Q. Do you know how that matter developed further?
A. As for the details of the subsequent development I do not remember them, but one thing I remember for certain, Hesse, with my consent, when Thierack the Minister of Justice had declared himself ready to collaborate in the preparation of this executory order, contacted the competent Referent of the Ministry of the Interior, and convinced them that the provision, purely technically, for the Reich Ministry of Interior, amounted to a basic change of the previous decree, that is to say the 13th decree. He also told them that we didn’t want to have anything to do with this matter. The Ministry of the Interior then withdrew its request, and I was told by Hesse that the matter of a Jewish hereditary law would now be dropped. In effect, an executory order in connection with the 13th decree concerning the Reich Citizenship Law was promulgated on 1 September 1944, and that by the Ministry of the Interior alone without any participation of the Reich Ministry of Justice and without incorporating the provisions concerning article II of the 13th decree, which had originally been requested.
Q. In summing up, Witness, I should like to ask you, is it correct that Department VI, during your term of office, did not participate in the making and carrying out of laws concerning confiscation of Jewish property and that during that time legal provisions about the exclusion of Jewish hereditary rights were not issued?
A. Yes, that is true.
Presiding Judge Brand: May I ask you concerning that. I am wondering if I have the correct understanding of your testimony. Do you intend to say that this 13th decree did not change the previous law of inheritance, the rights of inheritance, but that the only effect was to provide for police confiscation, is that right?
Defendant Altstoetter: Yes, yes, quite. That is my opinion.
Q. Well, was it your opinion that the provision for police confiscation was invalid?
A. Invalid? Invalid, no, not invalid.
Q. The courts which had to do with matters of inheritance in general were courts with which your department had dealt, were they not?
A. Yes, Your Honor.