 |
awaiting trial, whom a defense counsel had to visit in the prisons of
the Third Reich actually reflected credit upon the defense counsel. Defense
counsel in the course of his duty visited idealists from all sections of the
population, Germans who had preserved intact their integrity of character and
their independence of thought, representatives of socially elevated
professions. Defense counsel visited prominent scientists and pastors,
courageous leaders of the working class, honest soldiers and officers, in
short, the elite of the nation, properly understood. Such a phenomenon is bound
to arouse doubts as to the legal and moral justification even of such an
outward appearance. It is the duty of every judge to examine whether such
doubts are in fact justified. Should he realize that prejudice, fostered by
falsification and by other legends, by party politics, by ignorance of
conditions abroad, are the spiritual begetters of an indictment, he must
approach his legal assessment of the facts with a maximum of circumspection,
even, and especially, if on the face of it the facts would seem to suggest
guilt for those who accept as true the things which I have described above as
the result of legends, party prejudice et cetera.
In his opening
statement before this Court, General Taylor has said: and I
quote: |
| |
“The aim of the defendants
was conquest. *** The origin of the crimes with which the defendants are
charged may be traced back over many decades, but for present purposes their
genesis is in 1932, when Hitler had established himself as a major political
figure in Germany, but before his seizure of power and the advent of the Third
Reich. *** charges that the defendants, together with other industrialists,
played an important part in establishing the dictatorship of the Third Reich
***” |
| And again I quote: |
| |
“When we charge an alliance
between the defendants and Hitler and the Nazi Party
***” |
| And again I quote: |
| |
“Without this cooperation,
Hitler and his party followers would never have been able to seize and
consolidate their power in Germany, and the Third Reich would never have dared
to plunge the world into war.”
“Farben's devotion to the Nazi
party and the Third Reich continued to be ironclad
***” |
And many other passages.
In this connection the General, in
the Flick trial, coined the phrase which proved so attractive on first sight,
of the “Unholy Trinity”: National Socialism, Militarism, and Economic
Imperialism. When |
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— 53 —60
937 |
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