Chapter VII: Front Matter (7)

The desire for self-assertion and love for one’s own people, together with the whole system of National Socialist ideas, then developed in an inexplicable manner into a furious conflagration. The most primitive considerations of common sense were eliminated just as in a delirium; in complete delusion everything was risked and everything was lost.

The searching questions which present themselves to Rosenberg time and time again are whether he could have done more for what he thought and upheld as just and worthy; where he neglected essential things; where he fell short of requirements; what negative symptoms, insofar as he had knowledge of them, he should have paid more attention to. Can such questions, which every person asks when he is crushed by disaster, be considered as evidence for his objective guilt? I do not think so. On 17 January 1946 the French Chief Prosecutor, M. de Menthon, stated the following, which I quote (Volume V, Pages 378, 379):

“We are rather facing systematic criminality which directly and
necessarily derives from a monstrous doctrine with the full will
of the leaders of Nazi Germany. The crime against peace, which
was undertaken, is immediately derived from the National
Socialist doctrine.”

To refute this assertion I must briefly present this doctrine. I have classified the National Socialist ideology—in accord, I believe, with scientific opinions—under the so-called new romanticism. This trend, which was grounded in fate and the necessities of history, had gone through the whole civilized world since the turn of the century as a reaction against rationalism and the technical age. It differs from the old romanticism in that it adopts the naturalistic and biological consideration of man and history. It is borne up by a confident faith in the value and meaning of life and the whole of reality. It does not glorify sentiment or intellect, but the innermost motives of man—heart, will, and faith. This philosophy receives its National Socialist stamp through the emphasis which is placed upon the mysterious importance of peoples and races for all human experience and activity. It is in the people, in the common possession of blood, history, and culture, that the real roots of strength are thought to be found. Only by participating in the movements of a people and its strength does the individual serve himself and his generation.

Rosenberg’s scientific contribution to the racial ideology consists in his description of the rise and fall of great historical figures, who sprang from races and peoples and set up definite standards in all spheres: language, custom, art, religion, philosophy, and politics. According to Rosenberg the efforts of the twentieth century to establish a form for itself are a struggle for the independence of the human personality. In Rosenberg’s opinion, its essence is the consciousness of honor. The myth of national honor is at the same time the myth of blood and race, which produce and support honor in its highest form. Therefore, the struggle for honor in its highest form is also a spiritual struggle with other systems and their maximum values. Thus, intuition stands against intuition, will against will.

Rosenberg expresses this thought in the following manner (_The Myth of the 20th Century_, Introduction, Pages 1 and 2):

“History and the task of the future no longer mean a struggle
between classes, no longer a struggle between Church dogma and
dogma, but the dispute between blood and blood, race and race,
people and people. And this means: A struggle between
psychologies.”

Consequently, Rosenberg had, in any case, no ideas of genocide as Raphael Lemkin expounds in _Axis Rule in Occupied Europe_, Page 81, where he ends the above quotation after the words “race and race, people and people,” but he believed in a struggle between psychologies, in other words, spiritual controversy.

I mention this spiritual trend in order to explain the peculiar fact in National Socialism that political considerations born of the intellect often gave way before the pathos of will and faith. In Rosenberg’s case this danger did not appear so much since in making everything revolve around the “soil,” that is, the fatherland, and its history and peasantry as the force from which springs the essence of a race, he remains in the sphere of life’s realities. Perhaps unaware of it himself, he was nevertheless borne upward by this current. The question arises as to what effects this ideology had on political life.

It is clear that the emphasis on will and faith gave special weight to political demands. After the Treaty of Versailles the political demands of Germany were aimed at recovering freedom and equality among the peoples as a still fettered great power. This had been the objective of German statesmen even before Hitler. The other great powers had certain misgivings about recognizing Germany again as such. Rosenberg fought to remove these misgivings. His weapon was his pen. The Tribunal has allowed me to present in evidence a group of excerpts from Rosenberg’s speeches and writings. I submitted it in my Document Book 1, Volume II. In view of the quantity of material and of my intention to submit only the most important matter, I depend on the Court’s being familiar with my document book.

In the first place I wish to call attention to the effect which these works had on German youth. I may recall the witness Von Schirach’s testimony. I repeat verbally:

“At conventions of youth leaders, at which he spoke once a year,
Rosenberg chiefly chose educational, character-building
subjects. I remember, for instance, that he spoke on loneliness
and comradeship, personality and honor, and so forth. At these
conventions of leaders he did not deliver any speeches against
Jews. As far as I remember, he did not touch on the religious
problem of youth either, in any case not to the best of my
memory. Mostly I heard him talk on such subjects as I have just
mentioned before.”

The attitude of youth was actually better than before the taking over of power. Idleness, the root of all evil, had ceased and had been replaced by work, the fulfillment of duty, the aiming at ideals, patriotism, and the will to get ahead. It was a fatality here too, that through Hitler’s policy these values were directed in the wrong manner.

