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Volume V · Page 956
| For that I did not have the power nor did I
carry it out. That was a matter for other offices. At that time, however, I
asked myself, "Can you administer the property of others ordered by the State,
but for the sake of the owner?" I answered this question with "Yes," because with that "Yes," I did not infringe upon the limits of the principle of private ownership, which I had adopted. The limits of private ownership cannot be drawn as clearly in industry as with goods for personal use. Those who take part in the production and earn a living through it and who need the products, have a claim to them. Through my work 1 have given work and bread to more than 10,000 people who worked as free men in their home countries; I have satisfied the needs of hundreds of thousands of people; and I cannot recognize a crime in that. Where confiscations of plants presented difficulties for the owners of the plants, I showed human understanding for the social safeguarding. It was not my fault that in one of the 400 plants which I supervised, some concentration camp inmates worked beside several hundred free workers, this was done against my suggestion, nor could I prevent it. The powers which I had to improve the living conditions and the feeding so that it was more like that of the free workers, I used. During the last year of the war I did my duty as a soldier in service at the front. Without reason the prosecution has raised the charge against me that during that time I had participated in crimes against humanity. They failed to supply the proof, since that assertion did not concur with the truth. I acted towards enemies and allies, against soldiers and civilians, in a manner as is compatible with the laws of war and customs of war, with the moral and the Prussian tradition for soldiers and for officers. In one of the finest books, Franz Werfel holds that no one can separate himself from the fate of his people, even if he wishes to be a world citizen. In this book Werfel describes in a moving manner the fate of the Armenian people. The knowledge which is to be drawn from that experience is a generally human one. I am a German and Germany's fate is my fate. During 2 ½ years of a prisoner's life, I have seriously examined my conscience to see if I was guilty. I did not do this narrowly, adopting a national point of view, but I adopted the point of view of a decent human being, as I have always considered myself to be. I consider myself as innocent today as I did on the day of the arraignment. The decision as to whether I am guilty according to the laws valid today is in the hands of this Tribunal. |
