But you, Honorable Judges, must recognize from the attitude of the defendant Milch that he never became unfaithful to himself, and even if he had been perhaps under the spell of erroneous conception, he has always wanted the best for his and other people.
I have profound confidence in you, Honorable Judges, that you, equally detached from your own people, will find an independent, true and righteous judgment that corresponds to the truth. I shall consider it as an honor for my person if I have contributed to this through my painstaking labor.
[152] Defense Counsel Dr. Friedrich Bergold delivered the closing statement before the Tribunal on 25 March 1947, Tr. pp. 2377-2435.
[153] Trial of the Major War Criminals, vol. I, p. 226.
[154] Ibid., p. 253.
[155] Memorandum of 15 September 1941 from Canaris to Keitel concerning an OKW order regulating the treatment of Soviet prisoners of war, contained in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. VII, p. 411, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1946.
VI. FINAL STATEMENT OF THE DEFENDANT,
25 MARCH 1947[[156]]
Defendant Erhard Milch: Since I became a soldier in 1910 my work has been devoted to my German people. In the First World War I was at the front from the first to the last day. Then with others I built up the German air lines, and when in 1933 the government asked me to enter the Air Ministry, despite many misgivings, I could not refuse to take up that task because it was pointed out to me that I could not turn a deaf ear to this call of the German people.