over-simplified and over-generalized formulas of the post-war period and contemplate the events of this period from the point of view of the two basic forces which have always decided the flow of events. Not one nation alone is guilty, but ideas and the weight of concrete conditions among the nations fighting for their survival and future find human representatives who are capable of unloosening the pent up tension. The concrete situation facing the nations after this war shows that the tension which still persists and grows daily goes deep back into the past and far beyond the German people and its intentions. take into consideration that these defendants here were thrown into a historic development which they did not cause and which went on independant of their will. None of them has himself selected his place in that development as a result of which he now sits in this dock. They were the target of impulses which made them act as they did independently of their own aim in life. They entered on their task convinced that they were backed by a genuine and justified moral force. They felt that their work was necessary even if it opposed their own inner tendencies and interest, because the existence of their people was in deadly peril. They were the same good average citizens as you find them by the million in all countries. They never thought of criminal activities or criminal aims. They felt that they had been put into an inevitable, awful, and gigantic war which was to decide not only on the survival of their nation, their families and themselves, but where they were also the shield against a unique enemy also for other nations. They were in no position to judge the necessity and methods of this war. They were not responsible for this. They could not be responsible for this. Any other attitude would have been in contradiction to the customs of the states in force for centuries, and the existing responsibility of the highest leaders of the nations. They had to accept the methods and the orders in this war as did all soldiers in all countries, and those who looked at history and who from the things history taught them concluded that the future would be the result of inexorable moral laws ever faced by the tension between the two basic forces in history; in their longing for the realization of ethic and moral ideas and the power of actual history with its overwhelming strength.
They also felt the natural human urge for peace and a normal life with their fellow beings. But the passion of their moral existence included the metaphysical stipulation that the existence of their people must be preserved.
I never lost faith that God is manifest in history; even though we may not understand his ways, no situation will deprive me of my faith that life and death in this world has a reason and must be regarded affirmatively. Never in one moment of my life have I failed to offset the overwhelming forces of practical history with religious, moral, and ethical impulses, whenever life demanded something of me. I always regarded history as the realization of ideas for which human beings were both subject and object and which yet seemed to point to something beyond them. I am of the opinion that this Tribunal will use the historic facts which have become known in the last two years on the background of the past period, facts which not only threaten the existence of the German people, but are a menace to the whole world, in order to truly understand the realities of history in their broad ideological and material implications. The fact that the victorious powers declared the German people guilty and the statement that its legal moral and ethical basis of the past had been unlawful, immoral, and unethical have confused and uprooted the German people as well as the individuals who were heard here in Nurnberg as the representatives of that people. Thus, this legal, moral, and ethical suffering of the German people became greater than the material one which threatens its physical existence. May the verdict of this court take into account the reality of historic conditions and developments and give the Germans, individually and collectively the opportunity of true selfrealization. lest they be kept in the grip of despair because their existence is held to take place outside historic reality and their future fate is based, not on the firmness of law, but on power and force.
without expressing my gratitude for the very generous way in which you have dealt with the problems which we have regarded as important to these proceedings.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Jost will now make his statement.
DEFENDANT HEINZ JOST: Your Honor, having grown up in the years of need of the German people, I decided in 1928 to enter the NSDAP, because I believed that I found in this Party the movement which alone was suited to be able to prohibit the fall of Germany, and was in the position to be able to offer resistance to the ever increasing 1/2ressire pf Bolshevism within Germany, and also abroad. I believed that I would best be able to fulfill my duty toward my people and my Fatherland by taking this path. This point of view also caused me to enter the SD in 1934, an organization which I considered a just and necessary arrangement, an instrument capable of representing particularly in an authoritarian state a constructive rehabilization agency connected with necessary criticism. considerations which I have submitted at length. satzgruppe A, and Chief of the Security Police and SD Eastland in late March of 1942. with this assignment, and in connection with known orders then at hand, and other orders which were given to me later by my superior, I was charged with a singular responsibility, a responsibility which fortunately only few men have had to bear in the long course of history. The execution of the orders given me meant the death of 10,000 people. The knowledge and acqaintance with the fate of these victims, and, in addition, about the inevitable fateful result of this order for the German people brought me to a state of conflict regarding my duties which can not be described today with mere words. I decided in the course of this conflict to undertake everything in my power to render a further execution of these orders impossible, and to commit myself to the revocation of the orders. I myself gave no order, and I did not pass on the order which I received from Heydrich, and I did not carry out the instruction from the Reichs kommissar to render Eastland free of Jews.
