In a parody on the words of Heinrich Heine we see today that: “Just to have been an SS man is fate in itself”. Although I believe and hope that in that terrible confusion between the decent Waffen SS and the executive organization, I did my duty as a specialist, an officer, and a human being, I still feel bound to make every form of reparation for this confusion. My possibilities for doing that of course are limited.
Without seeking sensation I offered to undergo an experiment on myself as proved, and that without any surgical safety measures, as soon as the first opportunity arose. My responsibility for the execution of the experiments carried out with good intention, and especially for those who were my subordinates, I have emphasized. I have a further criticism and responsibility, which I spoke of not only now in the dim light of my own defense but already in May 1945 on the day when Himmler released us from our oath and from our orders, and he himself left his post without reserve. It was my endeavor with others to prevent any illegal continuation of an SS conception, and for that purpose to take the burden off the shoulders of our credulous youth by making the SS generals responsible.
Today as a private individual I can only repeat what I am ready to do, at least as far as my former professional standing is concerned.
Where, in spite of my earnest endeavors, reproach and guilt seem to cloud the picture in the sphere for which I was responsible, may the consequences affect me in such a way that I may make the path easier for the younger men who, believing in me, also joined the SS as surgeons. I believe that this pile of rubble, Germany, with its wasted biological material, cannot afford to let these fine young doctors perish in camps and in other inactivity. Also I know every measure which would make the work easier for the old German universities and their respected teachers.
I have summarized my point of view in order to help avoid possible mistakes. From unwholesome social conditions it is a pathological and deceptive escape, then as well as today—here and everywhere, to unite and combine spiritual with economic and political concepts. It is a disastrous error to confuse the organized unanimity of voices with harmony. Destructive criticism only brings intolerant lack of cooperation, which interrupts all cohesion. The private as well as the public conscience cannot be subjugated to any official virtue, nor to any temporal moral principles. It can only find its place within a God-given order.
In the spirit of “earthly constructive pessimism”, as I wrote before the war, in this alone consideration for the painful reality of this social catastrophe seems to be found.
My last sentence is to express our personal gratitude to Dr. Seidl who has stood by the side of my colleagues and myself so conscientiously and with such human kindness.
G. Final Statement of Defendant Blome[[39]]
I have testified quite openly before this high Tribunal that particularly up to the outbreak of war I was a confirmed National Socialist and follower. I have also explained why I became a Party member in 1931, and that because political conditions in Germany at the time were moving with giant strides towards a final conflict between Communism and National Socialism, as a result of the economic chaos and the impotence of the German governments after 1919. I have said that I joined the National Socialist Party because I rejected the dictatorial form of the Communist system. In my book “The Doctor in the Struggle”, which was put to me by the prosecution here in cross-examination, I also explained why I went over to National Socialism. This book, however, which was published in 1941, at the time of Germany’s greatest victories, clearly shows my repudiation of the Second World War, to which I do not refer with a single word, not even a hint, although my experience in the First World War takes up considerable space in this book.
After the First World War, Germany was in great difficulties. The situation became progressively worse and more unbearable, when at the turn of the thirties the economic crisis spread throughout the world and even seized hold of the United States. At that time I realized that in such hard times a nation which is drifting toward despair seeks a leader and follows him in blind confidence as soon as he can show great successes.