dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
DR. THOMA: Above all, he cannot then be punished as a criminal on the basis of his teachings. What criminally degenerate persons practiced as alleged National Socialism cannot be laid to the charge of Rosenberg. Moreover, Rosenberg's speeches in three volumes, which express what he taught in the course of 8 years, bear witness to the honorable nature of his endeavors. Thus, if we relinquish the false conception of uniformity: One party, one philosophy, one ideology, one crime-and we will have to, in view of the indisputable fact that Rosenberg himself never pursued a policy of extermination, destruction, and enslavement in the East-we shall have to admit that the facts of the terrible central executive orders and of Rosenberg's philosophy are not identical, and on these grounds alone the conclusions of the Prosecution are invalid. Karl Marx teaches that historical events and political social reality are conditioned by the mere casual play of materialistic forces. Whether Marx in addition acknowledges the independent influence of man and ideas on history is at least doubtful. On the other hand, Rosenberg stresses emphatically the influence and the necessity of the highest ideas in the history of peoples. But Rosenberg does not overlook the fact that every event in history is the result of a totality of acting forces. The will, the passions and the intelligence of the people involved work together to form a historical process which cannot be calculated in human terms. It has already been pointed out that, just as little as Voltaire's and Rousseau's ideas can be recognized as the causes of the French Revolution, and the slogans of "Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity" be taken as the cause of the Jacobinic terror, as little as one can say that Mirabeau and Sieze had wanted or plotted such a blood bath, so little can one ascribe to Rosenberg as his moral or even criminal guilt that which National Socialism became during its development through the decades.
DR. THOMA: In other words, I believe it is as unjust as it is unhistorical to ascribe today, in retrospect, the negative aspects of National Socialism, which were connected with the terrible collapse, to a plan desired from the outset and emanating from Rosenberg's ideas. Therefore, in considering Rosenberg's work the mistake of a standardization which does not correspond to reality is added to the further mistake of mechanization; there is neither a mechanical man nor mechanical history. And, finally, the construction of the Indictment is also an absolutely negative one; it views the defendant from the standpoint of political polemics and is impressed by the excitement of people in these excited times. I must briefly take exception to this distortion of the defendant's mental traits. The spiritual state of the period after the first World War and even of the preceding period, which gave birth to the defendant's ideas, are known to all of us only too well: The turmoil in the spirit and soul of man brought about by the technical age, his hunger and thirst for a new spirit and a new soul; liberty was the slogan and a "new beginning" the impulse which directed the will of youth. Its longing and enthusiasm were aimed at nature. The thoughts and wishes of this generation were led into political paths by the contrast between rich and poor, which youth considered unjust and sought to bridge through socialism and the fellowship of the people. In Germany the development along political lines was given further impetus by the national misfortune of 1918-19 and the Treaty of Versailles, which was likewise felt to be unjust. The idea of building German history through the union of nationalism and socialism glowed unconsciously in the hearts of millions, as the undisputed tremendous success of National Socialism proves. The spiritual foundation was the desire for external and internal self-assertion and love for one's fellow countrymen and for the people themselves, who had had to suffer so much torment and misery in history.
DR. THOMA: The desire for self-assertion and love for one's own people, together with the whole system of National Socialist ideas, then developed in an inexplicable manner into a furious conflagration. The most primitive considerations of common sense were eliminated just as in a delirium; in complete delusion everything was risked and everything was lost. The searching questions which present themselves to Rosenberg time and time again are whether he could have done more for what he thought and upheld as just and worthy; where he neglected essential things; where he fell short of requirements, what negative symptoms, insofar as he had knowledge of them, he should have paid more attention to. Can such questions, which every person asks when he is crushed by disaster, be considered as evidence for his objective guilt? I do not think so. On 17 January 1946 the French Chief Prosecutor, M. de Menthon, stated the following, which I quote (Volume V, Pages 378, 379): "We are rather facing systematic criminality which directly and necessarily derives from a monstrous doctrine with the full will of the leaders of Nazi Germany. The crime against peace, which was undertaken, is immediately derived from the National Socialist doctrine." To refute this assertion I must briefly present this doctrine. I have classified the National Socialist ideology-in accord, I believe, with scientific opinions-under the so-called new romanticism. This trend, which was grounded in fate and the necessities of history, had gone through the whole civilized world since the turn of the century as a reaction against rationalism and the technical age. It differs from the old romanticism in that it adopts the naturalistic and biological consideration of man and history. It is borne up by a confident faith in the value and meaning of life and the whole of reality. It does not glorify sentiment or intellect, but the innermost motives of man-heart, will, and faith.