I took this position because I had to take it. I did not act in this way in order to derive thanks from some person; neither did any opportunistic considerations influence me. And, moreover, I certainly did not act in this way in order to have an alibi for a prosecutor one day, because in the Summer of 1942 such thoughts would have been absurd. It was possible for me to prevent a further execution of this order for five months so that all Jews who lived in this area at the beginning of my activity there were still living at the end of my activity there. Three-hundred deaths in an area larger than Germany, and in a span of five months are proved by the Prosecution, and these are exclusively concerned with partisans, or such people who had forfeited their lives because of offenses against the laws of war. If I expressed in an appeal that Jews, too, stood under the protection of the laws with their life and property, that was the expression of my conviction that even the Jewish people have their right as a portion of the Godly creation in exactly the way that the German people, too, have this right to live. of a certain Roman Loos, and this statement is supposed to be a standard for the activity of a commander when confronted with orders like the Fuehrer Order. I can only say that in my position I fulfilled all these conditions. I expressed to all my superiors my opinion and my point of view. I did not leave my subordinated in any doubt about my ideas. If the Prosecution introduced documents of this nature, then they would have to be permitted to work favorably for the defendants who acted in accordance with the conditions therein contained. I personally was completely aware of the results which could follow from my actions. It was in the hands of my superiors to act in accordance with them, and finally they did so. Mr. Wartenberg stated in the course of an excited interrogation in May 1947, "We know that you acted very decently in Riga.
We know, too, that you have done everything humanly possible in opposition". This statement admits the compelling conclusion that they were aware of this material which mitigating for me. But they did not submit it. believe as a German and as a man that I acted justly. I can *---* my actions to myself and to any Tribunal in the world with a pure conscience.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Naumann will now make his statement.
DEFENDANT ERICH NAUMANN: Ill conditions within the German people, patriotism and conscientiousness were the reasons which, in 1939, caused me to join the NSDAP. Inspired by the very same patriotism, and the same conscientiousness, I chose the opportunity from 1928 to take part in the brief courses which were held in those days by the then Reichswehr, the predecessor of the later German Army, and, part from exercising my profession, to train myself as a soldier in order to be able to defend my country, should the necessity arise. Thus I received my basic training and visited the NCO officers' courses. to let me join the Army until I achieved my aim, and was able to join the Army in April of 1940. However, this condition did not last for long. As early as December of the same year, I was to return to my former office. Owing to my personal acquaintance with General Juettner of the Waffen-SS, who held then the corresponding rank of Chief of General Staff in the Waffen-SS, I managed to remain with the Army. But through a decree of Himmler I was recalled to my office in March 1941. At the end of November 1941 I took over Einsatzgruppe B by personal order of Heydrich, and thus became acqainted with the Fuehrer Order, which is being dealt with in this trial. Apart from this instinctive attitude against this order, there was the fact that this order had been given by the Supreme Commander, and the Chief of State during the war.
Apart from the wish not to have to comply with this order, there were the considerations that the oath rendered to the Chief of State left no possibility to evade it, and the realization that it was a legal order, as it was given by the Chief of State. In this inner conflict of emotions, in this enormous collision between duty and conscience, I conducted myself as has been described by my counsel in his plea. his assistants for his labors he underwent in my behalf. Psychologically, I rejected this order. On the witness stand I have attempted to give as true a picture as possible of this inner conflict. The testimony of my comrades Steimle and Ott equally show how strong and how serious our objections were against this order. Steimle's and Ott's testimony supported my inner attitude, but we clearly recognized that we had neither the possibility nor the power to take any steps against the order. The Fuehrer Order was also subject of discussions with my military superiors in Russia, the Commanderin-Chief of Army Group Center, Field Marshal von Kluge, and the Commander of the Rear Army Territory, General von Schenkendorf. Also Field Marshal von Kluge, who exercized the entire executive power in Central Russia, and who was the only man in this area who had immediate access to the Fuehrer, stated, that there was no possibility to evade the Fuehrer Order. On many occasions I discussed this with General von Schenkendorf and the result was the same. I would like to say here that friendly relationship developed between von Schenkendorf and myself in spite of the high position and high rank, and his ago; von Schenkendorf was then 68 years old.
he became my fatherly friend. According to information that I had access to I believed that Germany had anticipated the immediate impending attack on the part of the Soviet Union. I was furthermore convinced that Bolshevism was a tremendous danger for Germany and Europe, and that all forces must be mobilized to avert this danger. How right this attitude was has been proved not only by the subsequent period. The causes which led to the cooling off of the Allied relationship between U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. prove, I believe, the accuracy of my original point of view.
