Afternoon Session (continued 2)

But quite apart from these deliberations, the attitude of the defendant toward religious matters removes the slightest doubt of the sincerity of his intentions. In the hearing of the evidence it was set forth that not only his closest personal advisers in Church affairs but also the highest dignitaries of the Church, who were in closest personal as well as professional contact with the defendant in these matters, emphasized that his attitude as a Catholic was absolutely beyond reproach at all times.

The lack of foundation of the whole Indictment with regard to Church questions is already made clear by the refutation of the assertion of the Prosecution that Papen himself broke the Concordat by dissolving the Work Association of Catholic Germans. I refer in this respect to the unequivocal testimony of the former secretary of the Work Association of Catholic Germans, Count Roderich Thun, Defense Document Number Papen-47. It must be stated, however, that Papen not only regretted the subsequent violations of the Concordat by the Reich but that he actively tried to oppose them. The entire activities of the Work Association of Catholic Germans consisted practically of nothing else but the establishment of such violations of the Concordat in order to furnish Papen with evidence for his constant interventions with Hitler. After Papen’s departure for Vienna, the practical possibility of such interventions ceased to exist.

From all of Papen’s speeches it is evident that his attempt at safeguarding the churches did not emanate from considerations of political expediency of the day but from his fundamental religious attitude. I believe there is no speech in which he did not express himself on this problem, emphasizing time and again that only the Christian philosophy of life and thus the Christian churches, could be the foundation for the orderly government of a state. In just this Christian foundation he saw the best protection against the tendency of the Party to give preference to an ever-increasing extent to the idea of sheer might over right.

With regard to Papen’s report to Hitler of 10 July 1938, Document Number 2248-PS, which was submitted during the cross-examination, the Prosecution fell victim to a quite obvious misunderstanding. Papen refers in it to the favorable result there would be in the field of foreign politics if one could succeed in eliminating political Catholicism without touching the Christian foundation of the state. Papen does not state here his opinion on the past and present situation but furnishes advice for the future. The content of this advice is definitely positive in the ecclesiastical sense. It states that one may eliminate political Catholicism; but the purely ecclesiastical interests themselves, that is, the Christian foundation of the state, must remain untouched. These directives destined for future times obviously contain criticism of the past as well. We see here how, in connection with foreign political activities, matters could be discussed and brought up to Hitler which in themselves belong to another field.

In his own testimony Papen replied to the accusation of the Prosecution that as a good Catholic he should have resigned after the Pope had issued his Encyclical Letter “With Grave Apprehension” of 14 March 1937. Papen could refer, in this connection, without any criticism and with full approval, to the standpoint of the Church itself, which has always been of the opinion that one should hold a position so long as it still offers the slightest opportunity for positive work. Owing to this wise attitude and to its feeling of responsibility for the German Catholics, the Church up until the end never completely broke with the Third Reich. One cannot ask an individual Catholic to take any other standpoint in this respect. This all the less as Papen, in his purely foreign political activities, came into no conflict whatsoever with his Catholic conscience.

The accusation that in the fall of 1938 he should have protested to Hitler about the treatment of Cardinal Innitzer is also without foundation. Papen himself can no longer remember today when and in what form he heard of these occurrences at all. The German press did not publish anything about it, and in no case did such matters reach the public via internal Church channels, as the Prosecution assume. In any case at that time Papen had no possibility whatsoever to intervene, being merely a private person and besides in very bad standing with Hitler at the moment.

I have already dealt with Hitler’s development into an autocrat. After the cessation of joint reports to Hindenburg, Papen’s influence was reduced to a minimum. Protests in Cabinet sessions coming from a single man, who was unable to base these protests on requirements of his own department, were of purely declaratory nature. Meanwhile the Nazi doctrines were being applied more and more in practice. It became clear that the willingness of the early days to compromise in agreeing to a rule by a coalition was slowly abandoned and that the National Socialist doctrine kept gaining ground in all fields. It was clear to Papen that he would not follow that course. It was likewise clear that within the framework of his official position he could not alter the general trend, apart from his efforts to help in many individual cases. On the other hand his position of Vice Chancellor, which still existed in theory, gave him certain weight in public life. Thus he had to face the problem as to whether he should launch out on a policy of public criticism of all the prevailing abuses as a last attempt to influence the development by public discussion of the problems. In case of failure, he would have at least publicly branded these abuses even if, as a natural consequence, Papen would have to give up his position and would thus no longer be able to aid many people in individual cases.

In his Marburg speech of 17 June 1934 Papen distinctly branded all abuses which had become apparent until then. Such extensive public criticism remained unique in the history of the Third Reich.

He realized that the danger of Nazism lay in the fact that its different doctrines were so interlocked that they formed an iron ring of oppression on all of public life. Had only one link of that ring been smashed, the dangerous character of the entire system would have been averted. If only one of the points discussed had met with practical success in a favorable sense, it would have meant a total change of conditions. The system objected to could not have existed another day if the freedom of speech demanded by Papen had been granted. It could not have been upheld if the conception of justice and of equality before the law were recognized. It could not have existed if freedom of religion were guaranteed. A Marxist mass theory cannot be upheld if the maxim of the individual’s equality, common to all confessions, is advocated.

Each of Papen’s attacks in his Marburg speech—he had dealt with the racial issue already in his Gleiwitz speech—was in itself an attack upon the development of the entire Nazi doctrine. Here a leading member of the opposition in the Government clearly indicated the source of the abuses.