The charges by the Prosecution that Rosenberg was the advocate of a conspiracy against peace, of racial hatred, of the elimination of human rights, of tyranny, of a rule of horror, violence, and illegality, of unbridled nationalism and militarism, of a German master race, I could already refute by pointing to the excerpts from _The Myth of the 20th Century_, which the Prosecution itself has submitted as evidence for the truth of its assertions. In reply to this, in order to refute this assertion by the Prosecution, I want to point in particular to the following facts: To prove Rosenberg’s honest struggle for the peaceful existence of nations side by side I wish to refer to his speech in Rome in November 1932 before the Royal Academy of Rome (reproduced in _Blood and Honor_, Document Book 1, Page 150). In his speech in Rome Rosenberg pointed to the fateful significance of the four great powers and proclaimed—I quote his words:

“Therefore he who strives in earnest to create a Europe which
shall be an organic unit with a pronounced multiplicity of form
and not merely a crude summation, must acknowledge the four
great nationalisms as given to us by fate and must, therefore,
seek to give fulfillment to the force radiating from their core.
The destruction of one of these centers by any power would not
result in a ‘Europe,’ but would bring about chaos in which the
other centers of culture would also have to perish. In reverse
it is only the triumph of the radiations in those directions
where the four great forces do not come into conflict with each
other which would result in the most dynamic force of creative
being and organic peace, not an explosive forced situation such
as prevails today, whereby it would guarantee to the small
nations more security than appears possible today in the
struggle against elementary force.”

To this line of thought Rosenberg, as Chief of the Foreign Political Office of the Party, remained true. Unfortunately, he could only work for it through his words. No witness could confirm in this courtroom that Rosenberg had any influence on actual foreign policy, whether it was directed by Neurath, Ribbentrop, Göring, or Hitler himself. Neither in the Austrian, nor in the Czech, nor in the Polish, nor in the Russian subject matter has his name been mentioned in connection with the charge of participation in aggressive wars. Everywhere he was placed before accomplished facts. In the war against the Soviet Union he received his orders only when the war against Russia had already been established as an acute possibility. He did not stir up the Norwegian campaign, but passed on personal information in accordance with his duty.

Now, as regards Rosenberg’s speeches and writings on the problems of general foreign policy, he advocated the Anschluss of the Austrians, who had been forcibly excluded from the Reich, as a demand born of the right to self-determination which had been proclaimed by the Allies themselves. The revision of Versailles was a postulate of justice against a violation of the Treaty of 11 November 1918. To advocate the German Armed Forces was, in view of the nondisarmament of the other powers, a defense of the solemnly promised equality of rights.

I shall now take up the charge of racial hatred.

Rosenberg’s opinions in regard to the race question were the result of racial research of international scientists. Rosenberg repeatedly asserts (I refer again to the opinion stated in Document Book 1, Volume II) that the purpose of his racial political demands was not contempt of race, but respect for it. I quote Page 70:

“The leading moral idea of an approach to world history based on
the laws of heredity belongs to our times and to our generation,
being in full accord with the true spirit of the modern eugenics
movement with regard to patriotism, that is, the upholding and
expansion of the spiritually, morally, intellectually, and
physically best hereditary forces for our fatherland: only in
this way can we preserve our institutions for all future times.”

These words embody the main theme of his demands, though their originator was not Rosenberg, but Henry Fairfield Osborn, Professor at Columbia University, who wrote them in discussion of the book by his colleague in science, Madison Grant, _The Decline of the Great Race_. This research, long before the existence of the Third Reich, led to eugenic legislation in other countries, in particular to the American Immigration Law of 26 May 1924, which was aimed at a strong reduction of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe while favoring those from the north and west of Europe.

I do not think I have to say that I am not hereby defending the murders of those mentally diseased in Germany as an alleged eugenic measure. With this measure, too, Rosenberg did not have the slightest connection.

For Rosenberg it was a question of the spiritual strengthening and consolidation of the German nation, indeed of the Aryan race. He would like to have his ideology considered in that light, above all _The Myth of the 20th Century_. His preaching of the significance of race in history did not call—I stress this again—for race contempt, but for consideration and respect of race, and demanded the acknowledgment of the racial idea only by the German people, not by other nations. He considered the Aryan nations as the leading ones in history. And if in doing so he underestimated the significance of other races, as for instance the Semitic ones, he, in his praise of Aryan races, did not think of the German nation alone, but of the European nations in general. I refer to his speech in Rome of November 1932.

I am keeping within the framework of historical truth in pointing to the fact that anti-Judaism is not an invention of National Socialism. For thousands of years the Jewish question has been the minority problem of the world. It has an irrational character which can be understood to some extent only in connection with the Bible. Rosenberg was a convinced anti-Semite, who in writing and speech gave expression to his convictions and their foundations. I have already emphasized that even such different personalities as Von Papen, Von Neurath, and Raeder are still of the opinion that the predominance of the Jewish element in the entire public life had reached such proportions that a change had to come about in this respect. The concrete result of that predominance, the fact that the Jews in Germany when attacked knew how to repay in kind, sharpened the anti-Semitic fight before the accession to power.

