dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
DR. KAUFFMANN: On the whole, Kaltenbrunner was but a small cog in this machinery. Earlier I spoke about the orders for protective custody and of their effect. Dr. Kaltenbrunner has affirmed the necessity for work education camps, owing to-as stated by him during his examination-the conditions then prevailing in the Reich, to the shortcomings of the labor market, and to other reasons. And if I am not mistaken, no convincing proof was submitted of ill-treatment and cruelties in such camps. The reason may well lie in the fact that these camps were in some respects only related to, but not on equal footing with, concentration camps. With all available means of evidence, Kaltenbrunner has opposed the accusation of having confirmed orders of execution with his signature. The witnesses Hoess and Zutter stated that they saw such orders in isolated cases. The Prosecution, however, does not seem to me to have proved that any such orders were issued without judicial sentence or without reasons justifying death, with the exception of a particularly serious case reported from hearsay by the witness Zutter, adjutant of the camp commandant of Mauthausen. According to him, a teletype signed by Kaltenbrunner is said to have authorized the execution of parachutists in the spring of 1945. An original signature by Kaltenbrunner is entirely lacking. I add that Kaltenbrunner has contested having any knowledge or information about this matter. I think I may safely claim that he did not sign any such orders concerning life and death, because he was not authorized to do so. Dr. Hoettl as a witness stated: "No, Kaltenbrunner did not issue such orders and could not, in my opinion, give such orders"-for killing Jews-"on his own initiative." And Wanneck explicitly asserted the following: "It is known to me that Himmler personally decided over life and death and other punishment of inmates of concentration camps." Thus the exclusive authority of Himmler in this sad sphere may be considered proved. I am not seriously disposed to deny the guilt of Kaltenbrunner completely on this point.
DR. KAUFFMANN: If such orders were carried out against members of foreign powers, for example, based on the so-called "Commando Order" of. Hitler of 18 October 1942, then there arises the question of the responsibility of that person whose signature was affixed to these orders, because misuse of his name by subordinates was possible. It is certain that Kaltenbrunner never exerted the least influence in originating the "Commando Order." It can, however, hardly be doubted that this decree constituted a violation of international law. The development of the Second World War into a total war inevitably created an abundance of new stratagems. Insofar as genuine soldiers were employed in their execution, even a motive of bitterness, humanly quite understandable-and I am now speaking about the conduct of the Commando troops concerned in violation of the laws of warfare and other things-could not justify the order. Fortunately but very few people fell victims to this order of Hitler, as the Defendant Jodl has testified. Perhaps one might ask me whether it is my duty, or whether I am permitted, to reiterate such points of incrimination as I have just done, since this seems to be the task of the Prosecution. To this I reply: If the Defense is so liberal as to admit the negative side of a personality, it surely is apt to be heard more readily when it approaches the Tribunal with the request to appraise the positive side in its full significance. However, is there a positive side at all in the case before us? I believe that I may answer that question in the affirmative. I already pointed out several facts which are connected with the time of the assumption of office by Kaltenbrunner. During his short 2 years of activity this man has made himself a bearer of decidedly fortunate and humane ideas. I wish to remind you of his attitude toward the lynch order of Hitler with respect to enemy aviators who were shot down. The witness, General of the Air Force Koller, described the decent conduct of Kaltenbrunner, which led to a total sabotage of this order.
DR. KAUFFMANN: After first describing the contents of Hitler's order and Hitler's threat, pronounced during the situation conference at that time, namely, that any saboteur of this order should himself be shot, Koller goes on to repeat the statements of Kaltenbrunner. Permit me to quote a few sentences of the deposition of Koller. Koller says that Kaltenbrunner said: "The tasks of the SD are always given a wrong interpretation. Such matters are not the concern of the SD. Moreover, no German soldier will do what the Fuehrer commands. He does not kill prisoners; and if a few fanatic partisans of Herr Bormann try to do so, the German soldier will interfere . . . Furthermore, I myself, too, will do nothing in this matter. . .,' Koller and Kaltenbrunner, therefore, were fully agreed on that matter. This positive action of Kaltenbrunner, important for the judgment of the actual nature of his personality, does not stand alone. Dr. Hoettl confirmed the fact that, in questions of the future fate of Germany, Kaltenbrunner went, if not beyond, at least up to the borderline of high treason. This witness, for example, confirms that Kaltenbrunner in March 1944 caused Hitler to moderate the plans concerning the Hungarian question and succeeded in preventing the entry of Romanian units into Hungary, that with his support also the planned Hungarian National Socialist Government was not set up for a long time. Dr. Hoettl then says literally: "Since 1943 I told Kaltenbrunner that Germany must attempt to end the war by a peace at any price. I informed him of my connections with an American authority in Lisbon. I also informed him that I had taken up new contacts with an American authority abroad by way of the Austrian resistance movement. He declared that he was prepared to go to Switzerland with me and there to take up personally negotiations with the American representative, in order to prevent further useless bloodshed." The depositions of the witness Dr. Neubacher run along the same lines. But over and beyond that, this witness testified to a significant humane deed of Kaltenbrunner.