. NMT02-T0377
Volume II · Page 377
DR. BERGOLD: May it please the Tribunal, I undertake now to present the evidence for the defense. The prosecution has painted the blackest possible picture of the man I am here to defend. It has pronounced a moral judgment on him, even for the period of his life, which, according to the indictment, is not to be judged by this Tribunal.
Because of the great difference between the American and the German people I have no knowledge of whether such a method of prosecution is customary in the United States of America. The good principles of law which were practiced in Germany before 1933 provided that even counsel for the prosecution should not reproach the defendant for anything that is not subject to examination by the Tribunal. The meaning of this is that defense counsel also should be in a position to express his views with regard to these charges. This, according to my opinion, seems to be a fair principle.
Therefore, if it please the Tribunal, it shall be my aim in the course of my submission of evidence to prove by witnesses who have been approved and by the defendant himself that the charges made by the prosecution are incorrect, and I shall aim to prove that also for the charges which are not contained in the indictment.
Erhard Milch has never in his life been a traitor, as a person or in his profession, not even at the end of the National Socialist rule when he himself was threatened as to his life and his honor. As a man of high intelligence and great talent for organization, he always tried to do his best for his people and for the world.
To say of him that he misused his talent and devoted his life to a plan for conquest and enslavement of the world is to have a completely wrong conception of reality. He was never a militarist in the bad sense of the word. Never did he arm secretly before 1933 nor make use of the peaceful instrument of the commercial air fleet for any sinister purposes. He, the man who wanted to devote himself only to the tasks of peace, the man who in his capacity as director of the German Lufthansa collaborated with many European air transport companies and who conceived this collaboration as almost a forerunner of a unified Europe; he the man who in 1937 devoted all his efforts, together with a few wise and courageous statesmen, to the attempt to bring about a full understanding and a large scale collaboration between France, Belgium, and Germany (unfortunately, the high
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* Opening statement is recorded in mimeographed transcript 27 January 1947. Tr. pp. 494-504.