I wanted to present to the Tribunal a selection of Jewish literary attacks on the national feeling at that time, but the Tribunal ruled that my application was irrelevant; as these writings were not introduced as evidence I cannot speak about them. It is, however, an injustice to Rosenberg to assert that blind hatred of the Jewish race had goaded him into that controversy. He had before his eyes concrete factual evidence of the disintegrating activities of Jews.

It appeared as if the Party program of placing Jews under a generous law of aliens would be realized. It is true that Goebbels at that time arranged a one-day boycotting of Jewish stores. Rosenberg, however, in his speech of 28 June 1933, the anniversary of the Versailles Treaty, in the assembly hall of the Reichstag in the Kroll Opera House, declared that it was no longer necessary that in the capital of the Reich 74 percent of all lawyers should be Jews, and that 80 to 90 percent of the physicians in Berlin hospitals should be Jewish; about 30 percent of Jewish lawyers in Berlin would suffice amply. In his speech at the Party Rally in September 1933 Rosenberg stated in addition, and I quote:

“In the most chivalrous way, the German Government has excluded
from the percentage stipulations those Jews who have fought for
Germany at the front, or who have lost a son or a father in the
war” (Document Book 1, Page 153a).

In his speech at the Kroll Opera House Rosenberg gave the reason for this measure, saying that there was no intention thereby to discriminate against a whole people, but that it was necessary for our younger German generation, who for years had had to starve or beg, now to be able to obtain bread and work too. But despite his strong opposition to the Jews he did not want the “extermination” of Jewry, but advocated as the nearest aim the political expatriation of Jews, that is, through classifying them by law as aliens and giving them protection as such. In addition, he granted to the Jews a percentage access to nonpolitical professions, which still by far exceeded the actual percentage of Jews in the German population. Of course, his final aim was the total emigration of the Jews from Aryan nations. He had no understanding and appreciation of how great a loss to the Aryan nations themselves such an emigration would be in cultural, economic, and political respects. But one will have to admit that he believed that such an emigration would prove useful for the Jews themselves, first, because they would be set free from all anti-Semitic attacks, and also, because in their own settlement area they might live unhampered and according to their own ways.

The dreadful development which the Jewish question took under Hitler, which he justified as being a reaction against the policy pursued by emigrants, was never more regretted by anyone than by Rosenberg himself, who blames himself for not having protested against the attitude of Hitler, Himmler, and Goebbels as firmly as he protested against Koch’s actions in the Ukraine. Nor does Rosenberg hesitate to admit that his suggestion to Hitler to shoot 100 Jews instead of 100 Frenchmen after the recurring murders of German soldiers was an injustice born of a momentary feeling—despite his belief in its formal admissibility—because, from the purely human standpoint, the real basis for such a suggestion was lacking, namely, the active participation of those Jews.

I have returned to this case again, as in my opinion it is the only instance where Rosenberg desired retribution by the death of Jews. On the other hand, one must insist with the greatest emphasis that there is no proof of Rosenberg’s having been aware of the extermination of five million Jews. The Prosecution accuses him of making preparations for an anti-Semitic congress as late as 1944, which did not take place only because of the course of the war. What point could such a congress have had, had Rosenberg known that the majority of the Jews in Europe had been exterminated already?

Rosenberg had no faith in democracy, because in Germany it led to a splitting up into numerous parties and a constant change of government, and finally made the formation of an efficient government impossible. Another reason for his not having faith in democracy was that non-German democratic powers did not stand by their democratic principles in certain cases where they might have been of benefit to Germany, for instance in 1919, when Austria was willing to be incorporated in Germany, and later on at the plebiscite in Upper Silesia. But Rosenberg did not for that reason turn toward tyranny. In connection with Paragraph 25 of the Party Program he said in his comments, on Page 46:

“This central power”—referring in this case to the Führer’s
power—“should have as advisers representatives of the people as
well as those councils which had evolved in the course of time”
(Document Book 3, Page 6).

And in his speech in Marienburg on 30 April 1934 on the state of the German Order, he said that the National Socialist State must be “a monarchy on a republican foundation.” I quote:

“From that standpoint the State will not become a deified end in
itself, neither will its leader become a Caesar, a God, or a
deputy of God” (Document Book 1, Page 131).

In his speech on German law of 18 December 1934, Rosenberg stressed:

“In our eyes the Führer is never a tyrannical commander” (Document Book 1, Page 135). Only in such terms was a protest against the development of tyranny possible.

The development passed over Rosenberg and degenerated. Rosenberg himself learned this while acting as Minister for the East. Rosenberg was an idealist, but he was not the unscrupulous man who inspired the State and the Führer to commit crimes. I believe, therefore, that he should not be included in Mr. Justice Jackson’s Indictment (Page 8), where it says that Rosenberg belonged to those men in Germany who have been “the very symbols of race hatred, of the rule of terror and violence, of arrogance and cruel power.”

In looking through Rosenberg’s writings one finds, on the contrary, statements and expressions which give a decided impression of tolerance. He says, for example, in his Myth, of the national Church which he aspired to:

“The German Church cannot pronounce compulsory dogmas which
every one of its followers is compelled to believe at the very
risk of losing his everlasting salvation.”

