I take the liberty—because it seems characteristic in this respect—to refer to some pieces of evidence which have already been submitted to the Tribunal, namely:
(1) the affidavit of Medizinalrat Felix Kersten of Stockholm (Document Book Rudolf Brandt, page 8).
(2) two affidavits from Schellenberg and Dr. Stuckart (Document Book Rudolf Brandt, pp. 16-17 and pp. 23-24).
(3) I once more refer to the final plea of Rudolf Brandt (English transcript, pages 11330-35).
(4) I attached two letters of the World Jewish Congress in Paris and Stockholm, addressed to the above-mentioned Felix Kersten, which had been rejected by the Tribunal as unessential pieces of evidence, which, however, throw a distinct light on the personality of Felix Kersten, who, on his part, defends so warmly Rudolf Brandt.
The fact that Rudolf Brandt did not make his own decisions but was under the command of Himmler can be found a mitigating consideration according to Law No. 10 of the Control Council, Article II 4 b.
I appeal to the generosity of the great to make use of this possibility to mitigate the sentence.
A sentence of imprisonment is also a heavy expiation.
The counsel for the defense again and again feels tempted to regret that these trials are too drawn out and through their long duration have a negative effect on the broad masses of the German people. If it is to be the goal of these trials to punish the main war criminals, these procedures should be shortened. The people are not interested any more in the course of these trials, apart from the trial against Goering and others during its first stages; one reason for this is, of course, the general plight; because the hunger of the people, the great mortality, the problem of the prisoners of war who are not returned to their families, the conditions in the East push everything else aside. Furthermore, the long duration of the trials causes even the most lively interest to slacken. But it also seems wrong to pronounce death sentences after such a long duration of proceedings. In the case of the trial of the International Military Tribunal, the people were still able to connect the long duration of the proceedings with the sentences pronounced, because each proceeding was an individual event. The following trials, however, among them, therefore, the doctors’ trial, are much too much drawn out with regard to German legal opinion. If such a drawn-out procedure closes with a death sentence, that death punishment seems hardly justified anymore. German trial procedure does not know such long drawn-out proceedings, the final result of which is a death sentence. The special peculiarities of the Anglo-American trial procedures are the cause for such trials that last for months and months. It has also to be remembered that the defendants in each case have been in custody for almost or more than two years when the trial finally began. Procedures ending with death sentences will have to be carried through much faster. It is in contradiction to one’s reactions that death sentences are pronounced against defendants with whom not only counsel for the defense has worked together for many months, but who also for many months appeared daily in court and were respected by the court, since they are rightly considered innocent until their guilt is finally established.
Neither should one forget that the defendants themselves, after having been held in custody for inquiry for such a long time and having gone through such long drawn-out procedures, have already atoned more for their crimes than if there had been a quick procedure started immediately after the collapse of Germany.