It is very difficult for a defendant to find the right final words here. In methodical, detailed work throughout the last months, the defense has tried to rebut the charges of the prosecution.
When now the prosecution states in its final plea that details do not matter so much, but that the entire complex of questions has to be considered as a whole, that one has to look at matters as at a bundle of sticks, not as individual branches and twigs of the bundle. If, furthermore, the prosecution refers to a sentence pronounced in the Far East by an American Military Court, by which a Japanese general and military commander was sentenced only because, as a commander, he bore the responsibility for all the acts of his troops, regardless of whether he ordered them, knew of them, approved of them, or did not even know of them—if, gentlemen of the Tribunal, these principles are decisive for proceedings, then I have to ask, why bother at all to start proceedings of that kind, to prepare them, and to carry them out? Those decisions could be made much more quickly.
What can I, as a defendant, bring against these arguments? That can be said in a few words: myself, my work, my acts as a doctor and a soldier in 35 years of service. Not the craving for glory and honor was the purport of my life’s work, but the firm intention to put my entire capacity, my full knowledge, into the service of my beloved Fatherland; to help the soldier, as a physician, to heal the wounds caused by wartime and peacetime service, both as a physician for the individual, as well as a medical officer for the mass of troops which were in my care.
That was the aim and object of my work. I do not believe that I have deviated from that path. My eyes always looked towards the final goal: to help and to heal.
E. Final Statement of Defendant Genzken[[37]]
During my testimony I stated before the Tribunal that I took no part in the types of experiments of which I am accused. I have nothing to add to what my defense counsel Dr. Merkel has said. I have striven to lead a decent life as a doctor and as a soldier. If my fatherly concern for my 2,500 doctors and 30,000 men of the Medical Service of the Waffen SS was mentioned here in this courtroom, it is nevertheless my duty to speak from this place on behalf of those men who, in the majority, were decent and brave doctors and medical attendants. I am proud to have been their leader, a leader of those who sacrificed their lives and blood with unceasing fervor to help me in building up the organization of the Medical Service of the Waffen SS, and to overcome the tremendous losses among the ranks of our comrades at the front.
The soldiers of the Waffen SS have proved to history—in the focal points of uncounted battles during an uneven struggle—that they could rank among the finest troops on this earth as far as training, efficiency, readiness of sacrifice, soldierly valor, and contempt of death were concerned. Actions of modern warfare have presented to some extent a picture of murder and horror on both sides. Who dares to raise his head before God and gainsay that?
The men of the Waffen SS went as vanquished into captivity, out of unimaginable physical and mental war distress. That captivity was not free of bloodshed, ill-treatment and degradation of various kinds. To the men of the Waffen SS there was added to the weight of such captivity the frightful realization of the fact that their supreme commander, Himmler, had misused their cloak of honor and deceived them, that they had been cheated and then deserted by him. These decent men of the front Waffen SS certainly did not deserve that fate, the fate of being branded as members of a criminal organization.
My request and my wish is that our former opponents should realize the honest idealism of these victims, do justice to it, and give them back belief in justice.