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unanimous refusal to obey orders
on the part of any one class would have been a mere
illusion.” |
A few further words on the subject of conspiracy:
In my
closing brief, I have presented evidence in proof of the fact that in former
times it was the continental concept of a “complot” which
corresponded to the Anglo-Saxon concept of conspiracy, but that this had
disappeared from the books of penal law in the middle of the last century,
because the indiscriminate mass judgment of conspirators, and the basing of
judgment on assumptions of guilt which it is more or less impossible to refute,
is no longer in keeping with the demands of our present legal system, namely
that the individual be held responsible only for any contribution which he has
knowingly made to the commission of a crime. The recognition of the crime of
conspiracy therefore contradicts the recognized principles of the civilized
nations.
For the rest, the most recent investigations conducted by
Americans to establish the stage of advancement of the German armaments program
at the outbreak of the war, of which investigations I have spoken in detail in
my closing brief, have shown indisputably that Hitler's preparations were
totally inadequate for the conduct of a war, and that for precisely this reason
the expert could not but look upon aggressive war as an act of madness. From
this it is clear that, in contrast to the factors constituting guilt under the
legal provisions governing conspiracy, nothing could have been further from the
thoughts of the defendants than that Hitler was planning a war of aggression.
Your Honors, in view of the time limit imposed by the Court, I am
forced to come to a close. The development of the totalitarian states. was, in
itself, the widely recognized expression of the inner crisis of justice. The
legal ground on which humanity stands is still unsteady. Our present need is
for judges who, far from dealing yet a further and more overwhelming blow to
the already shaken ideals of our legal tradition, will reestablish them so that
they may become strong pillars in the building of a better world. Failing this,
a cynical nihilism, bringing in its train we know not what unpredictable
consequences, would fall to the lot of Germans; and the Western World would
have failed in its great opportunity.
I should like to add two
quotations, but must refrain from pointing out the many ways in which they
apply to the present proceedings.
The first is by our poet Franz
Grillparzer, the second by your Abraham Lincoln: |
| |
“To be just to oneself and
other men, this is the hardest task on all the earth, and he who justice knows
is monarch of this world.” |
910 |
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