. NMT06-T0433
Volume VI · Page 433
| I. Testimony of Defendant Weiss | |
| EXTRACTS FROM
TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANT WEISS* |
|
| DIRECT EXAMINATION | |
| DR. SIEMERS: (counsel for
defendant WEISS): when were you born? DEFENDANT WEISS: On 26 March 1904. |
|
| [Here follows detailed testimony concerning the defendant Weiss. For a more brief description of defendant Weiss' personal history, see section IV F, above.] | |
| Q. Mr. Weiss, now before we
discuss Berlin and your activities I would like to clarify a topic of more
general nature with you in order to complete a certain picture of your
personality. I ask you, in not too many words to explain to us your basic
attitude as far as politics and national socialism were concerned. A. I have already explained to the Court that when I was only 24 years old I was entrusted with my responsible task. At that time I took over the management of the Eiserfelder plant which employed at the time 250 to 300 workers. This task absorbed me completely and I had neither time nor too much interest in political affairs. This, my attitude, was reinforced by my father's influence, who told me again and again that our task was in the field of economics and not in the field of politics. At no time did I belong to a political party, and my own attitude would have been in line with the program of what was called the German People's Party [Deutsche Volkspartei]. I also voted for this party until it was dissolved. When in 1933 Hitler became Reich Chancellor, I was not exactly delighted, because the radical and extreme attitude of the National Socialist Party was not in line with my liking. On the other hand, however, I understood that it was a case of a coalition government, a coalition of the three right wing parties, backed at that time by the majority of the German people, and it was a matter of course for me that in accordance with democratic principles a government backed by the majority of the people could claim and can claim, therefore, a chance to show what it is capable of doing. Even if during the first period of government of the Nazis some of their measures were not to my liking and gave me cause to certain fears, one could still hope that the government, or what we termed the better representatives of the Party, once they really had the responsi- […bility] |
* Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 16, 17, 20, and 21 October 1947, pages 8885-9125. Further extracts from the testimony of defendant Weiss are reproduced later in section VII F.
