A. Yes, that is correct; it took place at Amberg, at the town hall.
Q. Would you please repeat again, so far as you know, the violation of law for which you were indicted and tried?
A. Well, the first arrest originated from the burial of a dead Pole who died at Vilseck and was sent over to the morgue from the hospital as was customary there with the dead. The dead Pole, as every other Catholic, was transported from the hospital to the morgue, therefore, the church had given him the sacrament in the morning. In the morning of this day he asked for a priest, and he was prepared for death. During the afternoon, then, he died. In the evening before we had our evening vespers—that was on a Sunday—the attendant of the morgue came to see me, and he informed me that I had to order the transport of this dead Pole from the hospital to the morgue and would have to take over the arrangements. I asked him whether it was permissible for me to do that, and he said, “Yes; the Magistrate has ordered that you do it.” Therefore, I had no further doubts, and I went to the morgue, that is, to the hospital, and I ordered the transport which was sponsored by the church.
Before I made my sermon at the evening vespers, as is customary at every transport of the dead, I communicated to my parish people that later on a dead Pole would be transported from the hospital to the morgue, because the people want to know who is the dead, who is in the coffin in order to be able to know whether they have any obligation to attend the funeral or not. Of course, as it was a Sunday, there were quite a number of people in the church, comparatively, and quite a number of them attended the funeral, because thus they had an opportunity to go to the cemetery, which was situated outside of our village.
Now, because of this communicating the fact to the people, I was charged mainly by the Special Court. They considered it an invitation, that is to say, that I intentionally invited the population to attend the transport of the dead Pole. That was the main charge made against me by the Special Court of Nuernberg.
They said that at this occasion, as the president said during the trial, I was said to have expressed religious feelings and used them intentionally in order to sabotage the directives of the State.
Q. Father, may I interrupt, please? You state that at the trial, the main charges, so far as you know, were this conducting of a funeral for the Pole and a sermon that you preached the previous year. Is that correct?
A. Well, the main charge in my trial was the sermon. That was the real reason for the trial, during the trial, the sermon was not so much dealt with but rather this whole matter with the Pole was dragged into the trial. In each detail it was talked about—just about this matter of having had the Pole transported. I was considered an insidious priest, and this was told to the public.
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Q. Now, Father, the sermon that you delivered on the occasion in 1941, to which the indictment referred, what text was that sermon?