Defendant Lautz: If I understand you correctly, Mr. Prosecutor, you want to know whether the act of treason was punishable only when it, the act, was directed against the State as such, or also when it was directed against an individual person.
Mr. King: Yes. My following question was going to refer to the differences which you raised. But actually you have stated it very well. I want to know whether at this time the period which we are concerned with at the moment, if during that period treason could be committed against an individual who was not a German citizen, and I take it that your answer on that is no, is that correct?
Defendant Lautz: That had been different ever since the law of 1934.
Q. Yes. I know but I am speaking of the law prior to 1944.
A. No, what I said was 1934. I said the law before 1934. I am referring to the law 1934 with article 91 [of the Reich Criminal (Penal) Code] which then became a law.[530]
That article says that the act of treason can be directed against a German national as an individual, and it was a question of interpretation whether “German” should here be interpreted as being of German blood or being a German citizen, and the famous document in which I made a report to the Reich Ministry of Justice deals with that question.[531] It is that report which concerns itself with that question. The courts in the Reich interpreted article 91 to the effect that it was not the nationality which was decisive but the race, the blood.
Q. Yes. Well, it is that letter to which I want eventually to refer. I wanted, however, to get your understanding of the earlier laws before we get around to discuss the question of that letter. What you have just said was that article 91 which was adopted in 1934 expanded the concept of treason to the extent that there could be treason against an individual who was a Reich national; is that correct?
A. Against a German. And who is a German? That was a question of interpretation. I believe I can best make myself clear if I come back to the example which is mentioned in this report. After the occupation of the eastern territories, that is Poland, that is to say after the occupation of those territories, which formerly had been German, the following case came to our knowledge. An ethnic German, a person who was a German by blood, had had the following experiences. Behind his back a Polish agent had hidden espionage material in his home without the German knowing that that material had been hidden there. The Polish agent then chased the Polish police after him, and his home was searched by the Polish police. The material was found and the German who was completely innocent but who could not prove his innocence was tried in Poland before 1939 and he got a very heavy prison sentence. I don’t think you would approve of that, would you? When we occupied the eastern territories that case came to our knowledge—
Q. Excuse me, Dr. Lautz. Is this the Krippner case to which you refer, or is this the Moses case? There are two of them which you mentioned in this report.
A. No, no. I cannot remember the—