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Upon being questioned whether Kaltenbrunner had assisted the witness in moderating, as much as possible, the terror policies in Serbia, Dr. Neubacher answered; and I quote: "Yes, in this field I owe much to the assistance of Kaltenbrunner. The German Police agencies in Serbia knew from me and from Kaltenbrunner that in his capacity as Chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service he uncompromisingly supported my policies in the southeastern territory. Thereby I succeeded in exerting influence on the police offices. Kaltenbrunner's assistance was of value in my efforts to abolish the then prevailing system of collective responsibility and reprisals with the aid of intelligence officers." I further mention the relief work of the Geneva Red Cross, which is due to the initiative of Kaltenbrunner. The activity of the defendant with respect to this was portrayed by the witnesses Professor Burckhardt, Dr. Bachmann, and Dr. Meyer. As a consequence many thousands were able to exchange their captivity for liberty. I should like to draw your attention to a few words stated by the Defendant Seyss-Inquart on two points. He mentioned that Kaltenbrunner advocated the complete autonomy of the Polish state as well as the reintroduction of the independence of both Christian Churches, and I might add that Dr. Hoettl testified that Kaltenbrunner defended his activity very energetically and met with most bitter resistance by Bormann. Kaltenbrunner tried to realize his humane intentions not only in this field. Therefore, it seems to me to be of significance also to point out his efforts to make the Austrian Gauleiter understand that any resistance against the troops of the Western powers would be senseless and that in view of this, irresponsible orders for resistance were not to be issued. This was confirmed by the witness Wanneck. The Prosecution held Kaltenbrunner responsible for the evacuation and planned destruction of certain concentration camps. I believe this evidence may not only be considered as inconclusive, but that the contrary has in fact been proved.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Upon the question, addressed to Dr. Hoettl, whether Kaltenbrunner had instructed the commandant of the concentration camp Mauthausen to surrender the camp to the advancing troops, Dr. Hoettl answered: "It is correct that Kaltenbrunner issued such an order. He dictated it in my presence for transmission to the camp commandant." As a supplement Kaltenbrunner, during his personal examination, declared very logically: If the camp of Mauthausen, filled with criminals, could not be evacuated by his orders, an order to evacuate Dachau would have been devoid of any basis by reason of its- compared with Mauthausen-harmless inmates. According to the testimony of Freiherr Von Eberstein, the destruction of the concentration camp Dachau with its two secondary camps was the goal of the then Gauleiter of Munich, Giesler. Finally the witness Wanneck confirmed the fact that such an order of Kaltenbrunner had not become known to him; that, however, due to his position with Kaltenbrunner, he would have known if such an order had been issued by the latter or even the issuance of such an order considered. Who actually issued these orders can no longer be established with certainty. The witness Hoess, in his examination, mentioned an order of evacuation by Himmler, as well as one directly by Hitler. In this connection it seems appropriate to me to refer to Kaltenbrunner's participation in the sad case of Sagan as charged by the Prosecution. With reference to Kaltenbrunner's statement, con firmed by the examination of the witness Wielen, it appears to me to be a proven fact that this matter came to Kaltenbrunner's attention for the first time only several weeks later, after the conclusion of this tragedy. It also appears doubtful to me whether the so-called Einsatzgruppen, introduced on the basis of Hitler's "Commissar Order" of 1941, were still in existence and functioning after the appointment of Kaltenbrunner. Some facts speak for it, others against it. Kaltenbrunner denied the existence of these groups during his term as Chief of the Reich Security Main Office.
DR. KAUFFMANN: I do not want to lose myself in details, but I should like to draw the attention of the Tribunal to these doubts. The same applies, for example, to the so-called "Bullet Decree." Document 1650-PS confirms that it was not Kaltenbrunner but Muller, the infamous Chief of Amt IV, who issued the instructions involved, while Document 3844-PS mentions personal signatures of the defendant. It appears to me that the first document deserves preference. May I finally draw your attention to those documents which are of less value as evidence because they are based upon indirect observation. I believe that the Tribunal possesses sufficient experience in evaluating evidence so that I need not argue this any further. I have thus far openly conceded the negative, so that I may be the more justified in emphasizing the positive in Kaltenbrunner's personality. How far, however, shall I be justified in stating that Kaltenbrunner had actually insufficient knowledge of many War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity which were committed with some kind of participation of Amt IV in the course of the last 2 years of the war? Would such a defense offer the prospect of essentially exculpating the Chief of the Reich Security Main Office? Dr. Kaltenbrunner admitted during his examination that it was only very late, in some cases as late as 1944 or 1945, that he obtained knowledge of orders, instructions, and directives, despite the fact that they originated much earlier-in some instances several years before he took office. And here I add-and I wish to emphasize this particularly at this point-that these orders, which are contrary to international ethics and humanity, all go back to a time during which Dr. Kaltenbrunner was still in Austria. I will not at this moment try to prove in detail all these statements of Kaltenbrunner's. The Prosecution is interested exclusively in whether such orders, decrees, directives, and so forth, were also executed during the period of time in which the defendant was in office as Chief of the Reich Security Main Office.
