. NMT04-T0562
Volume IV · Page 562
| The defendant explained that some of the interrogatees refused to speak. |
"Q. Some of them refused to talk? |
| Still determined to exclude every single possibility of equivocation and error, the defendant was questioned further, and he answered as follows: |
"Q. Well, then you did shoot some Jews because they were Jews? |
| This specific out-and-out admission by Ott in
Court that he shot 20 Jews just because they were Jews conclusively establishes
his guilt, and it is unnecessary to consider the other items of accusation
advanced by the prosecution. There is but one further observation to be made on this subject, and that is the undeviating fidelity of the defendant to the virtue of consistency. Consistency, which has always been regarded as a jewel, did not lose any of its sparkle or gleam in the hands of Adolf Ott. When asked why he did not release some of the Jews when he had the opportunity to do so, he replied — |
"I believe in such matters there is only one thing, namely consistency. Either I must shoot them all whom I capture or I have to release them all." |
| One more item in Ott's case is worthy of comment. In his pre-trial affidavit he said — |
"In June 1942, without having received an order to do so, I opened an internment camp in Orel. In my opinion people ought not to be shot right away for comparatively small misdeeds. For this reason I put them in this internment camp, in which the people had to work. I determined the length of time that these people should remain in the camp on the basis of examination and investigation of the individual cases which were made by my Kommando. It happened too that people were released. The highest number of inmates that I had in this camp was 120 persons." |
| The magnanimity of the affiant in this statement is not in the declaration that it was his opinion that "people ought not to be shot right away for comparatively small misdeeds", but his |
