As for the cases reported to me this is briefly to be said:
(1) The letter of the defense counsel to a traitor in a penitentiary speaks for itself. Not only is the unconcealed wooing of clients repulsive, but especially the inconceivable lack of dignity and the servility with which this German lawyer addresses a declared marked enemy of the state, calling him “Dear Sir,” wishing him “all the best for the future,” and after mentioning “his esteemed wife” closes with “best regards and Heil Hitler, yours.”
Surely it cannot be expressed more clearly that one is unqualified for the legal profession.
(2) The lawyer, whose plea was that “we would be glad if our German prisoners of war would be shown a kindness” shows a total lack of understanding of the seriousness and significance of this offense. It is not the business of German women “to show kindness” to prisoners of war, but they should behave as German women. Decency and honor should bar the least contact with prisoners of war who are still our enemies. What should women who have resisted the temptation to which the defendant fell say if they hear a lawyer express such views?
(3) As for the defense counsel, who was “impressed” by the attitude of the Czech industrialists who had bought butter without ration tickets because the defendants “like real German men they took the blame for their wives who were really responsible,” all that can be said is that he knows very little about the tasks of a German lawyer. Here again the lack of tact and understanding was not that he tried to minimize the offense. He obviously knows nothing about the situation of ethnic Germans in the Protectorate and about the interests of the German people. To mention a speech by one of the Czech defendants in one breath with a speech by the Fuehrer was—no matter how it was meant—outrageous. Such a thing cannot be excused as an “awkward mistake.” Lack of instinct is a feature of one’s character.
(4) The lawyer who pleaded for a factory owner, accused of an offense against wartime economy, was it is true right in pointing out that the defendant also thought of his workers when he acquired food illegally. As far as this was a fact he even had to point it out. But in disregarding the fact, that the defendant as the sentence of 2½ years penal servitude shows bought considerably for his own benefit, he has violated his duty as defense counsel. Furthermore, in trying to influence and mislead the court by saying “and now condemn the accused” thus demanding the acquittal of the defendant, he went far beyond the limits of a possible and legitimate defense. This suggestion had to give everybody and not least the defendant, too—to whom he should have explained his offense—the impression that the sentence was unfair and as such contrary to the interest of the people. This type of plea does not serve, but damage the administration of law.
(5) The next two cases also show that some defense counsel have not yet, in the fifth year of war, recognized the importance of criminal proceedings to war economy. To excuse black market activities with the obesity of the accused can scarcely have been meant seriously and can, of course, not meet with success—except for the bad impression counsel makes. This again cannot excuse the temporary lapse, because counsel has, by saying incorrectly and tactlessly later on that the Reich health leader himself describes the food rations as insufficient, revealed that he himself disagrees with our laws and government. The 16 objections and reprimands brought up against him so far confirm the picture, which he has given of himself in this case.
(6) To defend parties and dinners given by the two “better class women” with the help of stolen ration cards by saying that business, so to speak, required such parties is just as stupid as it is to expect the court to find the defendants not guilty of an offense. Such statements not only show considerable lack of understanding of the importance of criminal cases in the field of the law of war economy, but they should never be made at all in a court of law.
(7) Humor should certainly not be suppressed especially in difficult times, but only where it is appropriate. But it is inconceivable for a defense counsel to reproach a court or the prosecution for their lack of humor, because a defendant who indulges in a drunken brawl annoys people and resists the police received a well earned punishment. The defense counsel would have done better to consider that in the fifth year of war one should not burden judges and prosecutors with uncalled for petitions for mercy and complaints; about the latter there is still much to be said. He would have done better to make it clear to his client who had already repeatedly made himself unfavorably conspicuous, how to conduct himself in these times instead of backing him up by his false statements.
(8) If in this case the defense counsel raises legal doubts against the assumption of an insult to the mother, he can thus only intend to obtain an acquittal. Therefore as a representative of the law he takes the view that in such cases according to our law there is no protection of the honor of soldiers killed in action and their relatives. This attitude and his subsequent conduct at the trial, in which he called the gravely afflicted mother of the dead soldier “hysterical and highly strung,” when facing the judge she naturally re-experienced her pain and sorrow, revealed, even had the mother been very excited, a rare absence of any feeling for the community and human compassion. He who tries to cover such a criminal deed, particularly as a representative of the law, puts himself ideologically on a level with the defendant.