Q. What was the basic line of your conversations with Elkar, or the basic topic?
A. As I have already stated, the conversations were mainly on problems which were raised by opinions which were gathered from the population. That then led to problems of a general nature, for example, the general development of wartime criminality in one field or another.
In general, that was the direction in which our conversations developed and that was also the aim of such conversations.
Q. Could everything be said in such conversations without restrictions?
A. I believe that that was the only possibility at that time in Germany where a person could say exactly what he was thinking; and the reason for that is because, in this connection in particular, only the truth was at stake for they were interested in finding out what the population was actually thinking in regard to certain events, measures, laws, speeches, judgments, etc.
Q. Do you know in what form these reports were forwarded?
A. That is not known to me; I never read such a report.
Q. According to Elkar’s testimony you directed your attention to the development of criminal and penal proceedings. (Tr. p. 2890.) What ideas did you represent?
A. I believe I have already stated my position on that question. I do not remember a great deal in detail regarding what was discussed at that time. One question, for example, which interested us and which demonstrates how we came to speak about these matters and what opinion we represented is the question which was frequently discussed in this trial, and that is the contact of the prosecution during the trial with the court because of the application for penalty. Opinions from circles of lawyers and judges and from the prosecution were gathered for this purpose at that time. I myself represented the opinion that this problem grew into a problem only because it was treated in a wrong manner on the part of the administration of justice. The entire question could be solved by a small remark in the “Deutsche Justiz,” namely, by pointing out that the law does not provide that a formal application has to be made, and therefore it would have been sufficient to instruct the prosecutors to refrain from a formal application for penalty and to be satisfied with adducing the evidence and then stating the reasons which spoke for and against the defendant. With that, the entire excitement and fuss which was caused by the formal application for penalty could have been avoided.
Q. What reason did you give for this suggestion?