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| that they believed in the sanctity of private property, and perhaps they will say that they supported Hitler because German communism threatened that concept. But the factories of Rombach and Riga belonged to someone else. The defendants will tell you that they were not anti-Semitic, and even protected individual Jews against the Nazis. Yet it was not beneath them to appear in public with, and pay a king’s ransom to Himmler, who all but rendered the Jew extinct in Europe. They fattened on the misfortunes of wealthy Jews. Their mines and factories were worked by human labor and they, of all men, should have understood the true dignity of toil. Yet they turned back the clock and revived slavery in Europe. These men shamelessly betrayed whatever ideals they might have been expected to possess and, in the end, they betrayed Germany. In this lies their true guilt. |
| B. Opening Statement for the Defendant Flick* |
| PRESIDING JUDGE SEARS: Now, Dr. Dix, we will
hear your opening statement. DR. DIX: May it please the Tribunal. Quid interest, sub cujus imperio vivat homo moriturus, si illi, qui imperant, ad impia et iniqua non cogant. In English: "What matter under whose government mortal man lives, as long as those who govern do not compel him to commit impious and iniquitous acts." The defendants lived in the Third Reich under a government that did compel those under their government to commit impious and iniquitous acts. This was their tragedy, but not their guilt, not even their tragic guilt, which has involved them in the mental martyrdom of sitting in this dock. The prosecution maintains that they are guilty. The opening statement of the defense has to represent the theory of my defense. I request the Court not to lose sight of the fact that the contents of this quotation will be the leitmotif of my defense. Whoever was active in Germany during the Third Reich and, at that, in an eminent and exposed position, ran guiltlessly the risk of being a suspect of a culpable deed such as the defendants, and especially the defendant Flick whose defense I am handling, are charged with by the prosecution. That is the tragedy of all men compelled to live in an environment where culpable deeds are being committed. This quotation manifests a sovereign contempt for the formal system of government. Ultimately, it attaches importance only to the sovereign nature of a government. Such a point of view is |
* Transcript pages 3122-3149, 2 July 1947.
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