He knew nothing at all about them. He did not commit these crimes; neither as a principal nor as an accomplice. He neither ordered such crimes nor instigated them. He did not take a consenting part in them either. On the contrary, he always eliminated minor abuses and constantly saw to it that the conditions of the foreign workers were ameliorated by special gifts. He was in no way connected in a causative manner with the planning or execution of these crimes, and here I refer you to my earlier legal statement, for he would have had to know about them, that such atrocities, murders, and other inhuman acts occurred in connection with the recruitment, transfer to Germany, and treatment within Germany if he is to be held responsible for them. Neither did he belong to the organization which was connected with the recruiting, transport, and treatment, namely, the Organization Sauckel. If at all, he could be charged only with the utilization of foreign workers.
No just man who values that name can, by virtue of knowledge subsequently acquired, condemn the actions which a defendant committed at an earlier time in ignorance of what later became known. Today the whole world is full of the horrors which have been brought to light. It is not true, however, that these horrors were desired by the supreme leadership. That Sauckel acted independently here and that he alone bears the guilt is shown by Defense Exhibit 3, in which Sauckel lied to Hitler, saying that workers had never been treated so well as by him.
I do not wish to defend Hitler. As a German, I myself have every reason to raise the most bitter and serious charges against the man whose account of guilt can never be paid up, but here it must be said that Hitler could hardly have included the commission of atrocities and murders in his plan for the foreign workers, for if that had been the case, Sauckel would not have had to lie as he did. Then he would not have had to pretend to his lord and master that he was treating the foreign workers so well. Such lies, such deceit, are practiced only by the subordinate who is aware that he has violated instructions and that he can be punished by his superior.
Document R-124, Defense Exhibit 32 shows clearly that in two cases Sauckel acted against Hitler’s instructions in committing his crimes. Therefore, even Sauckel’s labor organization was not created for the purpose of committing atrocities, murders, and other inhumane acts. Sauckel and a number of his subordinates made themselves guilty on their own accounts, and as guilty persons they strove to keep secret and to cover up their crimes. That the defendant cannot be responsible for these secret acts is hardly to be doubted.
I realize that in answer the prosecution will remind me of all the documents with severe statements by Milch which have been submitted to the Tribunal. This is a serious count of the indictment, but one can achieve clarity on the complex of questions thus brought up only if one considers whether Milch made these severe statements only against foreign workers and prisoners of war or whether they were simply a part of his nature.
The witnesses Richter, Foerster, Hertel, Eschenauer, Pendele, and Vorwald have confirmed that Milch in his tantrums threatened even his German subordinates, his best workers, with hanging and shooting, and here in this room several men have appeared on the witness stand whom the defendant shot or hanged in words. This clearly shows that the defendant was not one-sidedly filled with hatred of the members of foreign nations; besides, this was hardly to be expected in the character of a man who for years energetically worked for peaceful collaboration with other peoples and who despised the racial doctrine and the idea of the “master race”. Rather, it makes it clear that he threw out such wild expressions only when he was excited, so that his subordinates acquired the habit of laying bets on the number of people who would be shot, when they knew that exciting matters were up for discussion. I read a number of passages to you from the notorious speech before the quartermasters and fleet engineers, in which he raged against those present and against himself in the same terms as he used against the foreigners. And in other documents submitted by the prosecution, one can find such expressions used against Germans, against members of the leading class of the German people, and against German workers. All this proves that an unfortunate inclination of Milch is here expressed for which, like a sick person, he cannot be held responsible, especially since he never carried out the punishments which he threatened. All the witnesses whom I have called to the stand from Milch’s entourage have testified that he used such terms only in tantrums. These tantrums occurred frequently, and always when he had met with major difficulties in the way of his work to save Germany from complete destruction. He was a sick man. He suffered several very serious accidents, all with severe brain concussions. It is an old experience of medicine that such people are easily excitable, and you must not forget how much this man had on his mind. He was a clairvoyant. He knew that the war was lost for Germany. He realized what horrors Germany was doomed to through the increasingly violent air war. He knew what help was possible in the distress of his people, and he had to stand helplessly by while his short-sighted and perhaps malevolent superiors frustrated, hampered, and prohibited all his precautions. In such severe physical distress, even a healthy man would become so irritable that he would be subjected to violent outbursts of anger. How much more violent would these outbursts be in the case of the sick defendant. His distressed soul housed in a suffering body, helplessly exposed to its worries, reacted in this way to relieve the tension.
Many witnesses, in particular the witness Vorwald, have told you that when such excitement occurred the defendant even changed physically, that the back of his neck became red and swollen and that afterwards he no longer knew what he said while he was in such a state. That this testimony, especially that of the witness Vorwald is true, is shown with actual certainty by the incidents between the defendant and Goering on the occasion of the report on the crimes committed by Terboven in Norway on the civilian population, and Document R-134, Exhibit 159 of the prosecution. The prosecution without justification bitterly reproached the defendant for failure to protest against this monstrosity. The defendant in his defense was not able to answer that he had done so. Vorwald has testified that this process took place in connection with an outburst of anger about precisely that incident, and because the testimony of Vorwald that the defendant did not remember afterwards what had happened during his period of excitement is true, the defendant was not able to carry out a full answer in his own defense because of his excitement. He did not remember. Your Honors, it is clear you have achieved deep insight into the souls of men. Therefore, surely you are able to judge that this incident has revealed the truth of what the defendant and his witnesses have told you. Otherwise he would be able to cite his protest as a defense against the charge of the prosecution.
