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Volume III · Page 501
| A. Unfortunately, after I wrote this
memorandum, especially here in this trial, and also when I was in Berlin
already, I found out that the Fuehrer acted in a different way. The purpose of
this memorandum, however, was merely the following: to convince the Fuehrer
that the men who had influenced him so far and in that direction were wrong. My
knowledge from Hamburg was not sufficient in order to know already at that time
that the Fuehrer himself could not be convinced. But that is not only my own
tragedy, but the tragedy of the entire German people. Q. Did you ever consider the possibility that the Fuehrer in reading your memorandum read it literally and decided that when you said "The Fuehrer should be the supreme judge," that you meant what you said? Did you ever consider that possibility? A. Yes, I considered that possibility. Q. Do you have any feeling that in practice it didn't work out that way? In fact, the evidence adduced here at this trial tends to prove, don't you believe, that by the end of the war the Fuehrer really became the supreme judge and interfered with all judicial decisions? A. I saw that later, and if I had known that before, I would not have undertaken this daring attempt, because there was no hope for it from the very beginning. But at the time, I thought that as a jurist I was under an obligation to make this final attempt, because I just could not accept the conditions which existed. Q. You knew what the Party platform was, did you not? You knew what Hitler had said in Mein Kampf, did you not? A. About that problem, he did not say anything in a negative way in his Party platform and not in Mein Kampf either. Q. Well, as a reasonable man, Dr. Rothenberger, you knew what his attitudes were on all of these questions, and if your program embodied having him become the supreme judge, you knew fairly well how he would judge on all these questions from your prior knowledge, did you not? A. No. I can only emphasize again and again that as long as I saw the possibility of influencing him, I considered it my duty to make this attempt; otherwise I would have been a fool. Q. No one denies that you did influence him, Dr. Rothenberger; the implication is that you did, and that you were completely successful. A. I did not have any success. That is just it. Hitler could not be convinced. |
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