DR. THOMA: This philosophy receives its National Socialist stamp through the emphasis which is placed upon the mysterious importance of peoples and races for all human experience and activity. It is in the people, in the common possession of blood, history, and culture, that the real roots of strength are thought to be found. Only by participating in the movements of a people and its strength does the individual serve himself and his generation. Rosenberg's scientific contribution to the racial ideology consists in his description of the rise and fall of great historical figures, who sprang from races and peoples and set up definite standards in all spheres: language, custom, art, religion, philosophy, and politics. According to Rosenberg the efforts of the twentieth century to establish a form for itself are a struggle for the independence of the human personality. In Rosenberg's opinion, its essence is the consciousness of honor. The myth of national honor is at the same time the myth of blood and race, which produce and support honor in its highest form. Therefore, the struggle for honor in its highest form is also a spiritual struggle with other systems and their maximum values. Thus, intuition stands against intuition, will against will. Rosenberg expresses this thought in the following manner (The Myth of the 20th Century, Introduction, Pages 1 and 2): "History and the task of the future no longer mean a struggle between classes, no longer a struggle between Church dogma and dogma, but the dispute between blood and blood, race and race, people and people. And this means: A struggle between psychologies." Consequently, Rosenberg had, in any case, no ideas of genocide as Raphael Lemkin expounds in Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, Page 81, where he ends the above quotation after the words "race and race, people and people," but he believed in a struggle between psychologies, in other words, spiritual controversy.
DR. THOMA: I mention this spiritual trend in order to explain the peculiar fact in National Socialism that political considerations born of the intellect often gave way before the pathos of will and faith. In Rosenberg's case this danger did not appear so much since in making everything revolve around the "soil," that is, the fatherland, and its history and peasantry as the force from which springs the essence of a race, he remains in the sphere of life's realities. Perhaps unaware of it himself, he was nevertheless borne upward by this current. The question arises as to what effects this ideology had on political life. It is clear that the emphasis on will and faith gave special weight to political demands. After the Treaty of Versailles the political demands of Germany were aimed at recovering freedom and equality among the peoples as a still fettered great power. This had been the objective of German statesmen even before Hitler. The other great powers had certain misgivings about recognizing Germany again as such. Rosenberg fought to remove these misgivings. His weapon was his pen. The Tribunal has allowed me to present in evidence a group of excerpts from Rosenberg's speeches and writings. I submitted it in my Document Book 1, Volume II. In view of the quantity of material and of my intention to submit only the most important matter, I depend on the Court's being familiar with my document book. In the first place I wish to call attention to the effect which these works had on German youth. I may recall the witness Von Schirach's testimony. I repeat verbally: "At conventions of youth leaders, at which he spoke once a year, Rosenberg chiefly chose educational, character-building subjects. I remember, for instance, that he spoke on loneliness and comradeship, personality and honor, and so forth. At these conventions of leaders he did not deliver any speeches against Jews. As far as I remember, he did not touch on the religious problem of youth either, in any case not to the best of my memory.
DR. THOMA: Mostly I heard him talk on such subjects as I have just mentioned before." The attitude of youth was actually better than before the taking over of power. Idleness, the root of all evil, had ceased and had been replaced by work, the fulfillment of duty, the aiming at ideals, patriotism, and the will to get ahead. It was a fatality here too, that through Hitler's policy these values were directed in the wrong manner. The charges by the Prosecution that Rosenberg was the advocate of a conspiracy against peace, of racial hatred, of the elimination of human rights, of tyranny, of a rule of horror, violence, and illegality, of unbridled nationalism and militarism, of a German master race, I could already refute by pointing to the excerpts from The Myth of the 20th Century, which the Prosecution itself has submitted as evidence for the truth of its assertions. In reply to this, in order to refute this assertion by the Prosecution, I want to point in particular to the following facts: To prove Rosenberg's honest struggle for the peaceful existence of nations side by side I wish to refer to his speech in Rome in November 1932 before the Royal Academy of Rome (reproduced in Blood and Honor, Document Book 1, Page 150). In his speech in Rome Rosenberg pointed to the fateful significance of the four great powers and proclaimed- I quote his words: "Therefore he who strives in earnest to create a Europe which shall be an organic unit with a pronounced multiplicity of form and not merely a crude summation, must acknowledge the four great nationalisms as given to us by fate and must, therefore, seek to give fulfillment to the force radiating from their core. The destruction of one of these centers by any power would not result in a 'Europe,' but would bring about chaos in which the other centers of culture would also have to perish.
