Morning Session (continued 2)
Reading edition
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.”
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
So far as he was informed of things and commanded any influence, Rosenberg fought for his convictions. The fact that adverse powers became stronger than he was cannot be brought up as a charge against him. One cannot punish offenses, and at the same time punish those who revolted against them. In view of the terrible extermination orders which have now been disclosed, it is certainly possible to raise the point whether Rosenberg could not have exerted much stronger opposition. To expect this would, however, suppose an earlier knowledge of things which he only learned about after the collapse. Should he be charged with any carelessness it must not be forgotten that he felt it to be his duty to serve the Reich engaged in the struggle for its existence, and that terrible injuries were also inflicted upon the German nation, injuries which Rosenberg was equally unable to recognize as war necessities.
His official tasks, as for example the duties of the Einsatzstab in the West and East, were carried out by Rosenberg without compromising his personal integrity. The requisitioning of artistic and cultural objects he always carried out provisionally, subject to final decisions by the supreme authority and, as far as was at all possible, with proper identification of the proprietor. Moreover, in the use of unclaimed furniture for the benefit of air-raid victims in Germany, provision was made for the subsequent indemnification of the owners based upon a precise inventory.
In considering his entire personality we see that Rosenberg followed with faith and devotion an ideal of social justice combined with national dignity. He fought for it openly and honorably, went to prison, and risked his life for it. He did not step in only when National Socialism afforded the opportunity to begin a career, but at a time when it was dangerous and asked only for sacrifice. In his speeches after 1933 he took his stand in favor of deeper spiritual formation, a new cultural education, personality values, and respect for every form of honest work. He accepted the gloomy days of that time as unfortunate but inevitable accompanying phenomena of a revolution otherwise acclaimed as having passed without bloodshed, without having in fact learned of the secret details. He fully believed that good forces and ideas would prevail over these other human imperfections. During the war he was at the service of the Reich in accordance with his duty.
For 25 years, throughout the revolution and the events of the war, he maintained his personal integrity and untainted character. He had to witness with deep sorrow that a great idea, in the hands of those possessed with the lust for power, was gradually abused, and in 1944, at Party meetings, he protested against this abuse of power entrusted to its holders. During this Trial he had to his dismay and horror to look upon the evidence of the degeneration of his life’s ideal; but he knows that his aspirations and the aspirations of many millions of other Germans have been honorable and decent. Today he still adheres to his honorable, honest, and humanly irreproachable conduct and, full of sorrow for the wounds inflicted upon all nations and for the downfall of the Reich, he awaits the sentence of a just Tribunal.