There I was, a soldier and officer in the East. It was in accordance with my inclination as a soldier, that I regarded my assignment as a purely military one and that I complied with it accordingly. The situation in the Army sector, and the very imminent partisan danger provided the opportunity for this. Therefore, I mobilized the Forces of Einsatzgruppe-B to a large degree for Partisans' reconnaissance and combat, which was made a reason by my superiors later on to reprimand me. bined a battalion of Russians who voluntarily fought on the German side, and had put themselves at our disposal with the Police Company of the Einsatzgruppe-B, a unit of many of the Waffen-SS who were part of Einsatzgruppe-B, and a number of voluntary Ukrainians into one combat unit, and reported voluntarily for combat against partisans as commander of this newly formed unit. This was approved by my superiors. In the course of this combat, I was decorated with the Iron Cross Third Class for bravery before the enemy. I merely mention this fact because the Prosecution in their trial brief, have mentioned this decoration as a reproach. I would like to tell the Prosecution here that I am still proud of this decoration which I have earned for bravery before the enemy.
a unit commander during the whole period of war, because, first, the battalion of Russians, and, later, the mixed battalion were withdrawn from the territory of the Army Unit, and thus I had to dedicate myself entirely to the leadership of Einsatzgruppe-B. I was a German soldier and officer in the truest sense of the word. Whenever I had to order, or to act anywhere, and anyhow on my own initiative, I have always acted in a humane manner. If I was confronted with an order by the Supreme Commander, or the Chief of State, I saw just because I was an obedient soldier no possibility to disobey this order, even though my inner attitude resisted it. When I was in Russia, it so happened that I took over Einsatzgruppe-B only five months after the beginning of the war, and, therefore, I did not have to comply with the Fuehrer Order, because the Fuehrer Order had been given to the Chiefs of the Einsatzgruppen and the Commando Leaders at the very beginning. To reject the order I had neither the power nor the possibility. The fact that obedience is the supreme duty of a soldier is shown in the well known speech of the British Field Marshall Montgomery of 1946, in which he says:
"No matter how intelligent the soldier is, the Army would leave the nation in a lurch if she (that is the Army) was not used to obey orders immediately.
It is ing which the Army, i.e., the nation, gives him."
soldier receives and executes severe and severest orders. How could it be possible otherwise that my home town of Dresden, which housed no factories nor any installations of war importance within her boundaries, should be destroyed within 36 hours, and, thus more than two-hundredthousand defenseless human beings, mostly old people, women and children were killed, buried, or cruelty wounded. How would it otherwise have been possible that the old city of my last garrison, old Nuernberg, had been turned into a rubble heap.
How would it have been possible that the first atom-bombs were thrown on Japan, and thousands and thousands of defenseless people had been killed, that through the very consequences of the atom-bomb even the unborn generation will have to suffer? superiors, even if it was not in accordance with their conscience, when they had received the orders, with the reason that they were necessary in order to reach the war aim. my inner attitude have given me the confidence so that I was able to answer the question of the President of this Tribunal which he put to me on 15 September 1947, with a clear conscience and deep conviction by "NOT GUILTY".
THE PRESIDENT: Defendant Naumann, you made reference to a military decoration. The Tribunal will indicate to you that you do not need to make any apologies for a decoration received as a soldier in honorable combat. Any such decoration is respected by all mankind. The Defendant Schulz will now make his statement.
