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[judg…] ment of events which took place in Germany and Europe.
This task of yours is difficult. These events occurred during a period which
not even we Germans are in a position to explain or comprehend.
We of
the defense will help you as much as we can in this difficult task. We bear the
proud title, "Rechtsanwalt" [attorney-at-law], which means that we are
defenders of justice. We shall do our part, with all of our might, to insure
that, in this trial — one of the greatest in world history and surely the
greatest in the annals of economics — there will be only one victor -
Justice! |
| |
| J. Opening Statement for Defendant
Schneider* |
| |
| DR. HELLMUTH DIX (counsel for defendant Schneider): Your Honors:
Within the framework of the general defense, I shall discuss the subject of
foreign labor, i.e., the fundamental legal problems resulting from it and
pertaining to count three of the indictment. The subject concerning prisoners
of war and ordinary prisoners will be dealt with elsewhere within the framework
of the general defense. In respect to the problems which I shall discuss, the
prosecution considers all defendants guilty. The prosecution bases its opinion
to a large extent on the judgment of the International Military Tribunal. That
judgment, however, referred to persons who exercised political leadership and
guidance in introducing and carrying out the forced-labor program.
Consequently, it also dealt primarily with the methods by which the public
authorities recruited and secured workers for the German military economy. The
type of work performed at the place of employment and the living conditions
were discussed by the International Military Tribunal, within the framework of
the entire program, only in reference to bad conditions which were mainly due
to official directives, or to their effects in connection with the war events
and should, therefore, be attributed only to the responsible leading persons
involved in that trial. The specific legal and factual conditions — to
which the German economy, and particularly the individual private
industrialists, were necessarily subjected in the course of events — were
discussed in detail neither in the judgment of the International Military
Tribunal, nor by the prosecution of this trial. In this trial, too, it will be
the task of the defense to point out these conditions. Owing to modern
techniques of warfare, Ger- […many] |
__________
* Tr. pages 4789–4794,
18 December 1947.
263 |
. 