In his speech on ideology and dogma at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, he called for tolerance toward all denominations with a demand for “inner respect for every genuine denomination.” In his speech on German intellectual freedom of 6 July 1935 he also spoke up for the freedom of conscience. No document was presented which contained a request by Rosenberg for criminal persecution of one of his numerous ideological opponents, although he might easily have been prompted to do so by their sharp attacks on his opinions.

Further, the Prosecution accused him of promoting militarism. Rosenberg was indeed an admirer of the soldier’s profession and a soldierly attitude toward life, but he also admired the peasant’s standards as the basis of the national character. He advocated the creation of a people’s army, both as the outward expression of Germany’s capacity as a political ally and for the purpose of training and educating the people at home. However, he denies having contemplated world conquest. On this point I can refer to his speech on Germany’s Position in the World of 30 October 1933. There he offered peace to Russia on the occasion of the German withdrawal from the League of Nations (Document Book 1, Page 147). I shall quote this passage, for it also proves that National Socialism did not desire to interfere in the affairs of other countries:

“We are ready at any time to maintain absolutely correct
relations with Soviet Russia, because naturally we do not
necessarily want to modify an ideology in the field of foreign
policy and foreign relations.”

In the same speech he emphasizes that the avowal of an ideology he describes as racial science is “not meant to be an expression of racial hatred, but an expression of racial respect” (_Blood and Honor_, Page 377).

Mr. Justice Jackson called Rosenberg’s nationalism a “wild” one. Rosenberg was passionate, but he wanted thereby to overcome class conflict in the nation, which threatened its existence. For a clearer understanding of the facts it may also be said ...

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, the Tribunal would like you to finish your speech before lunch, if you could possibly summarize some parts of it. I don’t know whether that is possible.

DR. THOMA: I shall try to do that, Mr. President.

I once more refer to Mr. Jackson’s statement that Rosenberg’s nationalism, or militarism, was “wild.” In this connection I should like to refer only to the fact that such nationalism was a compensatory symptom, which is easily found in a conquered country.

The accusation dealing with anti-Christianity and neopaganism is something which I have already mentioned, and I should just like to refer to it. I have dealt with the term “master race,” mentioning the fact that these words are not found in Rosenberg’s works at all.

Concerning the Party Program, I stated that Rosenberg did not draft it, but only supplied a commentary upon it, and that it is not a question of what is contained in the Party Program, but rather with what its effect was. I referred to the witness Funk, who stated that his first action and his first program as Minister of Economics had no reference at all to the Party Program, but was simply democratic and liberal.

The Party Program was adhered to neither in a positive nor a negative sense. The government was carried on just as in other states, on the basis of general necessity.

May it please the Tribunal, I shall turn to the charge that Rosenberg was the delegate of the Führer for the supervision of all education and spiritual ideology within the NSDAP. During the reading of the affidavit by Dr. Eppe I pointed to the fact that Rosenberg, as head of this office, had no executive power, and that Rosenberg interpreted the duties of his office in such a way that he published magazines on all cultural and scientific topics, especially the _NS Monatshefte_, the polemic political contents of which, after 1933, were more and more superseded by historical, scientific, and cultural subjects. On the basis of all the literature at our disposal it is not in accordance with the facts that Rosenberg interpreted his position as one from which to sow hatred. After 1933 he mainly endeavored to intensify and promote new definite talent. I have said in addition that this nonpolitical office concentrated its efforts on exercising a regulating and guiding influence on all noble and cultural values which manifested themselves.

May it please the Tribunal, I shall now turn to the topic: “Morality as a basis of the Indictment.” I should like to ask the High Tribunal, even though I do not propose to read this passage, to consider it as having been presented by me. I refer to Pages 82a through 82g, and I should like to ask the High Tribunal for permission not to read this matter and yet to have this matter considered as having been submitted in its entirety and read into the record. I shall now sum up ...

THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Thoma, all the speech will be taken as being presented to the Tribunal. By your summarizing it, you are not excluding it from the record of the Tribunal. The Tribunal will take note of it all.

DR. THOMA: Thank you, Mr. President.

I shall now sum up in conclusion, and I should like to point out the following:

