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Volume III · Page 128
as a whole." Thus, we will best be able to gain breathing space after the speech of the prosecution, which is necessary in order to reach impartial judgment and which culminates in the conclusion that Schlegelberger "had indeed played a prominent part in the destruction of German law," a reproach which he rightly rejects; with which also the statement of the British Broadcasting Corporation on the occasion of his retirement from office in August 1942, namely, that with Schlegelberger, the last judge in Germany, had disappeared — is incompatible.
Schlegelberger, under secretary for civil law, certainly knew how to supervise the orphaned Ministry of Justice for a year and a half in an administrative capacity. The one who succeeded him, his appearance already threateningly forecast, and to the stemming of whose course Schlegelberger devoted his whole self, escaped judgment. The aspect of being the representative [Gesichtspunkt der Repraesentanz] which obviously has influenced the prosecution essentially, has to be disregarded.
We will also have to take the fact into account, that Schlegelberger's position as interim administrator of the Reich Ministry of Justice, did by no means equal that of a minister. If, in spite of these hectic times when everything was being infected by the National Socialist virus, he succeeded in retaining the position taken over from Guertner, his decision alone to remain in office until the limits of what could normally be expected of anyone, certainly not an easy decision, would fully justify this step. Judging by his personality and studying in detail the real and true situation during those years we shall explain what really was behind the Rostock speech mentioned by the prosecution. Evidence will be offered as to Schlegelberger's real relations with the Party and how this was evident in the policy he pursued concerning questions of personnel.
His attitude toward Hitler will be subject to a careful examination. We shall be unable to do justice to this task if we do not also acquaint ourselves with those who blindly followed Hitler. and rendered the task of Schlegelberger and prior to that, Guertner's so difficult. Freisler, his antipode, whom Hitler by entrusting him with all matters concerning criminal law had made into a guardian of National Socialist ideas within the Ministry of justice and all the other party officials who hated the last bulwark of constitutional thought.
With reference to individual counts of the indictment I shall point out that as "seditious undermining of the military power" [Wehrkraftzersetzung], so-called passive defeatism only became a punishable offense in 1943, and it was precisely for this purpose that the competency of the People's Court was established as per