DR. THOMA: In reverse it is only the triumph of the radiations in those directions where the four great forces do not come into conflict with each other which would result in the most dynamic force of creative being and organic peace, not an explosive forced situation such as prevails today, whereby it would guarantee to the small nations more security than appears possible today in the struggle against elementary force." To this line of thought Rosenberg, as Chief of the Foreign Political Office of the Party, remained true. Unfortunately, he could only work for it through his words. No witness could confirm in this courtroom that Rosenberg had any influence on actual foreign policy, whether it was directed by Neurath, Ribbentrop, Goering, or Hitler himself. Neither in the Austrian, nor in the Czech, nor in the Polish, nor in the Russian subject matter has his name been mentioned in connection with the charge of participation in aggressive wars. Everywhere he was placed before accomplished facts. In the war against the Soviet Union he received his orders only when the war against Russia had already been established as an acute possibility. Me did not stir up the Norwegian campaign, but passed on personal information in accordance with his duty. Now, as regards Rosenberg's speeches and writings on the problems of general foreign policy, he advocated the Anschluss of the Austrians, who had been forcibly excluded from the Reich, as a demand born of the right to self-determination which had been proclaimed by the Allies themselves. The revision of Versailles was a postulate of justice against a violation of the Treaty of 11 November 1918. To advocate the German Armed Forces was, in view of the nondisarmament of the other powers, a defense of the solemnly promised equality of rights. I shall now take up the charge of racial hatred. Rosenberg's opinions in regard to the race question were the result of racial research of international scientists.
DR. THOMA: Rosenberg repeatedly asserts (I refer again to the opinion stated in Document Book 1, Volume II) that the purpose of his racial political demands was not contempt of race, but respect for it. I quote Page 70: "The leading moral idea of an approach to world history based on the laws of heredity belongs to our times and to our generation, being in full accord with the true spirit of the modern eugenics movement with regard to patriotism, that is, the upholding and expansion of the spiritually, morally, intellectually, and physically best hereditary forces for our fatherland: only in this way can we preserve our institutions for all future times." These words embody the main theme of his demands, though their originator was not Rosenberg, but Henry Fairfield Osborn, Professor at Columbia University, who wrote them in discussion of the book by his colleague in science, Madison Grant, The Decline of the Great Race. This research, long before the existence of the Third Reich, led to eugenic legislation in other countries, in particular to the American Immigration Law of 26 May 1924, which was aimed at a strong reduction of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe while favoring those from the north and west of Europe. I do not think I have to say that I am not hereby defending the murders of those mentally diseased in Germany as an alleged eugenic measure. With this measure, too, Rosenberg did not have the slightest connection. For Rosenberg it was a question of the spiritual strengthening and consolidation of the German nation, indeed of the Aryan race. He would like to have his ideology considered in that light, above all The Myth of the 20th Century. His preaching of the significance of race in history did not call-I stress this again-for race contempt, but for consideration and respect of race, and demanded the acknowledgment of the racial idea only by the German people, not by other nations. He considered the Aryan nations as the leading ones in history.
DR. THOMA: And if in doing so he underestimated the significance of other races, as for instance the Semitic ones, he, in his praise of Aryan races, did not think of the German nation alone, but of the European nations in general. I refer to his speech in Rome of November 1932. I am keeping within the framework of historical truth in pointing to the fact that anti-Judaism is not an invention of National Socialism. For thousands of years the Jewish question has been the minority problem of the world. It has an irrational character which can be understood to some extent only in connection with the Bible. Rosenberg was a convinced anti-Semite, who in writing and speech gave expression to his convictions and their foundations. I have already emphasized that even such different personalities as Von Papen, Von Neurath, and Raeder are still of the opinion that the predominance of the Jewish element in the entire public life had reached such proportions that a change had to come about in this respect. The concrete result of that predominance, the fact that the Jews in Germany when attacked knew how to repay in kind, sharpened the anti-Semitic fight before the accession to power. I wanted to present to the Tribunal a selection of Jewish literary attacks on the national feeling at that time, but the Tribunal ruled that my application was irrelevant; as these writings were not introduced as evidence I cannot speak about them. It is, however, an injustice to Rosenberg to assert that blind hatred of the Jewish race had goaded him into that controversy. He had before his eyes concrete factual evidence of the disintegrating activities of Jews. It appeared as if the Party program of placing Jews under a generous law of aliens would be realized. It is true that Goebbels at that time arranged a one-day boycotting of Jewish stores.
