more to incriminate me severely by connecting my name with an order for the preparation of bacteriological warfare. A witness, the former Generalarzt Dr. Schreiber, had said in his report: "The chief of the OKW, Field Marshal Keitel, had issued the order to prepare bacteriological warfare against the Soviet Union." On the witness stand here this witness did speak of a "Fuehrer order." But this is not true either.

The introduction of the testimony of Colonel Buerker, which was approved by the Tribunal in all agreement with the Prosecution, indicates that in the fall of 1943 I, in Buerker's own words, sharply and categorically rejected the suggestion of the Army Medical Inspectorate and the Army Weapons Office to activate the bacteria experiments, saying that that was out of the question, that it was forbidden, and that is true. Colonel General Jodl as well can confirm that no order of the type alleged by the witness was ever issued, and, moreover, that Hitler prohibited bacteriological warfare, which was suggested by some authorities. Thus the assertion to the contrary of the witness Dr. Schreiber is proved to be untrue.

I claim to have told the truth in all things, even if they incriminated me; at least to have endeavored, in spite of the great extent of my field of activity, to contribute to the best of my knowledge to the clarification of the true state of affairs.

Thus, at the end of this trial, I want to present frankly the knowledge that I have today and my acknowledgement.

In the course of the trial my defense counsel presented to me two basic questions. The first was put to me months ago. It was, "In case of a victory, would you have refused a share in the success?"

I answered: "No, I should no doubt have been proud of it." The second question was "How would you act if you were in the same position again once more?"

My answer: "Then I would choose death rather than to let myself be drawn into the meshes of such ruinous methods."

From these two answers of mine, the High Tribunal may see my viewpoint. I believed I erred, and I was not in a position to prevent what should have been prevented. That is my guilt.

It is tragic to have to realize that the best I had to give as a soldier, obedience and loyalty, was exploited for intentions which could not be recognized, and that I did not see the limit which is set even for a soldier's performance of his duty. That is my fate. From the clear recognition of the causes, the ruinous methods, and the terrible consequences of this occurrence of war, may there arise for the German People hope for a new future in the community of nations.

1. FINAL ARGUMENT by Dr. Kurt Kauffmann, Defense Counsel

The present trial in the torrent of a revolution

May it please the Tribunal:

The present trial is world history, but world history full of revolutionary tensions. The ghosts which were called are stronger than the cry of the suffering peoples for justice and peace. Ever since deification of man and humiliation of God chaos as an inevitable consequence and punishment is afflicting mankind with wars, revolutions, famine and despair. If my country was culpable of the greatest guilt, then permanently, it does the greatest penance a people has ever done.

The means for restoring the so much longed-for prosperity are erroneous, because they are second-rate. And no one of my listeners is in a position to call me a liar, when I assert that the present trial does not begin at the end of a period of wrong, to make an end to it, but is being surrounded by the surge of the waves of a furious torrent, on the surface of which the wreckage of a civilization, guarded through the centuries, is floating hopelessly, and on whose deep demoniacal bottom the foes of the true God, of Christian religion and, therefore of any Justice, are lurking.

The European commonwealth of peoples, whereof my country has been the heart piece, is seriously ill. It suffers from the spirit of negation and from the humiliation of the dignity of human nature. Rousseau would curse his own maxims if he had lived to see the radical refutation of his theories in these years of the 20th century. The peoples had announced the "liberty" of the Great Revolution, but in the course of but 150 years they have in the name of the same liberty created a monster of cruel slavery and ungodliness, which was able to escape earthly justice, but not to elude the living God.

The Tribunal before history

This Tribunal conscious of its task and its mission will some day have to pass before the probing eye of history. I do not doubt that the selected judges are striving to serve justice as they see it. But will not this problem indeed be beyond solution? The American chief prosecutor stated that in his country important trials seldom begin before one or two years have elapsed. I do not need to throw light upon the deeper core of truth contained in this practice. Would it be possible for human beings, torn between love and hate, justice and revenge, to conduct a trial immediately after the great

est human catastrophe ever known and constantly driven by the statutory demand asking for time-saving, swift proceedings, in such a way that they are entitled to the thanks of mankind at a time when the waters of this second deluge will have receded into their former bed?

