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defendant von der Heyde had nothing to do with an informer's
activity.
As to his organization, the defendant von der Heyde was a
member of the Reiter SS [Mounted SS] which he joined in 1933, and which was not
declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal.
May I direct
the attention of the Tribunal to the deposition of the witness Karl Wolff in
this respect. This deposition can be found in the transcript of the
Commissioner of this Tribunal, dated 15 December 1947 (morning).*
Neither do the affidavits of the defendant von der Heyde himself or of
his co-defendants, as far as they mention him at all, give a different
impression.
I must almost doubt that the prosecution, which called the
superiors and colleagues of the defendant von der Heyde — including some
of those who were also security commissioners (Abwehrbeauftragte) — as
free witnesses, indicted him according to his actual position and according to
what he actually did.
Some months ago, a member of the British House of
Commons asked whether, after the indictment of the directors and the members of
the Vorstand of I.G. Farben, the workers and employees were to be indicted too.
This would be quite incompatible with both the judgment of the International
Military Tribunal at Nuernberg and the Control Council Law No. 10. This would
lead gradually to the establishment of a collective guilt, the idea of which
the International Military Tribunal has refused to accept. It would, in
addition, also contradict the most generous interpretation of Control Council
Law No. 10, such as the prosecution itself has given on page 2 and page 7 of
the German transcript of the first part of its preliminary memorandum, and in
the brief of 6 December 1947.
Now, as before, I am, therefore, of the
opinion that this Tribunal will judge the individual guilt alone of the
defendant von der Heyde.
I have expressed above what I have to say now
on this point. In producing my evidence, I would be able only to reinforce
those statements, mostly by witnesses who either were superiors or colleagues
of the defendant von der Heyde, or who, after his enlistment in the Wehrmacht,
took over his functions. All of them are at liberty.
I maintain,
however, that the evidence so far furnished by the prosecution does not offer
the possibility — when considering |
__________
* Transcript pp.
4598-4624.
368 |
. 
