. NMT02-T0383
Volume II · Page 383
this agency was much more an advisory and information agency, that it was chiefly occupied with the allocation of raw materials and that only those decisions of the meetings were binding which were summarized in the so-called "Results."
Finally, we shall show that although, it is true, the defendant was one of the founders of the Jaegerstab, he was not its chief and that his importance in this connection was far less than it would appear on first consideration. The work of the Jaegerstab and of the defendant was aimed solely at the protection of Germany against bombing attacks, and Milch very soon lost all influence in this Jaegerstab.
In the presentation of all this evidence, I would ask the high Tribunal to have in mind one difficulty which, particularly in this case, is nearly insurmountable.
The documents submitted by the prosecution are only parts of a body of material the extent of which can be termed gigantic. When one considers that the Jaegerstab, for instance, from the time of its establishment held daily meetings and that from those meetings only these few stenographic records of a few sessions have been submitted that appear in the document books of the prosecution, then one realizes that not even five percent of the material pertaining to the Jaegerstab has been submitted.
Similar, although perhaps not equally striking, is the situation with reference to the minutes of the Central Planning Board. All these documents which were not submitted are not accessible to me at all. Does not, however, justice demand that the material in its entirety should be available to the defense counsel for examination? Already it has been possible for me to discover in the incriminating documents numerous passages which throw a different light on the indictment. Is it not highly probable, then, that numerous other passages may be found in all of the other material likely to extenuate to a high degree the guilt of the defendant, or which, in any case, might show many things in a better light?
In an ordinary trial with a considerably narrower scope it is much easier for a defendant to conduct his defense than here where material of such volume is at hand that even if he had the best of memories, it would be impossible for him to point out to me, his counsel, where and what kind of exonerating material can be found. That simply surpasses the capacity of the human memory, of the human ability to think.
In passing, I would say that probably in all of the armies which fought in this war the responsible men used strong language during meetings and discussions which, had they all gone down in records, would today cause the milder ones to shake their
