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Volume V · Page 62
of the commander of the zone where the person was located prior to extradition." |
| The fixed time elapsed without the Polish
Government having made any efforts whatsoever to utilize this time to initiate
and carry out proceedings against Hildebrandt. In July 1947, Hildebrandt was sent back to the U.S. Zone in a completely debilitated condition. A few weeks later he received the indictment for this trial. Hildebrandt, father of three young children and living in happy marriage, did not only command the highest esteem in the ranks of the SS, as has been confirmed concordantly by many witnesses, but in his activity as Higher SS and Police Leader in Danzig-West Prussia he also won for himself the trust and respect of wide circles of the Polish population. (Hildebrandt 101, Hildebrandt Ex. 31; Hildebrandt 106, Hildebrandt Ex. 36; Hildebrandt 120, Hildebrandt Ex. 50.) He had an open ear and tender heart for the needs and troubles of his fellow human beings. (Hildebrandt 99, Hildebrandt Ex. 25; Hildebrandt 105, Hildebrandt Ex. 35; Hildebrandt 121, Hildebrandt Ex. 51; Hildebrandt 126, Hildebrandt Ex. 56.) There is no blood upon his hands. It cannot be a matter of indifference to him, a man whose irreproachable and hypersensitive character (Hildebrandt 93, Hildebrandt Ex. 19; Hildebrandt 96, Hildebrandt Ex. 22; Hildebrandt 98, Hildebrandt Ex. 24; Hildebrandt 103-106, Hildebrandt Exs. 33-36; Hildebrandt 123, Hildebrandt Ex. 53) has been described with the moving words of women as well as with the honest conviction of men who were his colleagues and subordinates, whether henceforth his good name in the life of his children shall be burdened with the stigma of an inhuman war criminal. His self-respect, the consideration for his and his family's reputation (Hildebrandt 102, Hildebrandt Ex. 32; Hildebrandt 105, Hildebrandt Ex. 35) demands justification before a tribunal to the judges of which he has entrusted in full confidence the decision over his fate, and therewith his honor. This is, and I need not give particular emphasis to this fact, the case here before the American Tribunal. Even today Hildebrandt does not hold any feelings of malice towards the Polish people and its citizens. But after his experiences of 1946-47 he cannot accord the same trust to a court in Poland, which following the political developments of recent weeks and months has today become a satellite state of Moscow, and tomorrow will perhaps represent one of the strongest powers of the Union of the Socialist Soviet Republics The words of the Roman poet Horace, "Vestigia terrent", from Aesop's Fable of the fox and the lion, makes Hildebrandt wonder whether behind a statement, submitted with the mask of apparent |
