The last witness of whom we shall speak is Karl Wolff. In his affidavit he spoke of meetings between Himmler and Milch over coffee and cigars. He spoke of the great cultural works of the SS. Was he speaking of Dachau and Mauthausen? With some vehemence, he insisted that he had deported only 1,050 Jews from all of Italy. He knew nothing of Dachau that led him to believe that anything unusual was happening there; although he did say that, in his visit there in 1942, the place was so clean that one could have eaten from the floor.
These represent a fair cross section of the witnesses, all of whom had roles of varying importance in the tragedy with which we are here concerned. Even as the defendant contends that he knew nothing of what went on, so do they echo the same refrain.
Much time has been spent in attempting to discredit the Schmundt record of the 23 May 1939 meeting. The Court is familiar with the findings which have been made by the International Military Tribunal on this subject. There has been no additional light thrown on the matter by the evidence here presented to indicate that the Schmundt record is anything other than a correct record of the events which transpired at the meeting.
We wish to discuss now in conclusion one document offered by the prosecution. This we have saved until the last because we believe that of all the evidence presented by the prosecution it is most typical of the defendant as a man and as a Nazi. We refer to the minutes of the conference of air force engineers and others which was presided over and was addressed by the defendant on 25 March 1944. This document, like so many others in this case, was initialed by the defendant.
The defendant stated that, as of the date of the conference, “We have in our employ today approximately 60 percent foreigners * * *.”
He continued, “The ratio is gradually approaching 90 percent foreigners, with 10 percent German managers.”
These are statements by a man who said he did not know about the extent to which foreign labor was used in his own industry, let alone in Germany. He stated that—
“The Fuehrer order provides clearly that the fighter plane program, which the Jaegerstab is starting, has priority over all other fields of armament * * *.”
He showed knowledge of the production of tanks and infantry munitions. He spoke of having the air force production “to an extent safely underground” in four months’ time. It is here that he stated that he was head of the Jaegerstab and that Saur was his deputy and Chief of Staff. Touching on his conferences with the various plant officials, he stated—
“On the spot the individual gentlemen are then told—supported by the combined authority of the State, the Wehrmacht, and the Party, that is Saur and me, Speer is unfortunately still on sick leave, otherwise he would also be present—what it is all about.”