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| 11. DEFENDANT WURSTER |
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PRESIDING JUDGE SHAKE: Dr. Wurster.
DEFENDANT WURSTER: May it
please the Tribunal, there is little that I can add to the words of my defense
counsel and to my own explanations given in the witness stand, but there is one
thought that I would like to express at the end of this long trial. When in
June of last year I was hospitalized in Ludwigshafen and the indictment was
served upon me, and even more so when at the end of August last year I was
transferred to Nuernberg, I sometimes had to overcome a certain feeling of
bitterness.
I hope that the presentation of evidence by my defense
counsel has shown that in my actions I was never guided by the idea that the
life and the future of human beings could be built on a basis of brutal force
and of wrong-doing. Especially the selection of contemporaneous documents
relating to the treatment of foreign workers at Ludwigshafen presented by my
defense counsel should show — I believe — one thing: during the years
of my life and of the history of my country which were difficult beyond saying,
I endeavored with all my strength to stand for the idea of humanity even during
the hard years of war. I may be permitted to say that I succeeded in doing so
within my possibilities. In the war year of 1943, the synod of our so-called
confessional church emphasized among other things: |
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“We should not forget those
who are almost helpless. Public opinion should not influence a Christian in
this respect. Our brother is whoever is helpless and needs our assistance
without any distinction of race, nationality, or
religion.” |
I regarded these words as more than an empty phrase. The hard
reality of life meant, however, continuous struggle in order to achieve the
best of the day.
After the German collapse, upon the order of the
occupation authorities and with the full confidence of the working people and
their representatives, I started to remove the consequences of the war in our
heavily damaged factory at Ludwigshafen in order to create a new basis of
peaceful existence for those people who had always shown loyalty to the factory
and who stood before its ruins full of worry. In spite of all daily
difficulties and privations, the hope increased from month to month that I
would be permitted to realize my ideas of the social and economic future of
such a big factory without all the obstacles that had been opposing this work
during the preceding years.
All of a sudden the indictment took me away
from my work of reconstruction that had lasted for more than 2 years, without
my previously being given any opportunity to state what I had to say with
respect to the issues of these terrible accusations. |
1075 |
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