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I am grateful to my destiny, for permitting me to contribute my share
in clarifying the clear demarcation line between the two spheres, of course
also in view of the fact that it is necessary for me to defend the honor, not
only of myself, but the honor of my four children as well, and particularly
also for the sake of the thousands of people who contributed their work to IG
and to myself personally.
I am deeply distressed that there are
innumerable people. Germans and foreigners, who are now under suspicion just
for the sake of this name, “Auschwitz,” suspected of being
collaborators of a crime, merely on the basis of the fact that they had no
idea, and that in good faith they contributed their work to this IG plant.
For 3 years in conjunction with my men, I struggled like a soldier, by
order of my superiors, on behalf of this IG plant; I struggled with ideas. For
3 further years I now have suffered for the sake of this same work. I used the
word, “I suffered,” not in order to complain that for the sake of
this work I was overcome by deprivation, by need and disease; I faced all of
this because I did not make life easy for myself.
My own conscience has
been the sharpest of all prosecutors, and when bringing up new statements of
facts concerning the concentration camps there were always new questions that
my conscience placed before me. As far as I myself and my directives are
concerned, the answer was and remained simple. I did nobody any harm, nor did I
order anybody to be harmed. I deprived nobody of liberty, nor did I order such
deprivation of liberty. I did not mistreat anybody, nor did I order anybody to
be mistreated, and I think there was nobody in this plant who did more work
than I did. Nobody lost life or health pursuant to directives issued by the
plant, and wherever within the jurisdiction of the plant I saw or heard of an
injustice I destroyed it in its very roots. But beyond this statement, I
honestly tortured myself for many weeks and many months with the question
whether, owing to the fact that I had not had sufficient knowledge of things or
had perhaps been negligent, I might possibly have omitted doing something that
should have been done. But also on this point I have now gained clarity and
truth.
Surely mistakes have been made, technical and organizational,
and surely it was not possible for me to see and hear everything, as the
technical chief of an enterprise employing 30,000 people and covering 10 square
miles. I could not possibly have been everywhere. Such a man has many tasks as
his duty. But as far as the charges of the prosecution against me are
concerned, I feel free of guilt in general. Not even today do I feel myself
guilty of any sin of omission. On the contrary, I think that it was not a
little that I have contributed in favor of the people who were placed in my
charge. There are hundreds of letters and affidavits which corroborate this
belief of |
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