DR. THOMA: Rosenberg, however, in his speech of 28 June 1933, the anniversary of the Versailles Treaty, in the assembly hall of the Reichstag in the Kroll Opera House, declared that it was no longer necessary that in the capital of the Reich 74 percent of all lawyers should be Jews, and that 80 to 90 percent of the physicians in Berlin hospitals should be Jewish; about 30 percent of Jewish lawyers in Berlin would suffice amply. In his speech at the Party Rally in September 1933 Rosenberg stated in addition, and I quote: "In the most chivalrous way, the German Government has excluded from the percentage stipulations those Jews who have fought for Germany at the front, or who have lost a son or a father in the war" (Document Book 1, Page 153a). In his speech at the Kroll Opera House Rosenberg gave the reason for this measure, saying that there was no intention thereby to discriminate against a whole people, but that it was necessary for our younger German generation, who for years had had to starve or beg, now to be able to obtain bread and work too. But despite his strong opposition to the Jews he did not want the "extermination" of Jewry, but advocated as the nearest aim the political expatriation of Jews, that is, through classifying them by law as aliens and giving them protection as such. In addition, he granted to the Jews a percentage access to nonpolitical professions, which still by far exceeded the actual percentage of Jews in the German population. Of course, his final aim was the total emigration of the Jews from Aryan nations. He had no understanding and appreciation of how great a loss to the Aryan nations themselves such an emigration would be in cultural, economic, and political respects. But one will have to admit that he believed that such an emigration would prove useful for the Jews themselves, first, because they would be set free from all anti-Semitic attacks, and also, because in their own settlement area they might live unhampered and according to their own ways.
DR. THOMA: The dreadful development which the Jewish question took under Hitler, which he justified as being a reaction against the policy pursued by emigrants, was never more regretted by anyone than by Rosenberg himself, who blames himself for not having protested against the attitude of Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels as firmly as he protested against Koch's actions in the Ukraine. Nor does Rosenberg hesitate to admit that his suggestion to Hitler to shoot 100 Jews instead of 100 Frenchmen after the recurring murders of German soldiers was an injustice born of a momentary feeling-despite his belief in its formal admissibility-because, from the purely human standpoint, the real basis for such a suggestion was lacking, namely, the active participation of those Jews. I have returned to this case again, as in my opinion it is the only instance where Rosenberg desired retribution by the death of Jews. On the other hand, one must insist with the greatest emphasis that there is no proof of Rosenberg's having been aware of the extermination of five million Jews. The Prosecution accuses him of making preparations for an anti-Semitic congress as late as 1944, which did not take place only because of the course of the war. What point could such a congress have had, had Rosenberg known that the majority of the Jews in Europe had been exterminated already? Rosenberg had no faith in democracy, because in Germany it led to a splitting up into numerous parties and a constant change of government, and finally made the formation of an efficient government impossible. Another reason for his not having faith in democracy was that non-German democratic powers did not stand by their democratic principles in certain cases where they might have been of benefit to Germany, for instance in 1919, when Austria was willing to be incorporated in Germany, and later on at the plebiscite in Upper Silesia. But Rosenberg did not for that reason turn toward tyranny.
DR. THOMA: In connection with Paragraph 25 of the Party Program he said in his comments, on Page 46: "This central power"-referring in this case to the Fuehrer's power-"should have as advisers representatives of the people as well as those councils which had evolved in the course of time" (Document Book 3, Page 6). And in his speech in Marienburg on 30 April 1934 on the state of the German Order, he said that the National Socialist State must be "a monarchy on a republican foundation." I quote: "From that standpoint the State will not become a deified end in itself, neither will its leader become a Caesar, a God, or a deputy of God" (Document Book 1, Page 131). In his speech in German law of 18 December 1934, Rosenberg stressed: "In our eyes the Fuehrer is never a tyrannical commander" (Document Book 1, Page 135). Only in such terms was a protest against the development of tyranny possible. The development passed over Rosenberg and degenerated. Rosenberg himself learned this while acting as Minister for the East. Rosenberg was an idealist, but he was not the unscrupulous man who inspired the State and the Fuehrer to commit crimes. I believe, therefore, that he should not be included in Mr. Justice Jackson's Indictment (Page 8), where it says that Rosenberg belonged to those men in Germany who have been "the very symbols of race hatred, of the rule of terror and violence, of arrogance and cruel power." In looking through Rosenberg's writings one finds, on the contrary, statements and expressions which give a decided impression of tolerance.