[sm type begins]... that he is to be understood as a phenomenon of psychic compensation, as often appears in a conquered people. In addition, Germany, situated in the middle of Europe, was always exposed to so many political and military dangers that military circles in Germany, particularly after the entrance into the Ruhr in 1923, were necessarily particularly sensitive on national questions. As a German Balt he was brought up in a national way of feeling that led him to expect more of self-assertion and mobilization for defense than of the disappointments resulting from the international negotiations carried on up to that time. He was always ready for an understanding based on equal representation (Document Number 003-PS, Exhibit Number USA-603).[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Rosenberg has been further reproached with anti-Christianity and neopaganism. It is true that this reproach was not brought against his theory, but in connection with the persecution of the Christian religion in all its forms which later resulted. Rosenberg was an opponent of Christianity in its—as he sees them—present historical forms, just as he was of Jewry. In place of Christianity he strove for an idealistically, racially, and ethnically, conditioned religion, an emotional religion of blood and soil.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]He thereby attacked both Christianity and Jewry theoretically, and hoped that the Christian Churches would gradually become extinct among the German people; yet it will always have to be admitted that Rosenberg staged no violent persecution. He carried on this battle with intellectual weapons. Here, too, since he expected freedom of conscience for himself, he advocated freedom of conscience for others, and pointed out that with his _Myth_ and his new religiousness he did not wish to confuse Church believers but to create new spiritual ties for those, too, who had ceased to be believers in the Church.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]The term “master race,” to my knowledge, does not appear in Rosenberg’s writings, nor does it fit into Rosenberg’s ideology, which proceeds from the race as a general law. Therefore, Rosenberg speaks of the Nordic, Mediterranean, Dinaric race, in relation to races which are biologically different, not in the sense of an arrogant judgment as to value, but in the sense of racial facts, in the sense of honoring the entire human race of Europe.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]As far as the Party Program is concerned, despite the assertions of the Prosecution, it was not he, Rosenberg, who designed it. Like so many other things, the meaning and action of the Party Program has also been overestimated and exaggerated. It was one of the first deeds of the National Socialist Government to design a reconstruction program, of which the Defendant Funk said that almost any other liberal or democratic government could accept it also. In place of breaking up capital investment, the reinstatement of a sound money and credit system was demanded. I could go on quoting a number of examples, for instance the program of aliens’ status for Jews, which was not carried out. The Party Program was never adhered to subsequently either in the positive or the negative sense. Rules were simply enacted as in other states, too, based on the necessities of the moment.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]The entire ideology of the journalist and author Rosenberg becomes intensified and is rendered more menacing to peace, according to the Prosecution, by the fact that Rosenberg was nominated the deputy of the Führer for the supervision of the entire intellectual and ideological education of the NSDAP. How did this assignment come about and what were the circumstances concerning it? On the basis of his previous experience in the educational work of the Party, its organizational leader asked Rosenberg whether he would not undertake a common intellectual project. Rosenberg answered in the affirmative, if the Führer so desired. Thereupon, on 24 January 1934, the Führer appointed him chief of that office. It was a Party office and had nothing to do with the schools, as is erroneously assumed. The office had no right to issue directives to Reich offices; even any correspondence with them had to be sent via the Party Chancellery. Neither did it have any right to suppress books, et cetera. Even a right to issue directives to the Party was not granted, the more so since the branch school directors were also subordinated to the Reich leaders (SA, SS, HJ). Therefore, from the very beginning Rosenberg did not consider his work as representing the tasks of an intellectual police, but as an executive and unifying work, as the central point of the expression and realization of the factual and personal power of conviction and initiative.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]He had no offices in the various Gaue, not even individual representatives; he agreed to the Gau education leader as his deputy at the same time, in order to maintain a connection with practical education in the country.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]The office had many things to review in the course of time, yet it remained limited in extent. It became subdivided into various spheres of work; teaching and education proper, cultivation of literature, the arts, cultural and general problems. About twice a year, for the purpose of comparing tuition experiences, Rosenberg called together the so-called “Working Community for the Instruction of the Entire Movement.”[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]In it were represented the educational deputies of the political leadership and its various subdivisions. They reported on their work and expressed their suggestions. On the basis of these suggestions, Rosenberg frequently lectured in the Gaue on appropriate topics, and likewise induced his collaborators to handle such questions in all the subdivisions. These are the two educational meetings which the Prosecution mentioned by reason of their alleged “broad influence on the community schools” as an indication of criminal activity (Volume V, Page 48). This generally executive work found expression particularly in the periodicals of the offices of Rosenberg’s department; primarily in the N. S. _Monatshefte_, which after 1933 acquired a gradually increasing polemical political content in the interest of handling historical, cultural, and scientific topics. _Die Kunst im Deutschen Reich_ achieved special significance by simply offering the most beautiful examples in the way of contemporary plastic art, excellently presented without discussion. The _Bücher Kunde_ offered a monthly cross section of writings and literary contributions. The monthly periodical _Musik_ devoted itself above all to serious art, the cultivation of the German classics, and without any pettiness toward new creations. The journal _Germanisches Erbe_ published contributions on research in early history, the _Deutsche Volkskunde_ was devoted to games, folk songs, peasant customs. _Deutsche Dramaturgie_ described the ambitions and problems of the contemporary theater.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Besides this there were special exhibitions of the lifework of great artists in Rosenberg’s exhibition building in Berlin, and book exhibitions in various cities.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]It is simply not true if the Prosecution declares that Rosenberg used his assignment to disseminate hatred. The essence of his entire work after 1933 went toward a profounder and large-scale promotion of new positive talents.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Political polemics in these seven years had almost entirely disappeared. But for the difficulties in the language, one would find, in glancing through the journals and speeches, an honest great effort, whether Rosenberg spoke to youth or to the technicians, teachers, lawyers, workers, professors, women, at meetings of historians, or before the Northern Society.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]The heads of his offices were instrumental in publishing and promoting valuable works of art: Classics of music, history of the German ancestry, world political libraries, development of German peasantry, and others. In the present impassioned days one is not interested to know of this side of somebody’s lifework, and therefore I only touch upon it; but I wish to emphasize that it was just that which seemed to Rosenberg, since 1933, to constitute the essential part of his work, and similarly he intended to devote himself in his old age entirely to scientific-cultural research and teaching. I shall permit myself a few more words about this later.