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Volume III · Page 284
| A. If I understood your question correctly,
Your Honor, the general validity of the principles of the charter as
international law could, in regard to judges of those states which require that
their officials apply the law of the state as the final will, bring about
tragic conflicts of conscience, for which, in my opinion, there is no
indubitable legal solution at all. But, Mr. President. I do not know whether I
quite understand your question correctly, Q. I do not think I will attempt to repeat it further. I understood your position. It is true, is it not, that there was no tribunal in Germany, perhaps anywhere else, which had statutory jurisdiction to apply international law in a penal proceeding against a public officer of the state who had complied with the state law. A. Yes, that is correct. Q. Then, if there were a tribunal that had jurisdiction to apply that law, might it not perhaps, arrive at a different decision, legally, from the decision which this court of the state itself, would arrive at; might not an international tribunal, having jurisdiction to pass upon the question, arrive at a different answer as to criminality of an individual officer who had violated international law, but had not violated the law of the state? A. Yes, that would be so, but, Mr. President, if I may say so. that is the very thing which I call the tragic situation of the official concerned. |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| E. General Development of the Administration of Justice under Hitler |
| EXTRACTS FROM THE TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANT SCHLEGELBERGER* |
| DR. KUBUSCHOK (counsel for defendant
Schlegelberger) : Witness, what is your career, your professional career in
particular? DEFENDANT SCHLEGELBERGER: I was born in 1875. After I had finished my legal studies and had passed my doctor's examination I became judge in the first and second instance. In 1904 I became judge of the Lyck District Court in East Prussia. In 1909 I became assistant at the Prussian Court of Appeals, Kammergericht. In 1914 I became Kammergerichtsrat. The Kammergericht is the Court of Appeals of Berlin, the highest court in Prussia. |
*Other extracts from the testimony of defendant Schlegelberger appear below in sections V B, V C 2 a, V D 2, V D 3, and V E. His entire testimony is recorded in the mimeographed transcript (26, 27, 30 June, 1 July 1947, pp. 4367-4568).