DEFENDANT ERWIN SCHULZ: May it please the Tribunal. To the charges made against me in this trial I have expressed myself on the witness stand. That which had to be said by way of summary was put forth by my defense attorney Dr. Durchholz in his final plea. I have nothing to add to these statements because they corresponded with the truth. Thus, and in no other way, the events unfolded before me. charges of the Prosecution; my statements are impeached. On the day of capitulation I made myself available without qualification for myself, and for the thing which I have to represent not in order to lie but to serve the truth.
test the truthfulness of my statements because of my readiness in all ways which certainly has not occurred frequently in connection with investigating authorities. If the many men were interrogated, whose names Mr. Wartenberg read to me from a long list, then the result of the questioning can have been nothing other than that which I said myself, excluding the events, naturally, which took place within me. according to which 12,000 people have been shot under my responsible leadership of Einsatzkommando V. Each member of Einsatzkommando V who was there during my time can truthfully say nothing other than that such a charge is devoid of any basis. men have always been holy for me. Just as I am concerned to maintain the purity of my own honor, I consider also the honor of my fellowman, no matter who it was. And it was also not otherwise in Russia. At no time did I deviate capriciously or without feeling on the subject of the fate of human beings. witness - that never in my life at any place or at any time have I maltreated or tortured a human being. Neither have I ever participated in an order to this end, nor have I tolerated such an act silently. Had I discovered such an inhumane act within my area, I should have committed myself against it with all means at my disposal. That this is the case is proved also by the affidavits which have been submitted, which for the most part were made available most voluntarily by former political opponents. a conclusion which is not in harmony with my conception, I wish to try to attain understanding here, too. But that should not after the fact that I can answer to my conscience for that which I have done and permitted. This accounting to my conscience is, however, all that I should like to do myself.
wards humanity, because I carried within me personally the conviction that the respect of my Fatherland is dependent upon that respect which it deserved from its environment. I acted in my position on this promise. fidently await the decision of the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Six will now make his statement.
DEFENDANT FRANZ SIX: Your Honor, I was always a scholar but never a policeman. My life was honorable, whether at the desk of the university, or at the desk of an office, which I served understandingly, and not militarily. The four weeks of my assignment in the East did not constitute an exception to this. And I do not have to reproach myself in anything as a man and as a soldier than as today. Thus my first word in this trial can remain my last word, NOT GUILTY.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Blobel will now make his statement.
DEFENDANT PAUL BLOBEL: May it please the Tribunal, Contrary to the assertion of the Prosecution that I did not serve at the front and that my activity did not take place in the confusion of the front line, I would like to say once more in conclusion: My assignment was exclusively in the combat area and not in the rear area. In addition this assignment was the result of an order by the RsHA, which legally is to be considered equivalent to a war draft. Like every soldier I was subject to the harsh war laws. I too became enmeshed, by the assignment in the East, in conflict between law and morality, obedience and refusal to obey orders, harsh necessity of war, and personal feelings, a conflict which can hardly be retold today, and which can hardly be explained to the outsider. mass executions of Jews, Communists, and other enemies, since I personally lacked every prerequisite to bear the responsibility for such a decision.
bach as a final order. I expected certain executive orders. There were issued to me when I was subordinated to Sixth Army Headquarters.
Executions were not ordered by me personally. The executions which were carried out, at which I was present, were decided upon and ordered by the Commanding General of the Sixth Army, Fieldmarshall von Reichenau according to documentary statements. to my knowledge all events with which any man of Sonderkommando IV-A had to furnish a small group of men, as per order, is responsible for by far the greater part of this number. Whether any of these men took part in this execution is something of which I am not personally aware, since I did not actively participate in this operation. due to infectious diseases. Only relatively late did this condition lead to my being relieved, after the superior authorities finally had knowledge of the medical opinion about my reduced military fitness. operations connected with it, as can be seen from the hospital papers which have been submitted. orders given to me by von Reichenau, I did not commit war crimes and crimes against humanity, as the Prosecution states. I can face my wife and my children with a clear conscience, and I can look into their eyes. I am NOT GUILTY before God and my conscience.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Blume will make his statement.
THE DEFENDANT BLUME: May it please the Tribunal, my defense counsel in his final plea and myself when in the witness stand commented already on the actual questions of this trial and its legal problems. Therefore I only want to add a few words with regard to my personality. university acquainted me with the values of western culture. At the same time Germany was a sacred concept for me. After the conclusion of my studies and at the beginning of my professional career in 1933 it was the aim of my life to become an official in the internal state administration. But fate sent me to the branch of the political police. In all those years from 1933 until 1945 I saw nothing else in all the developments in Germany than the great effort to eliminate the moral threat through Bolshevism against our Western cultural values. According to my conviction of that time, this purpose was served by Adolf Hitler's policies, even when he in the middle of 1941 led Germany into the war against the Soviet Union. the inner values of man, and on the belief in ideals. I always tried to realize these ideals in my personal conduct of life as well as in my profession. This required in particular a correct and clean attitude as an official and the endeavor to serve justice and law in my professional activity. In those cases where my character could not agree with certain orders received in my activity, I tried up to the last limit to dominate with my own humane attitude. I therefore believe that during my entire professional activity, I helped incomparably more people without their knowing it, than I interfered in human destinies and made them suffer in the execution of the authority of the state.