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Contrary to some opinions which at first appeared necessary, although some Individuals may perhaps have looked upon them as rather petty, Rosenberg advocated at the universities of Munich and Halle the right of examining new problems of our times as well as the independence of scientific thinking. He declared that we would have to “feel that we were the intellectual brothers of all those who once in mediaeval times raised the flag for this free research” (Document Book 1, Page 134). Against certain attempts to identify certain scientific physical theories with the Party, he protested in an official declaration which rejected this danger of hairsplitting. “It is not the task of the National Socialist movement,” he said in a speech about Copernicus and Kant on 19 February 1939, “to make any regulations for research other than necessarily connected with our philosophy of life” (Document Book 1, Page 173).[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]When a certain trend toward mass statistics, peak figures for the number of visitors, et cetera, developed in the otherwise desirable progress achieved by the German Labor Front, he made a determined stand in favor of emphasis on the personal element. He rejected this idea of “mass production” in an address to youth with the words: “One cannot receive art and culture like mass-produced, ready-made clothes in a department store” (Document Book 1, Page 155). Today poisoning of this youth is imputed to him, but on the contrary he asked (Document Book 1, Page 161) for comprehension in teaching on the part of everybody to whose care young people are entrusted, and he decidedly rejected any orders in the intellectual field.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]With regard to any form of collectivism, as has already been mentioned, he impressed on youth the importance of comradeship, but emphasized the personal element and the right to solitude. When on the grounds of certain occurrences many voices criticized the teaching class, Rosenberg began to fear lest general discrimination against the profession might develop. He took a stand against this danger in two speeches: at a great meeting in October 1934 at Leipzig, and later at the conference of the N.S. Teacher’s League at Bayreuth (Document Book 1, Page 162), where he declared that the National Socialist movement would step in and see that the teaching class be respected, just as it would have done for all other professions.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]By these brief allusions I mean to say that Rosenberg, as a regulating and leading intellectual force, advocated high cultural values and the rights of personality in a manner rendered convincing by his attitude and motives. Throughout the whole Party it was no secret that this activity involved profound opposition to the Propaganda Minister. Rosenberg from the very beginning considered it a calamity that culture and propaganda should be associated in one ministry. For him art was a creed, propaganda a form of tactics.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]As things at first could not be changed, Rosenberg emphasized his attitude to the outside world by not attending a single annual meeting of the Reich Chamber of Culture, in the firm hope that at some later day another conception would win through.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Many things Rosenberg said did not fail to have their effect and certainly prevented some harmful actions, but more, and probably the most important, did not succeed because the legislative and executive powers in the State lay in quite different hands, and these finally, due to the war and in spite of the will to sacrifice, brought about not the development of the National Socialist idea but its degeneration. Moreover, this happened to an extent which Rosenberg could not foresee.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]It was seen that the foundations for the spiritual education of the Party were not sufficient, and round about 1935 there developed a wish to create a serious place for research and study. This desire led to the idea later known as “high school,” which was intended to take the form of an academy. Rosenberg considered the creation of this academy as a task for his old age. Since it would have taken years to provide tuition material and to choose suitable personnel, the Führer authorized Rosenberg at the end of January 1940 to carry on the preparatory work he had started on official orders. Thus, contrary to what the Prosecution asserts, (Volume V, Page 48) the “high school” had nothing to do with Rosenberg’s “Einsatzstab,” which was not even planned at that time.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Mr. Justice Jackson, in his fundamental speech of 21 November 1945, expressed the desire, that this Trial should appear to posterity as the fulfillment of the human yearning for justice. Mr. Jackson furthermore declared that he had brought the Indictment because of conduct which according to its plan and intention meant injustice from the moral and the legal standpoint. In his report of 7 June 1945 Mr. Justice Jackson outlined that by this Trial those actions are to be punished which since time immemorial have been considered as crimes and are designated as such in any civilized legislation. The most difficult problem, the greatest task, and the most tremendous responsibility for the Tribunal lies concentrated in this single point: What is justice in this Trial?[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]We have no code of laws, we have, however astonishing it may sound, not even any fixed moral concepts for the relations of nations among each other in peace and war. Therefore the Prosecution had to be satisfied with the general terms “civilized conception of justice,” “traditional conception of legality,” “conception of legality built on sound common sense with regard to justice”; they have spoken of “human and divine laws” (Volume VII, Page 78); the Hague Land Warfare Rules refer in their preamble to the “laws of humanity” and to the “demands of the public conscience.”[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]The basis of justice is without any doubt a morality, the moral law; thus if we wish to determine what injustice among nations is, what is contrary to the idea of justice among nations according to international law, then we must broach the question of morality. The answer will be: everything is moral which our conscience accepts as being moral.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]But what is the original cause of moral discrimination: desire and happiness of the individual; or progress, improvement, preservation of the life of an individual, of a people, of humanity; or virtue; or duty?[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]How can we recognize what is good and what is bad? By intuition, or by experience, or by authoritarian and religious education? What is good and bad in the actions of a State, what is good and bad in the mutual relationship between nations? Does a difference exist between national morals and private morals? Can the State commit any injustice at all? From Saint Augustine through Machiavelli and Nietzsche to Hegel, Tolstoy, and the pacifist thinkers, yearning humanity has received the most different answers to this question.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]And furthermore: Have fixed moral laws existed since time immemorial or have changes in the ideals of nations brought about changes in morals, too? What is the situation with regard to this today?[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]I have already said once that, according to my opinion, war itself is a brutality and a great crime of humanity against itself and the laws of life. An essentially different question is whether this conviction has already entered the conscience of humanity. We consider ourselves far above the moral level of former nations and ages, and are, for example, surprised to find that the highest representatives of Greek morality such as Plato and Aristotle consider abandoning of children and slavery to be absolutely right, or that in certain parts of East Africa even today only robbery and murder give a man the stamp of heroism; on the other hand it is absolutely compatible with our present-day idea of morality that human beings are killed by hundreds of thousands in war and that the products of human welfare and culture are wantonly destroyed. Neither in a moral nor in a legal sense is this considered as unjust.