DR. KAUFFMANN: It is also often very difficult for a defense counsel to follow a defendant along the secret channels of his knowledge or his ignorance. Perhaps the defense counsel also sometimes lacks the necessary distance for a free and just judgment, in view of the hecatombs of victims spread out across a whole continent, and he is unfair to his client. Thus he leaves the nature of the defendant's character to the later judgment of history, for even the defense counsel is not infallible when it comes to drawing a picture of the soul of his own client. During his examination before the Tribunal Kaltenbrunner once explained the difficult position he was in when he took over his office on 1 February 1943, and I hope that nobody will misjudge this situation. The Reich was still fighting, and even in 1943 was still dangerous for any adversary colliding with it. But it was already a fight for a goal obviously remote and out of reach. Whoever tries to hold back the spokes of the wheels on a vehicle rolling into an abyss at top speed will perish all too easily. Coupled with these conditions, from which there was no way of escaping, there was an uncreative officiousness, caused by nervous insecurity, in all areas of private and public life. Kaltenbrunner said with regard to this situation: "I beg you to put yourself into my situation. I came to Berlin in the beginning of February 1943. I began my work in May 1943, except for a few complimentary calls. In the fourth year of the war the orders and decrees of the Reich also in the execution sector had piled up by the thousands on the tables and in the filing cabinets of the civil service. It was quite impossible for a human being to read through all that, even in the course of a year. Even if I had felt it to be my duty, I could never possibly have made myself acquainted with all these orders." In connection with this I remind you respectfully that, according to the evidence given by the witness Dr.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Hoettl and others, the Reich Security Main Office in Berlin had 3,000 employees of all categories when Kaltenbrunner was in office and that according to the statement of the same witness Kaltenbrunner never controlled this office completely. Nobody will be able to deny that the question is justified whether it was not Kaltenbrunner's duty to have himself informed in the shortest possible time at least about the most essential proceedings in all the departments of the Reich Security Main Office and whether he would not then very soon have obtained knowledge of, for example, Himmler's and Eichmann's anti-Jewish operation and many other serious terrorist measures. I may remind you that Kaltenbrunner declared repeatedly and emphatically, in answering my questions before this Tribunal, that he protested regularly every time he heard of such occurrences, addressing himself to Himmler and even to Hitler, but that he had but lithe success, and this only after a long while. The defendant, for example, traces back the cessation of the extermination of Jews, by an order of Hitler in October 1944, to his personal initiative. However difficult it may be to judge whether the power and influence of a single person would have been sufficient to bring about the suspension of a program of the extermination of a race, already in its final phase, I believe I may say without being open to correction that many tens of thousands of Jews owe it to this man that they escaped the hell of Auschwitz and can still see the light of the sun. From the statements of Dr. Bachmann and Dr. Meyer of the International Red Cross it appears that Kaltenbrunner asked the International Red Cross to organize relief shipments to a large Jewish nonpolitical camp at Unskirchen near Wels. July 46 Wanneck has characterized Kaltenbrunner's attitude toward the question of Himmler's Jewish policy as follows. He says: "In the daily haste of our joint labors and discussions on foreign policy, we no longer dwelt upon the problem of Jewish policy.
DR. KAUFFMANN: At the time Kaltenbrunner came into office ' this question was already so far advanced that Kaltenbrunner could not have had any more influence on it. If Kaltenbrunner expressed himself at all on the subject, it was to the effect that mistakes had been made here that could never be made good." This witness then finally confirmed the fact that this operation was conducted independently through a direct channel of command from Himmler to Eichmann and said that the position of Eichmann, which already had been a dominating one when Heydrich was still alive, had increased steadily, so that eventually he had acted completely independently in the entire Jewish sphere. And here I add that, according to the statement of Hoess, the only man left alive who is familiar with this question, it is established that only about 200 or 300 people knew of that dreadful order of Himmler's which was given during a conference which lasted for 10 or 15 minutes, on the basis of which more than four million people were exterminated. And I add that a large nation of 80 million had learned little or probably nothing about these things which happened in the Southeast of the Reich during the war. Professor Burckhardt states that Kaltenbrunner, when discussing the Jewish question, declared: "It is the greatest nonsense; all the Jews should be released, that is my personal opinion." But in spite of all this, the fundamental question is raised for the problem of guilt: May a high official and the director of an influential of lice, whose subordinates in a far-reaching hierarchy continually commit crimes against humanity and against the rules of international law, assume such an office at all or remain in such an office, although he condemns these crimes? Or is it. perhaps a different case if this man has the intention of doing all that is humanly possible to break the chain of crimes and thereby finally to become a benefactor of humanity? The last question is generally to be answered in the affirmative.
