23 Nov. 45
lawyer is held to a reasonable knowledge of the law, and a layman
is held to an absolute knowledge of all the laws. It works inversely
as to facts, or facts of common knowledge. There, the judge is
imputed to know all of those facts, however many of them he may have
forgotten as an individual man. So one of the purposes of this
presentation will be to implement the judicial knowledge which by
hypothesis exists, and which probably actually exists.
It is not our purpose however, to convert the record of these
proceedings into a history book. The evidence which we offer in this
case is evidence which for the moment has been concealed from
historians. It will fill in recorded history, but it must be read
against the background which common knowledge provides. The evidence
in this case consists primarily of captured documents. These
documents fill in the inside story underlying the historical record
which we all already knew. This evidence which we will offer
constitutes an illustrative spot check on history--on the history of
the recent times as the world knows it. The evidence to be offered is
not a substitute for history. We hope the Tribunal will find it to be
an authentication of history. The evidence which we have drawn from
captured documents establishes the validity of the recent history of
the past 12 years--a history of many aggressions by the Nazi
conspirators accused in this case.
As I offer to the Tribunal document after document, I ask the
Court to see in those documents definite additions to history, the
addition of new elements long suspected and now proved. The elements
which the captured documents on this particular aspect of the case
will add to recorded history are the following:
(1) The conspiratorial nature of the
planning and preparation which underlay the Nazi aggressions already
known to history;
(2) The deliberate premeditation which preceded those acts of
aggression;
(3) The evil motives which led to the crimes;
(4) The individual participation of named persons in the Nazi
conspiracy for aggression;
(5) The deliberate falsification of the pretexts claimed by the
Nazi aggressors as the reasons for their criminal activities.
These elements the captured documents will demonstrate beyond
possible doubt, and these elements, in the context of historical
facts, we think are all that need to be shown.
The critical period between the Nazi seizure of power and the
initiation of the first war of aggression was a very short period.
This critical period of a lawless preparation and illegal scheming
which ultimately set the whole world aflame was unbelievably short.
It covered only 6 years, 1933 to 1939. The speed with which