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Volume III · Page 1168
defendant thus: ‘People such as you deserve to be exterminated,’ ‘You will be convicted;’ or he called the defendant insulting and humiliating names such as ‘criminal,’ or ‘scoundrel,’ ‘enemy of the people.’ " |
| Again, he said: |
| "As leader of the Gau legal office
(Gaurechtsamt) and, after the latter's disbanding, as member in the Gau staff
(Gaustab), he enjoyed a special position of power which enabled him to hold the
defense strongly in check; it was well known that a sign from the Gau
authorities, instigated by Oeschey, was sufficient to have a lawyer turned over
to the Gestapo. "I had the impression that he supported, knowingly and willingly, the policy of Hitler to `decimate' (Dezimierung) aliens, especially Poles, by increasing the number of death sentences against them * * *." |
| On cross-examination Eichinger admitted that
he did not know of any lawyer who had been turned over to the Gestapo by
Oeschey. It is clear that in his statements Eichinger was relying only upon
general information as the basis of his opinion. We think, however, that his
opinion merits consideration. Dr. Karl Mayer, defense counsel, said that Rothaug was judge of the worst Special Court in Germany and used to tell defendants even during the trial that they would be exterminated. He adds that after Rothaug was transferred to Berlin, Oeschey even surpassed him in the spitefulness of his manner. Space does not permit the discussion of the other cases which illustrate Oeschey's ruthless exercise of arbitrary power. Mention should, however, be made of the trial of a group of foreign boys who had some fights with boys in the Nuernberg Hitler Youth Home. Dr. Mueller characterizes the action of the boys as harmless pranks. At worst they were indulging in street fights with the Hitler Youth. Oeschey held that they constituted a resistance movement and several of the boys were sentenced to death. The defendant Oeschey is charged under count four of the indictment with being a member of the Party Leadership Corps at Gau level within the definition of the membership declared criminal according to the judgment of the first International Military Tribunal in the case against Goering, et al. We have previously quoted the findings of the first International Military Tribunal which define the organizations and groups within the Leadership Corps which are declared to be criminal. Oeschey was provisionally commissioned with the direction of the legal office of the NSDAP in the Franconia Gau and served in that official capacity for along time. In his testimony he states that |