All in all I feel myself free from any legal guilt. I therefore expect your judgment, Your Honors, with perfect calm and confidence.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Sandberger will make his statement.
THE DEFENDANT SANDBERGER: I do not want to make any statement.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Seibert will make his statement.
THE DEFENDANT SEIBERT: May it please the Tribunal, I do not wish to add to the statements of my defense counsel about the actions indicted here in this trial in Russia, because I am of the opinion that that which had to be said about it has already been said. I had requested my defense counsel not to make any lengthy statements about my character and my life otherwise. Above all the reason was that the Tribunal already knew my life even in brief outline because of my testimony on the witness stand, and that my activity in the SD, especially outside of Russia, always took place in the economic department. The documents of the prosecution prove this. SD I feel myself free, so free of every guilt according to the best of my knowledge, that I dare to claim that it is no coincidence that the prosecution did not succeed during the time of my detention, which is more than two and three -quarters years, to mention even one human being who has been harmed through my activity. that not only here but already in '45 and '46 I was interrogated about my activity longer than seven months in the headquarters of the British Secret Service in Nenndorf. After the completion of these interrogations in February 1946 I was charged with nothing but I was committed then to an internment camp for automatic arrest. I feel free of every guilt.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Steimle wall make this statement.
THE DEFENDANT STEIMLE: May it please the Tribunal, may I precide my final words with the story of an event which I experienced at the end of September or beginning of October '41 in Welich, the headquarters of my kommando, and which I related to Mr. Wartenberg during the interrogation?
by a partisan attack. The competent military field commander handed over to me a number of farmers from collective farms from a village which was located near the site of the attack. He asked me to have these Russians shot as hostages by my kommando. For this purpose I ordered an interrogation of the prisoners concerned. The invesgitation showed that these men could not be connected with the partisan attack. I therefore ordered their immediate release. received the indictment for participation in systematid genicide. As far as my situation is concerned, it seems to me to be especially symptomatic in this trial too, insofar as the interrogator at the time greeted my truthful story with sarcastic laughter and did not believe me. Whatever the Prosecution may bring up, the inner certainty of having the truth on my side induces me once more to present the following concerning the charges made against me:
1. At no time during my command, either in Kommando 7 a or in Kommando 4 a, did I give orders to carry out the Fuehrer Order, just as little as this Fuehrer Order was carried out in my two kommandos, to the best of my knowledge.
2. Numerous crimes against the security of the German troops which were punishable according to announcements, especially the appearance of partisans, gave my kommandos cause, by order of the competent army, to take action against the bearers of this resistance movement and also to carry out death sentences in the process.
3. These convictions resulted on the basis of detailed interrogations which proved the individual guilt of the individual defendants.
4. At no time did my kommandos carry out any collective measures during my command.
5. The Communist functionaries who are reported as having been shot were convicted as active leaders of the resistance movement.
The documents submitted by the Prosecution cannot brand me a criminal nor a war criminal. No witness who experienced my activity has supported this claim of the prosecution, even though the prosecution interrogated officers and men of my kommando in detail. into contact with the National Socialist movement once upon a time. I wanted to serve Germany, to help German people. The end of the war finds my generation facing an immense abyss. Where we dreamed of future well-being and peace, we found ruins and distress in their stead. No history-conscious man will claim that such an event is thinkable without human weakness and guilt. Likewise, every historically-minded man knows that it is impossible, after such an event, to distribute the guilt individually or even to charge all to one people alone. As a former SS officer and National Socialist I am prepared to take my guilt upon myself. It does not lie in a punishable act which I might have perhaps committed in Russia. If I am to express this sense of guilt only in an approximate manner I will say this: Hundreds of thousands have, together with me, placed their faith and idealism into the hands of a few people with too great a confidence and have thereby laid the foundation of one of the causes of our unfortunate time. Thus alone did I and many others become unmeshed in the guilt of our time. Surely their guilt is not a criminal one, but a political one. As an upright man I will answer for it.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will take its afternoon recess and reconvene in fifteen minutes.