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]If the Prosecution now charges the defendant with a wrong in the moral or legal sense, it is its duty to present the prerequisites for a punishment of the defendant, in such a way as to convince the Court, for, according to the hitherto existing moral concepts of nations, killing in war is not murder within the meaning of the penal codes of the individual countries, and the measures of a sovereign country in war or in peace have never been interpreted as an offense within the meaning of these penal codes or as punishable and immoral acts by the legal convictions of civilized humanity. Christianity teaches us to return good for evil and to love one’s enemies; this has been a world religion for 2,000 years, but many people today will laugh outright if one should venture to claim certain principles for the relations of nations between each other. In the face of the yearning of humanity the Prosecution now desires to aid its progress, even if only step by step, in this direction; it seeks to achieve the end that “unequivocal rules” shall emerge from this Trial; its mistake however, is that it wants to explain “traditional opinions of justice” and civil criminal laws as the contents of a public conscience which hardly exists any longer, compliance with which cannot in any case be demanded retroactively of the defendants.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]It is certainly very true that a profound change is commencing today in the moral thinking of humanity, a regeneration of the moral law of nations, and that this Trial before the High Tribunal marks the beginning of this new era. However, it appears to me very doubtful whether it is proper to impress a new kind of justice upon the conscience of mankind by making an example of the defendants.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]It is easy to speak of human and divine laws, or of the demands of public conscience, but we become greatly embarrassed for an answer to the question: What is the substance and content of private morality, when is an act immoral according to private morality? In their concern over what is good or evil, some rely on religion, others have been taught wisdom by experience and education, still others find an explanation in the philosophers.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]The State has in recent times taken up the moral education of its citizens in increasing measure, not only through criminal laws but also through “political education” or whatever other name is used for it. Not only did the National Socialist State have a great advantage here over the liberal states, but so do all totalitarian states of the world: They have hammered moral principles into the minds of their citizens, both of a private and public nature. They have proclaimed moral ultimate values, such as fidelity, honor, and obedience. By this means reflection concerning private and public morals is made easier for the individual citizens and they are obliged by force to uphold these ultimate values in the prescribed form. The German people, who had become tired and resigned as a result of continual warlike disputes and religious upheavals, willingly followed National Socialism, even when the latter’s ethics were exalted to a faith; it took this leap into the unknown, not with the idea of being taught by this means to deceive people, to enslave them, to rob them, to kill them, to torture them (see Volume VII, Page 78), but because it was in search of moral elevation, an authoritative moral leadership in its material and spiritual distress, and because nothing else was offered to it, especially not by a liberal world conscience which did not know how to make the fundamental principle of humanity a reality. The National Socialist ethical conceptions were taught to Germans as _summum bonum_, as the highest idea, and they believed the idea to be moral and good. Then National Socialism came into conflict not only with ideologies, but also with the plans of power of other states, because it could not find the formula which would include not only perfection and life for Germany, but also the interests and justice for all nations of the world. To try to construe out of such inadequacy of a national ethical idea, however inefficient, a punishable action, a conspiracy, is not admissible in my opinion, if only because uniformly acknowledged national morality has not yet developed, and unlimited national egotism has not yet been dethroned and is still considered the highest moral instance of the State.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]It might be objected that the Germans should only have followed the teachings of their great philosopher Kant in thought and action, according to his “categorical imperative”: Act in such a way that the maxim of your will could always serve as a principle for general legislation! Then they would and should have recognized the moral instability of National Socialist teachings. To that I can answer with the words of the great English philosopher, John Locke, who says on the question of what is good or evil in his _Essay Concerning Human Understanding_; Book 2, Chapter XXVIII, Paragraph 6: “God has ordained it in such a manner that certain activities produce general happiness, preserve society, and even reward the doer. Man has discovered this, and has established it as a practical rule. With that rule are connected certain rewards and punishments either by God Himself (reward and punishment of infinite size and duration in the Beyond) or by mortals (legal penalties, social approval or condemnation, loss of honor); good and evil which are not the natural effect and results of the actions themselves. Then men look to those rules or laws, be they divine or made by the State, and the laws of usage or of private opinion, and measure their actions by them. They judge the moral value of their actions according to whether they conform with the rules or not. Moral good or evil therefore amounts only to conforming or not conforming our action with a law which by the will and power of the legislator determines for us what is good and evil.”[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Therefore good and evil has been and still is today what the authorities want or do not want. Christianity for centuries has been preaching not only to Germans but to all nations of the world: “Let every man be subject to the authority above him.” And the authorities do not move beyond conscience and morality so long as the expansion of national egotism is not opposed by clear laws and commandments and irrefutable legal convictions.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]The highest good, _summum bonum_, in international morals of nations has not yet been mandatorily codified. There does not exist any authoritative idea for the community of nations. Instead of discussions on individual ethics and individual criminality, the Prosecution should have submitted its accepted principles and criteria as international common law, which was not done.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Therefore, with regard to the standpoint of the prosecuting authorities as to the personal responsibility of acting statesmen, I feel impelled to look upon this as a totally new philosophy and one which is very dangerous in its consequences.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Apart from the misdeeds of the individual, which do not satisfy even the minimum of moral conceptions, the ethical conceptions of National Socialism and the actions resulting from them, insofar as they are an expression of National Socialist ethics, cannot be subjected to the judgment of a human forum, since they are an event of world history. And the fate and guilt of the Defendant Rosenberg likewise cannot be judged conclusively within the framework of this Trial. As to the question of deciding the criminal guilt of the defendant, that is the hard task of the High Tribunal; but his potential historical guilt cannot and will not be judged by the Tribunal. Rosenberg, like all persons of historical importance, has acted according to his character and spirit, thereby perhaps becoming guilty in the eyes of history. The more freedom of action a given personality has in his will, the clearer the importance of conditions and the one-sidedness of all human activities becomes, and out of an insignificant guilt there grows, particularly in historical personalities, an enormous power which decides the fate of many, and which remains a gloomy foreboding for whoever lets it loose.[sm type ends]

