. NMT04-T1074
Volume IV · Page 1074
| EXTRACT FROM THE CLOSING
BRIEF AGAINST DEFENDANT SOLLMANN |
| During the course of this proceeding, the
defendants have repeatedly emphasized how well they treated these children and
the wonderful care afforded them — this was further attested to by several
of the children who appeared here as witnesses for the defense. In comparison
to treatment of other children whom these defendants rejected for
Germanization, this may well be true, but it is no defense for a kidnaper to
say he treated his victim well. Even more important, we must ask ourselves why
they were so comparatively well treated. The answer is simple — these
innocent children were abducted for the very purpose of being indoctrinated
with Nazi ideology and brought up as "good" Germans. This serves to aggravate,
not mitigate, the crime. In general, Lebensborn preferred to handle "racially valuable" children not over six years of age. (NO-435, Pros. Ex. 399.) Sollmann stated that in certain cases he could even take children up to 12 years of age; however, experience had shown that this usually resulted in difficulties. This age limitation is easily understood. At these tender years, the children could be more easily molded in the Nazi way of life. Also, it was much easier to conceal the true identity of these children and to deceive the foster parents into thinking they were German children whose parents had been killed in an air raid or some other form of military operation. That German foster parents were deceived into thinking these children were "ethnic German children", is evidenced by the testimony of the foster parents who appeared before this Tribunal as witnesses. The defendants have also placed great stress upon the fact that the majority of the abducted Polish children were living in Polish welfare institutions or with Polish foster parents before being seized and placed into German foster homes. But not in one single instance did the defense make any attempt to show that permission had been obtained from the custodians of these children from whom they were taken. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the relatives of these abducted children were contacted in any way to ask their permission or even to notify them that the children were being sent to Germany. The evidence proves conclusively that everything possible was done to conceal from the relatives the whereabouts of these abducted children. That the majority of these children did have relatives is evidenced by the testimony of the children who appeared before this Tribunal as witnesses, both for the prosecution and for the defense. In this connection, it must also be remembered that this program of |
