A. I would not have participated if I had known the whole documentary material which became known in our first big trial. If I had known that Hitler since 1938 had prepared for war and had tied the fate of his people to his own to such an extent that his end was the end of his own nation——
Q. I didn’t intend to enter into such a long discussion on this. All I had in mind was that if those in your classification, as specialists, would have observed international law, and would have known clearly what international law was—the restrictions, the limitations and so on—and if we assumed that these specialists were men of character, then, even though Germany had at the helm a navigator who had become mad, he could not have run the ship on to the rocks for the simple reason that you and the other specialists who assisted in the present shipwreck, would have refused to ship on a venture which was so obviously bound for the rocks, internationally speaking. Is that true or not?
A. That is so without a doubt.
Q. And would you go so far as to say that had there been an international trial of the proportions of the one we have just had, and these which are now following, after the First World War, and the knowledge resulting from decisions handed down would have become well-known because of the punishments which would have been inflicted, would you say that that might have served as a bar against a Second World War?
A. I do not wish to say that it could have stopped and Hitler——
Q. If Hitler had not had specialists, Hitler could not have wrecked the world himself. Hitler had to have a Speer and had to have the others who were condemned in the first International Military Tribunal. He could not have done it alone.
A. That’s quite clear, but these specialists were taken into their part of the war without realizing what the connections were and an international trial is not a wholly certain method to prevent a new war; but I think it’s a very essential contribution toward that aim. I am unable to answer your question by saying that Hitler would have been unable to find collaborators if, after the First World War, these trials had been held, but I do wish to say it would have been much more difficult for him, also because our specialists were not very intimately connected with the Party circles.
Q. Well, I think that’s a point I wanted to find out; that, if the specialists had refused to collaborate, knowing that the contribution of their service meant a completely illegal undertaking, then Hitler could not have conducted a war by himself and therefore there could not have been a war?
A. In technical warfare the specialists are decisive factors for the conduct of war, but the specialists are not to be regarded as being the parties principally responsible. They do not have the necessary knowledge of the background, the political background—essential in view of Hitler’s untruthfulness—to see where he is taking the ship.
Q. The ship could go nowhere without you specialists. That’s all.