[sm type begins]Goethe once said: “The doer never has a conscience; no one feels his conscience but the observer.” But this maxim can never mean that a person must not move and act to the best of his knowledge and conscience, and particularly for his country’s sake. And we all know that in reality nobody is capable of attaining the good he is striving for. Just as his knowledge, so will his actions always be incomplete: Any action we accomplish as free beings is an infringement on the operating forces of the universe, which we are never able to assess.[sm type ends]

Rosenberg was caught up in the destiny of his nation in a period of severe foreign political oppression and internal dissension. He struggled for cultural purity, social justice, and national dignity, and rejected vehemently all elements which did not admit these high values or consciously attacked them in an irreverent manner. With respect to foreign policy he stood for an agreement between the four central powers of the European continent, in full realization of the grave consequences of a lost war. He acted in all loyalty and respect toward a personality who appeared to give political shape and increasing power to his ideals. After the political victory at home, Rosenberg proposed that the polemics and other aspects of the period of struggle be subdued. He stood for a chivalrous solution of the existing Jewish problem, for spiritual and cultural instruction of the Party on a high plane and, contrary to the statements of the Prosecution, he opposed any form of religious persecution. He can hardly be reproached for emphasizing a definite religious-philosophical conviction of his own.

The practical application of many of his views was practiced to an increasing degree by authoritative agencies of the Party, although later they were disregarded, especially after the outbreak of the war. Finally, as has been discovered now, they were often turned into the opposite of what Rosenberg fought for.

Until 17 July 1941 Rosenberg was excluded from participation in any national legislation. Considered from the point of view of personal responsibility, all his speeches and writings up to that time come within the scope of unofficial journalistic activity which every politician and writer must admittedly be free to engage in—a freedom which the Tribunal has fundamentally acknowledged with regard to all utterances by the statesmen of other countries during the unofficial period of their career. It seems to be all the more significant that Rosenberg as a private citizen did not call for war or for the commission of any inhuman or violent acts.

As Minister for the East he advocated a generous solution in accordance with the understandable national and cultural aspirations of the eastern European peoples. He fought for this concept as long as there were any prospects for its realization. Ultimately realizing that Hitler refused to be persuaded, he requested his dismissal. The fact that Rosenberg could not prevent many outrages from happening in the East cannot be charged against him in the criminal sense. Neither the Armed Forces nor the Police nor the Allocation of Labor were subject to his authority. Whenever injustices or excesses came to his knowledge, he did everything he could to counteract them.

For almost a whole year, Rosenberg endeavored to keep labor recruiting on a voluntary basis. Later, when several age groups were drafted, he protested against every abuse by executive agencies and always demanded redress. Quite apart from the legitimate requirements of the occupation power, his labor legislation for the Eastern Territories was necessary for the establishment of order and the repression of arbitrary measures as well as of dangerous idleness, increasing sabotage, and the growing number of murders. There was a war on and it was a war area, not a postarmistice period, much less one following final capitulation.