. NMT04-T0532
Volume IV · Page 532
| crime. In fact Blume's great sense of guilt today is not that he brought about the death of innocent people, but that he could not execute the Fuehrer Order to its limit. |
"Q. We understood you to say that you had a bad conscience for only executing part of the order. Does that mean that you regretted that you had not obeyed entirely the Fuehrer Order? |
| Dr. Lummert, Blume's lawyer, made a very able
study of the law involved in this case. His arguments on necessity and superior
orders have been treated in the general opinion. Dr. Lummert, in addition, has
collected a formidable list of affidavits on Blume's character. They tell of
Blume's honesty, good nature, kindness, tolerance, and sense of justness, and
the Tribunal does not doubt that he possessed all these excellent attributes at
one time. One could regret that a person of such excellent moral qualities
should have fallen under the influence of Adolf Hitler. But on the other hand
one can regret even more that Hitler found such a resolute person to put into
execution his murderous program. For let it be said once for all that Hitler
with all his cunning and unmitigated evil would have remained as innocuous as a
rambling crank if he did not have the Blumes, the Blobels, the Braunes, and the
Bibersteins to do his bidding — to mention only the B's. The Tribunal finds the defendant guilty under counts one and two of the indictment. The Tribunal also finds that the defendant was a member of the criminal organizations SS, SD and Gestapo under the conditions defined by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal and is, therefore, guilty under count three of the indictment. |
| MARTIN SANDBERGER |
| SS Colonel Martin Sandberger studied jurisprudence at the Universities of Munich, Freiburg, Cologne, and Tuebingen. He worked as an assistant judge in the Inner Administration of Wuerttemberg and became a government councillor in 1937. In October 1939 he was chief of the Immigration Center and in June 1941 was appointed chief of Sonderkommando la of Einsatzgruppe A. He left for Esthonia on the 23d day of that month. On 3 December 1941 he became commander of the Security Police and SD for Esthonia. He returned to Germany in September 1943. During this long period of 26 months he had ample opportunity to be involved in the execution of the Fuehrer Order which he originally heard in Pretzsch and which was fully discussed again in Berlin before he left for the East. |
