Q. The witness Gros testified that she had been convicted for racial and political reasons. What do you have to say to that?
A. That is altogether untrue. The decision was based solely on the logical application and interpretation of the law in accordance with the decisions of the Reich Supreme Court while taking into consideration the particularly difficult and dangerous conditions prevailing in the rural districts in wartime. Such points of view as those of race and biology and whatever else you may call them, as I pointed out yesterday, played no part whatsoever in any of my decisions and judgments.
Q. And you will now tell us something about the Wdowen case. The witnesses Gros and Pfaff evidently tried to minimize that offense. What do you have to say to that?
A. The facts of the case can be seen from the judgment which is available to the Tribunal, and I therefore need not to go into any detail. Apart from the fighting and the aid given by Kaminska, this was a very violent and altogether unusual attack against the policemen; it was a kind of attack on the policeman who had arrested the Kaminska woman, and Wdowen was trying to get the policeman to release his grip on Kaminska. Gros and Pfaff as witnesses disputed that fact; one can only refer to the fact that Wdowen himself never disputed his own intentions and his motives.
Q. What was the legal evaluation of the Wdowen offense?
A. That offense by Wdowen was considered by the court as a crime under article IV of the decree against public enemies[439] and the indictment had given the same evaluation. I should like to point out that assaults of that nature against police officials ever since the beginning of the war, and that is by all courts who tried such crimes, had been sentenced under the same provisions, that is to say under article IV of the decree against public enemies. As a rule, the Wdowen case is by no means an exception. The need to protect particularly rural districts and the need which became greatly increased due to the wartime conditions, and such need for protection was due to the fact that the police was very short of staff, and, because of all that, an attack of that kind on the police—who worked under very difficult conditions—always resulted in a very severe penalty.
Q. Was the law against Poles applied in the Wdowen case?
A. No, it wasn’t. Only article IV of the law against public enemies.
Q. Was the Wdowen case the subject of differences of opinion at the consultations?
A. As far as I remember, it wasn’t.