Would it not have been better if the above-mentioned distance between crime and atonement would have been adhered to in the course of the present proceedings?

Law can be shaped only when the court possesses inner liberty and independence of such nature as to feel subject to no other considerations than to conscience and to God himself.

Such an august activity had sunk into oblivion in my country, in the first place in the mind of the governing class of the nation, Hitler had humiliated law to the rank of a prostitute of purpose. But this Tribunal intends to furnish proof to the world that all profit for the people is based on law alone. And no other thought than unselfish justice could arouse more joy and hope within the heart of people of good will.

I am not criticizing-it would serve no purpose-the provisions of the Charter, but I am asking whether any justice on earth has and indeed could have been found, if Might acknowledged Reason so far as to grant the enemies a regular trial, but could not make up its mind to crown this tribute to Reason by appointing a truly international tribunal; 19 nations appear to have approved of the legal basis of the Charter-we do not know this, but Mr. Justice Jackson indicated it-it is far more difficult to apply the written law.

The American chief prosecutor has emphatically declared that he did not intend to hold the entire German nation guilty, but the records of this Tribunal, which History will someday scrutinize attentively, contain nevertheless many things which, to us Germans, appear to be false and therefore, embittering; they unfortunately also contain repeatedly explicit questions of the French prosecution, to what extent, for example, certain crimes against humanity both in and outside Germany have become known to the German people; indeed, the French prosecution has asked explicitly: "Could those atrocities remain, on the whole, unknown to the entire German nation, or have they come to its knowledge?" Those and similar questions are not suitable for solving such a difficult and tragic problem with even the slightest regard for the truth. To the extent that evil, which always grows and manifests itself organically, gets the upper hand among a nation, to that extent every individual who has reached the age of reason bears some guilt for the catastrophes of his country. But even this guilt, lying

can only be accepted with serious objections, because none of the defendants or defendants' Counsel or neutral observers could have any information on the way they were brought about.

[At this point, material was omitted voluntarily by Defense Counsel.-Ed.]

These statements were made, certainly, within the framework of the law, but I believe also within the framework of power.

The people, or a large part of the people, in their aspiration for peace and happiness, elevate the representative of a terrible heresy to the position of their Fuehrer, I might say to a demigod; this Fuehrer abusing the faith of his followers in the grossest imaginable way; this people then in the bondage of a slave not being able to find the strength for a timely open resistance and tumbling into the huge abyss of annihilation of its entire racial, political, spiritual and economic existence. All of this, in the truest sense of the word, is tragic. Had the individual man in the street, the mother in the home, and her sons and daughters, been asked to choose between peace or war, never voluntarily would they have drawn the lot of war.

[The Tribunal suggested the omission of other material under this topic heading due to its irrelevancy.-Ed.]

Development of the history of intellectual pursuits in Europe

The rise of Hitler and his downfall, unique in its extent and consequences, may be viewed from, regardless what side: From the perspective of the historic spectacle of German history, or of the supposedly constrained course of economic forces; of the sociological separation of its people, of the racial and character conditionalities of the German; or of the mistakes which the other brothers and sisters of the family of nations, living in the same house, committed in the political sphere. All this does certainly round out the picture of the analysis but always it brings to light only partial knowledge and partial truth. The deepest and at the same time the most fatal reason for the phenomenon Hitler lies in the metaphysical domain. In the final result the second world war was unavoidable. Anyone, however, who looks at the world and its aspects only from the view point of economic problems may arrive at the belief that the war, the first as well as the second world war, could have been avoided through a reasonable distribution of the wealth of this earth. Regarded by itself alone, economic reasons are never able to change the face of the earth; therefore, the change of the standards of living of the German people, their deterioration, the demoralization of the national soul by the Treaty of Versailles, inflation, enormous unemployment, and others became rather the outward cause for Hitler. Still it is possible that catastrophes might be delayed by years or decades, if certain out