Now, I assume that the prosecution will object that these fits of rage occurred much too frequently and that they are therefore not a pathological symptom but a normal expression of his character. Your Honors, this can be disputed by a very simple consideration. The so-called GL (Generalluftzeugmeister—Air Ordnance Master General) meetings took place twice a week. That means that from the time when the defendant took office there were a total of about 160 meetings. In addition, there were 60 meetings of the Central Planning Board. Finally there were about 30 Jaegerstab meetings, altogether about 250 meetings in which the defendant participated. The meetings lasted many hours. According to my concept the average number of pages of verbatim transcript of the GL was about 200 for a single meeting, or about 30,000-32,000 pages for the GL alone. If one includes the transcripts of other meetings then one comes to figure approximately at least of about 35,000 pages for all the transcripts at a conservative estimate. This is an enormous figure from all these many meetings. From all these many, many pages of transcript, the prosecutor has been able to submit only a very few pages with only very occasional extravagant statements. Therefore, the question is asked whether this was the normal tone of the defendant. It is also significant that in the meetings of the GL, such outbursts occur much more frequently than in the transcripts of the Jaegerstab or the transcripts of the Central Planning Board. In the GL meetings the defendant was in his own realm among us “parson’s daughters”, as the witness Vorwald said. Such outbursts naturally occurred there more often because according to experience a human being can let himself go more easily among his most intimate friends than among his subordinates. Nevertheless the outbursts remained isolated.
How curious is it that the emotional disturbances of the defendant occurred repeatedly in connection with the same subjects of discussion, for example, in the question of the work done by the French industry, the French people, the question of so-called slackers, or the discussion of threatening and inciting remarks made by foreigners. Sometimes several outbursts occurred at brief intervals, one after the other. Why, your Honors? Because the matters that excited the defendant were not settled. But this leads us to the question of whether the defendant followed up these wild words with deeds. He never did. Just consider, for example, the question of slackers or the question of the work done by the French industry, the French people. These apparently so malevolent orders issued in anger were not carried out. These stones were repeatedly laid in the path of the defendant. Here, your Honors, I ask you to penetrate into the depth of the circumstances with the understanding that characterizes a legal person. The defendant repeatedly became excited, for example, over the so-called slackers, Germans unwilling to work whom he considered to be traitors. Each time he issued strict orders, expressed wild threats, but would it not have been the most natural thing for this excitable man on all these occasions, which followed one on the heels of the other, to shout at his subordinates and to reproach them, to ask them why the orders which he had given and supported before in anger and which he had advanced repeatedly had not long since been carried out? Would that not have been the most natural and the first thing that he would have done in his anger if he had really expected and wanted his wild orders carried out? Your Honors, look at it from the human point of view. Revive all the experiences of your long and no doubt rich lives and examine with me whether I am not right in what I say.
I challenge my learned opponent to show me in all these instances, which are really appalling, one single expression indicating that the defendant objected to the failure to carry out his earlier threatening orders. Not a single word can be found and here, your Honors, the truth becomes so obvious that no intelligent man can ignore it. It sounded incredible in the mouth of the witnesses when they said again and again that no such orders were carried out. It has been put to the defendant that it is improbable that a field marshal did not expect his orders to be carried out and that all his subordinates did not immediately rush to carry out his orders, but the man who is sitting before you told the truth in spite of all appearances to the contrary, for if he as a field marshal had expected his orders issued in anger to be carried out then he would surely at one time or another have expressed dissatisfaction because they had not been carried out. But he did nothing except to get angry from his sickness and his anxiety about his people. It is clear not only from the Terboven case that he actually knew nothing about what he had screamed out and that he never seriously pressed home his demands. The Court has questioned him repeatedly about these expressions. He always supplied that he did not remember them and he did not believe that he had said so. He has often had to tell you that what he shouted was wrong if he had actually said it. That too seemed incredible at first, but as this man afterwards no longer knew what he said in these attacks then he cannot testify about them. It is also clear that a man in such a fit speaks many untruths and one cannot assert that he lied deliberately. The man, as I say today, has told you the truth as far as he can know it to the best of his knowledge and belief. These transcripts cannot convict him of untrustworthiness. Moreover, in many cases the transcripts are no doubt full of mistakes, distortions, and errors. I have shown you a number of passages which must be wrong. I have shown you transcripts such as NOKW-359, Exhibit 75, which speak of Milch’s presence and statements although on that day he could not have been present in the Jaegerstab. This is also true of some records of ostensible GL meetings. I have also proved that other transcripts make no logical sense in German and that several statements must have been run together there. Today, of course, no one can say whether these various statements were all made by the defendant. Many witnesses which I have examined on this matter, for example, to name but a few, Richter, Pendele, Hertel, Speer, and Vorwald, have testified that the transcripts contained many errors and that they were never corrected, that they were sometimes even intentionally distorted when the defendant attacked his superiors. Such passages were either left out or changed in such a way that the attacks on the person in question were no longer recognizable. But who would seriously consider it permissible to use such faulty transcripts as evidence?