Labor were subject to his authority. Whenever injustices or excesses came to his knowledge, he did everything he could to counteract them.