DR. KAUFFMANN: It is to be appraised solely from the standpoint of the highest ethical principles. My further thought in this connection is the following: He who invokes such a philanthropic intention is free of guilt if from the first day of his taking over such an office he refuses to take any active part in the actual commitment of the crime, and, beyond this, avails himself of every conceivable possibility, even seeks it out, to achieve the elimination of evil orders and their execution through his never-ending resistance and every form of human cunning. The defendant himself has also sensed and clearly recognized all these things. On account of the importance of the question I should like to refer to his interrogation: "Question: 'I ask you whether there was a possibility that you might have brought about a change after having gradually learned the conditions in the Secret State Police and in the concentration camps, et cetera. If this possibility existed, will you then say that an alleviation, that is, an improvement, was brought about in the conditions in these fields due to your remaining in office?' " Kaltenbrunner says: "I repeatedly applied for service at the front. But the most burning question which I had to decide for myself was whether the conditions would be thereby improved, alleviated, or changed. Or was it my duty to do everything possible in this position to change all the conditions that have been so severely criticized here? Since my repeated demands to be sent to the front were refused, all I could do was to make a personal attempt to change a system, the ideological and legal foundations of which I could no longer change, as has been illustrated by all the orders presented here from the period before I was in office; I could only try to moderate these methods in order to help eliminate them for good.
DR. KAUFFMANN: "Question: 'And so, did you consider it consistent with your conscience to remain in spite of this?' "Answer: 'In view of the possibility of constantly using my influence on Hitler, Himmler, and other people, I could not in my opinion reconcile it with my conscience to give up this position. I considered it my duty to take a personal stand against injustice."' As you see, the defendant refers to his conscience and you have to decide whether this conscience, taking into consideration duty toward one's own country but also toward the community of mankind, has failed or not. The duty which I have just mentioned, to resist the orders of evil, exists in itself for every human being, regardless of his position. This duty is expressly affirmed by Kaltenbrunner also. He who holds a state office must in the first place be able to prove that he contributed toward abolishing the gigantic injustice which occurred in Europe as soon as he learned of it, if he does not want to become guilty. Has Dr. Kaltenbrunner presented sufficient proofs? The answer to this question I leave to your judgment. But one thing I should like to express as my opinion: This man was no conspirator; rather was he exclusively a person acting under orders and under compulsion. Himmler's order was, despite all previous agreement, for him to take over the Reich Security Main Office. Is it right that an order should change the fundamental aspect of the problem? This question is of the highest importance. According to the Charter of this Tribunal one cannot plead higher orders for the purposes of avoiding punishment. The reasons given for this by the American chief prosecutor proceeded from the presumed knowledge of the crimes or their background in the minds of the higher leaders which, therefore, precluded them from pleading the existence of orders.
DR. KAUFFMANN: Like a red thread the fact runs through this Trial that hardly one high official, in whatever position of public life he may have been, was put into of lice without the order of the highest representative of official authority; for in the last 3 years of the war the already clearly discernible inevitable destiny of the Reich meant for the holder of a high office the renunciation of that part of life which many people say makes life worth living. For the duration of the war, orders tied the of lice holder to his position. Also there is no doubt that he who refused to obey an order, especially in the last years of the war, risked his own death, and possibly the extinction of his family. From whatever side we approach the problem of orders in Germany after 1933, the invocation of the above-mentioned state of duress ought not to be denied to a defendant, because that principle of duress which exists in the German criminal code, as no doubt it does in the criminal codes of all civilized nations, is based on that freedom of the individual being which is necessary for the affirmation of any guilt. If the perpetrator is no longer free to act, because another person deprives him of this liberty through direct immediate danger to his life, then, on principle, he is not guilty. I do not want at this instant to examine whether in the German world of reality of the last years such a direct immediate danger for one's own life always existed; but an encroachment upon the freedom of the man receiving orders did exist to a smaller or larger extent without any doubt. It seems certain to me that Himmler would have interpreted a refusal of Kaltenbrunner to take over the direction of the Reich Security Main Office as sabotage and would, as a necessary conclusion, have eliminated him. Hitler, according to the revelations at this Trial, was one of the greatest lawbreakers that world history has ever known. Many even admit it to be a duty to kill such a monster, so as to guarantee to millions of human beings the right of freedom and life.