In order to show the pro-German attitude of a defendant, the defense counsel read parts of a speech which one of the defendants made on some occasion with regard to the aims of national socialism. He interrupted the reading and cried, “I could almost believe I hear my Fuehrer speak.”
4. A factory owner had obtained a great deal of food for the canteen of his factory from the black market and had used part of it for himself. Therefore, he was sentenced to 2½ years of penal servitude for violating regulations for war economy. In his plea the defense counsel pointed to the fact that the food was of benefit to the workers, and thus also armament and the armed forces. He finished his speech with the words—“And now, then, condemn the defendant!”
In answer to the reproach of the presiding judge he declared that he could formulate his plea in other words and demanded the acquittal of the defendant.
5. Counsel took charge of the defense of a woman shopkeeper, who had in several cases sold new bicycle tires and high tension batteries to customers without purchase certificates in exchange for butter, meat, sausage, and bacon. She was sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment and a fine of 1,000 reichsmarks because of continued offenses against the penal order protecting the rationing of consumer goods and the prohibition of bartering.
The defense counsel said in his final speech:
“The defendant is not to be blamed for getting additional food in an illegal way. She is very corpulent and therefore surely needs more than other people. One need only look at that body to see that it needs a considerable amount of food. The food is insufficient even for normal persons. Reich Minister of Health Dr. Conti himself declared, that the food rations are not sufficient.”
The lawyer has repeatedly given cause for measures of controlling him because of his professional conduct. To date, 16 statements of objection and disapproval have been made against him because of insulting expressions to the court, to colleagues and parties, and because of charging of inadmissible special fees, etc.
6. A mother and her daughter were indicted by a Special Court because of offenses against paragraph 4 of the decree dealing with people violating the national emergency orders. The daughter as the head clerk of a firm had stolen a large number of food ration coupons and clothing cards and had given them to her mother. The latter loosened the coupons from the paper and kept them for future use. The food bought with those tickets was often served at their home parties.
In his final speech the defense counsel expressed himself somewhat in the following manner:
“The indicted daughter was the brain of the firm. The rooms expanded, the house expanded. According to that quotation it is but natural that the daughter has given parties and invited guests. The mother is a busy modest housewife, and both are ladies of good family. The fact that the mother loosened the coupons so neatly and guarded them so carefully shows her to be a good and orderly housewife, who proved her orderliness even in this work.”