(A recess was taken.)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
THE PRESIDENT: In view of the fact that the microphone is not protable to the back row of the defendants' dock, each defendant, as his name is called, will please come to the center of the defendants' box and speak into the microphone standing there at that point.
ERNST BIBERSTEIN: Your Honors, I have nothing to add to the deliberation of my defense counsel. As to all charges of the Prosecution I do not feel guilty before God and my conscience.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Braune will come to the microphone.
WERNER BRAUNE: Mr. President, Your Honors: I have nothing to add to the final plea of my defense counsel.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well. The defendant Walter Haensch.
WALTER HAENSCH: Your Honors, when this trial started I pleaded not guilty. With this idea I begin my final words. At no time did I have any connections with war crimes or crimes against humanity, and equally am I unable to see anything criminal in my membership in the SD and, therefore, also in the SS. that I am here today. Documents have been found, which appear to speak against me. However, a benevolent fate made it possible to prove to Your Honors that I actually had nothing to do with the events reported in the documents. I underline here to its full extent what my defense counsel has said about this. I returned from there. I myself never did commit anything criminal, nor did I see others do so, nor did I ever hear of it. Also, nobody ever suspected me of committing a criminal act. What actually happened during this war in this respect - especially the treatment of the Jews on account of their race - I have learned, and of this I assure you again, only after the collapse of Germany, and the full details I heard only in this trial.
I did not know the so-called Fuehrer Order. One could, therefore, not ask me now to feel guilty about this which is something which does not correspond to the fact. I, therefore, do not want to deal with it at this point, but only want to say one thing - had such an order been given I myself would have left nothing unturned in order to fight against it, just in the same way as otherwise I always interfered against injustice and corruption without consideration of my person. met during this trial, to check on my assertions and ask whomever they wanted to about my person and activities because I did and have nothing to hide and, therefore, have nothing to fear. It was clear to me that only truth could wash the suspicion off me, which the false statements in the documents had cast on me. Therefore, I avoided everything which could have shaken the proof put forward in my defense in the remotest way, and I know that all those who have helped me in providing for my evidence or who testified for me, did the same. For this reason I even restricted to a minimum my personal correspondence with my family. This was in no way easy for me, worried as I was about my wife and my aged mother, both of them being almost without means of subsistance at the present time. point out that I only joined this organization in the belief to serve my people best in this way. This was my conviction when I swore fidelity to the Head of the State. This oath was no obligation to blind obedience as far as I was concerned, but left sufficient amplitude to my own responsibility. I related which events induced me to join the National Socialist Movement. It was the situation created in Germany by Bolshevism at that time. Everything I saw with my own eyes showed the development which could only end in chaotic destruction. To stem this danger I considered my duty, not only as a German, but also as a member of the entire civilized world.
I do not think that I made a mistake in the recognition of this danger. It is still my conviction to this very day. made me join the SD and the SS. I have nothing to add to this point. intention. My intention, however, was and is clean. Nobody can disturb the peace of my conscience. However, there is another thing, which ought to be defended. This is honor. It is exposed to outside attacks. Please do understand that I suffered a great deal and still suffer under the accusations of the Prosecution, because they charged me with a guilt, of which I feel myself free. As a man who at one time was privileged to serve justice I trust that you, Your Honors, will dispense justice to me, and will find me not guilty as my defense counsel has applied.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Nosske.
GUSTAV NOSSKE: Your Honors, I have declared since the very beginning that I was determined not to obey the Fuehrer Order. And indeed I did not carry it out. as during war time it is imperative in enemy country. On the other hand, the knowledge of this order prompted me to try with all means to sever my connection with the Gestapo. I have made many attempts in this direction, however, I failed. Only as late as 1944 I succeeded to leave the Gestapo. I refused to obey an order, which I could not evade, but should have carried out. The consequence of my leaving the Gestapo was that I was sent to the front as a soldier, and this could be considered as extreme leniency towards me. Just as well I could have been court-martialled and executed for disobedience. I did not have an easy time as a soldier but was assigned to those placed where fighting was hottest, which is proved by my combat wound. I ask you, Your Honors, to consider all these circumstances, and put my life in your hands.