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Volume IV · Page 523
| toward Jews and advanced his respect for two
certain Jewish university professors as proof of this assertion. He was then
asked whether it disturbed him that these two Jews, because of their race, were
persecuted. He replied that he regarded it as "highly unpleasant" that these
people should have been "affected by the new laws and regulations". Whereupon
the inquiry was made as to whether he was offended by the persecution of
thousands and millions of the brothers and sisters of those two professors. He
answered, "What do you mean by persecution? When did the persecution begin"?
When this was explained to him he conceded that the burning down of the Jewish
synagogues on 9 November 1938 was a "shame and a scandal". Counsel for the
prosecution now inquired if he regarded the Fuehrer Order, which called for the
physical extermination of all Jews, as a "shame and a scandal". Here he saw a
difference. The synagogues had been burned down without an order and therefore
the destruction was a "shame and a scandal". The Fuehrer Order, however, to
destroy human beings, issued from the Chief of State and consequently could not
be a shame and a scandal. He later conceded that the execution of women and
children was deplorable, but the killing of male Jews was proper because they
were potential bearers of arms. A great German scholar, Wilhelm von Humboldt, who founded the University of Berlin at which Six was professor and dean, had, as far back as 1809, defined "the limits beyond which the activities of the state must not go." Obviously, Six did not agree with the doctrine that there could be a limit to the activities of the state. The name of Adolf Hitler apparently threw a shade over the light of his learning, and thus, for him there was nothing wrong, even mass killings, so long as the order therefor originated with the Fuehrer. Six became a member of the SA in 1932 and of the SS and SD in 1935. In this last named organization he attained the grade of brigadier general. On 20 June 1941 he was appointed Chief of the Vorkommando Moscow. According to the defendant, the task of this Kommando was to secure the archives and files of Russian documents in Moscow when the German troops should arrive there. The defendant arrived in Smolensk on 25 July 1941 and remained there until the latter part of August when he returned to Berlin. It is the contention of the prosecution that the defendant's duties were not as innocuous as made out by him. The prosecution submits that the Vorkommando Moscow was used in liquidating operations while under the command of Six. Further, that the seizing of documents in Russia was done not for economic and cultural purposes, but with the object of obtaining list of Com- [..munist] |
