Judgment at Nuremberg Page #16

that he would die with some honor.

I went from official to official.

I begged for that.

That he be permitted the dignity

of a firing squad.

You know what happened?

He was hanged with the others...

and after that, I knew what it was to hate.

I never left the house, I never left the room.

I drank.

I hated with every fiber of my being.

I hated every American I had ever known.

But one can't live with hate, I know that.

We have to forget, if we are to go on living.

Herr Rolfe?

May it please the tribunal?

Yesterday the tribunal

witnessed some films.

They were...

shocking films...

devastating films.

As a German...

I feel ashamed that such things

could have taken place in my country.

There can never be a justification for them.

Not in generations...

not in centuries.

But I do think it was wrong...

indecent...

and terribly unfair of the prosecution...

to show such films in this case...

in this court...

at this time...

against these defendants!

And I cannot protest too strongly...

against such tactics.

What is the prosecution trying to prove?

Is it trying to prove

that the German people as a whole...

were responsible for these events?

Or that they were even aware of them?

Because if he is...

he's not stating facts...

and he knows he's not.

The secrecy of the operations,

the geographical location of the camps...

the breakdown of communications

in the last days of the war...

when the exterminations

rose into the millions...

show only too clearly

that he is not telling the truth!

The truth is...

that these brutalities were brought about

by the few extremists.

The criminals.

Very few Germans knew what was going on.

Very few.

None of us knew what was happening...

in the places shown in these films.

None of us.

But the most ironic part of it is...

that the prosecution showed these films

against these defendants...

men who stayed in power

for one reason only...

to prevent worse things from happening.

Who is the braver man?

The man who escapes,

or resigns in times of peril...

or the man who stays on his post...

at the risk of his own personal safety?

The defense will present witnesses

and letters and documents...

from religious and political refugees

all over the world...

telling how Ernst Janning saved them

from execution.

The defense will show that many times...

Ernst Janning was able

to effect mitigation of sentences...

when, without his influence,

the results would have been much worse.

The defense will show...

that Ernst Janning's personal physician

was a non-Aryan...

a Jewish man...

who he kept in attendance,

much to his own peril.

The defense presents affidavits...

from legal authorities

and famed jurists the world over...

pleading that special considerations

must be made in this case...

saying that the entire work

of Ernst Janning...

was inspired by one motive,

and one motive only:

The endeavor to preserve justice

and the concept of justice.

Now...

what has the prosecution to offer...

against this?

The prosecution, in fact...

has presented in the case of Ernst Janning

only one tangible piece of evidence.

The Feldenstein case.

A notorious case, as the defense has said.

A case which never

should have been reopened.

A case which the defense is obliged...

to review now.

The defense calls Mrs. Elsa Lindnow.

Will you raise your right hand?

I swear by God,

the Almighty and Omniscient...

that I will speak the pure truth

and will withhold and add nothing.

I do.

Mrs. Lindnow...

what is your occupation?

I am a cleaning woman.

Where are you employed?

... Grosse Platz.

- Did you know Lehman Feldenstein?

- Yes. I knew him.

In what capacity?

He was my employer in .

Do you know the witness,

Mrs. Irene Hoffman Wallner?

- Yes.

- In what capacity?

She was a tenant in the building.

Did you ever see Miss Hoffman

and Mr. Feldenstein together?

Yes.

How did this happen?

Mr. Feldenstein came to see Miss Hoffman

at her apartment.

Often?

Quite often.

Were there any occasions

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