. NMT03-T0952
Volume III · Page 952
| [them…] selves or the time is already
here which has quite different views. In handling these problems my own case is
receding to the background. The decision concerning the basic questions of the
entire problem of the judiciary brings the solution, also for me, of the
question — Am I as a judge a criminal? Before all the world, and even
where war opponents are concerned, a judicium parium can answer this
tremendous question with one word only, namely, no. PRESIDING JUDGE BRAND: The defendant Oeschey may address the Tribunal. DEFENDANT OESCHEY: May it please the Court, what need be said in my case has been said by my defense counsel, and all that is left for me is to agree to his statements, to give you the assurance that I always acted in the belief and in the conviction that I was doing right, by obeying the law to which I was subjected and applying it in the manner in which my conscience told me to. And it is the truth that it was a matter of conscience for me not to misuse the law in a criminal way, but to apply it in accordance with the will of the legislator, and to grant the offender a proper trial and a just verdict. Therefore, my conscience knows that it is clear of the crimes with which I am charged. PRESIDING JUDGE BRAND: The defendant Altstoetter may address the Tribunal. DEFENDANT ALTSTOETTER: The charges which the prosecution has raised against me because of my alleged participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity and on account of my capacity as honorary SS leader, do not apply to me. My conscience is free of any guilt. I certainly do not propose to evade responsibility for my actions. On the contrary! These proceedings gave me the possibility to justify my actions before my people — by whom I stand even in these hard days — and before the entire world, that is, my actions during the past regime, and particularly so during the period of my activity in the Reich Ministry of Justice, and to prove that I always only served law and justice. For this reason I have done everything to give the best contribution possible in order to bring out the truth in this trial as far as I am concerned. As a witness in these proceedings I have testified to the truth to the best of my knowledge and belief. The prosecution knows this very well from my own interrogations during preliminary proceedings and from the interrogations of many collaborators and aides who, however, were not called by the prosecution to appear as witnesses in court. The prosecution knows it also from documents which must be in its possession, but which were not submitted in evidence. |
