. NMT03-T0567
Volume III · Page 567
| the temporary lapse, because counsel has, by
saying incorrectly and tactlessly later on that the Reich health leader himself
describes the food rations as insufficient, revealed that he himself disagrees
with our laws and government. The 16 objections and reprimands brought up
against him so far confirm the picture, which he has given of himself in this
case. (6) To defend parties and dinners given by the two "better class women" with the help of stolen ration cards by saying that business, so to speak, required such parties is just as stupid as it is to expect the court to find the defendants not guilty of an offense. Such statements not only show considerable lack of understanding of the importance of criminal cases in the field of the law of war economy, but they should never be made at all in a court of law. (7) Humor should certainly not be suppressed especially in difficult times, but only where it is appropriate. But it is inconceivable for a defense counsel to reproach a court or the prosecution for their lack of humor, because a defendant who indulges in a drunken brawl annoys people and resists the police received a well earned punishment. The defense counsel would have done better to consider that in the fifth year of war one should not burden judges and prosecutors with uncalled for petitions for mercy and complaints; about the latter there is still much to be said. He would have done better to make it clear to his client who had already repeatedly made himself unfavorably conspicuous, how to conduct himself in these times instead of backing him up by his false statements. (8) If in this case the defense counsel raises legal doubts against the assumption of an insult to the mother, he can thus only intend to obtain an acquittal. Therefore as a representative of the law he takes the view that in such cases according to our law there is no protection of the honor of soldiers killed in action and their relatives. This attitude and his subsequent conduct at the trial, in which he called the gravely afflicted mother of the dead soldier "hysterical and highly strung," when facing the judge she naturally re-experienced her pain and sorrow, revealed, even had the mother been very excited, a rare absence of any feeling for the community and human compassion. He who tries to cover such a criminal deed, particularly as a representative of the law, puts himself ideologically on a level with the defendant. |
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