The consequences of such an action were foreseen by Papen from the very beginning. Either Hitler would take into consideration the new state of affairs after it had become a matter of public discussion, or Papen was going to offer his resignation, since he could no longer reconcile further co-operation with the path chosen by Hitler.

Evidently Hitler at that time did not consider it necessary to make a concession to public opinion by deviating from his line of action. He tried to kill the opposition by forbidding the publication of the speech and by penalizing its distributors. Papen resigned. Hitler did not accept this resignation immediately, since he obviously had to take Hindenburg into consideration, wishing to clear up the situation first of all with him. Meanwhile the events of 30 June took place. What fate had originally been destined for Papen in the course of those events will probably never be known definitely. Particularly, it will never be elucidated whether different people were moved by different intentions.

The course of the actions becomes most apparent by the manner in which they were carried out against the office of the Vice Chancellor. Bose was the first victim, in the very building of the Vice Chancellery. Jung, who was arrested outside of Berlin, was also shot. His fate, however, became known to Papen and the public only much later, as it had been hoped at the beginning that he had left Berlin and had gone to Switzerland, having been warned by the measures taken as a result of the Marburg speech. The other members of the staff who could be apprehended were taken into custody by the police and later sent to concentration camps. As to Papen himself one hesitated to make a final clear decision as to his fate. His close relationship to Hindenburg made it seem advisable not to add to the list of victims of 30 June so prominent a name, especially after it had been burdened enough, as far as Hindenburg is concerned, with the crime camouflaged as self-defense against Schleicher.

At any rate, within the framework of the Indictment it suffices to establish that whatever Papen’s fate has been in the end, the measures taken against him and his people demonstrate his absolute opposition against Hitler and the Nazi policy.

During the cross-examination the Prosecution presented letters to Papen which outwardly seem to show at first a certain divergence from his usual attitude. In those letters Papen assures Hitler of his attachment and loyalty and hides his real and material desires under polite phrases which otherwise were in no way customary in his relations with Hitler. It may appear surprising that a man who opposed the system, who had been persecuted for that reason, and upon whose associates such incredible things had been inflicted, chose to write such letters. But for a fair judgment a correct understanding of the state of affairs at that time is required. A state of lawlessness existed at that time. It offered a favorable opportunity to get rid of troublesome opponents: The examples of Schleicher, of Klausner and others have sufficiently shown that. There was no way of knowing beforehand when and in what manner the measures taken against the persons already involved in these matters would end. The heated imagination saw in every man with opposing ideas a conspirator with these SA groups who sooner or later had really intended to revolt against Hitler.

How far indeed persons of the right, because of their opposing attitude, had joined hands with the SA, which was a powerful factor at that time, has not been established with certainty up to now. However, it could not be judged at that time whether or not Hitler’s statements in regard to persons not belonging to the SA were correct.

For Papen the situation at that time was as follows: He knew of Bose’s assassination but was as yet unaware of Jung’s fate. He hoped that the latter had escaped. Three of his co-workers were in a concentration camp. These had first to be released. And also in view of the future the suspicion had to be dispelled that any one of them, as well as Papen himself, had been in contact with the SA circles in revolt. If Papen ever wished to make any representations with Hitler, the first requirements for any possible success would be to show that he was far removed from such SA circles. Papen therefore felt obliged to assure Hitler of his loyalty and faith. Besides, Papen had been convinced for years that Himmler and Goebbels were behind the attack on him and the Vice Chancellery and that Himmler in particular wanted to eliminate him, having been prevented from doing so only by Göring and that therefore in order to protect himself against these two it was necessary to assure Hitler of his irreproachable attitude.

In judging these letters it is not their form but their contents which is essential. The whole gist of the letters is the demand of rehabilitation for his own person and his associates. He demands court action. He advises Hitler to strike out from his intended Justification Law all actions directed against persons outside the SA circle.

But what is the meaning of these demands of Papen? Their real significance is his adherence to legality with regard to the illegal actions of 30 June. He demands an objective and judicial clarification of all that is to be condemned in the events of 30 June. When we consider these events of 30 June, we must always bear in mind that they fall into two parts. The first were measures against the SA leaders, whose radicalism had always been known and who were always connected with acts of violence and independent activities which in the past had had to be condemned. Intervention against such people could be explained as an act of state defense against dangerous forces which were ever ready for revolt. The other part consisted of measures against individuals outside the SA circle. A court investigation would have resulted in the clearing up of these events and in condemning the persons responsible.

I believe that an objective study of the events at that time leads one to the conviction that Papen’s letters really had no other purpose than to achieve what he had proposed to Hitler, namely, rehabilitation by means of a court action of those persons who had been unjustly persecuted and the insistence on a decree to establish the illegality of the measures in question. If we come now to the heart of the matter and to what was actually desired we can by no means give to the form of these letters the meaning which is ascribed to them by the Prosecution. That this form in particular did not represent an approval of the measures of 30 June but was merely used for the above-mentioned purpose is best shown by the examination of the letter of 17 July. Though at that time Papen had succeeded in having his co-workers released from the concentration camp, his other demands were not fulfilled by Hitler. So we now see a piece of writing which is entirely lacking even in the most elementary forms of politeness, merely objective statements and objective requests, a piece of writing signed only with the name of Papen, without even a closing courtesy formula.

With regard to the subject Papen does not retreat from his line of conduct for a single moment. He insists upon his resignation and demands immediate action on it, as the letter of 10 July 1934 shows; he refuses to play any part in future government activities. He leaves Hitler immediately after having had him called out of the Cabinet session on 3 July. He keeps aloof from the Reichstag session at which the Justification Law is passed. He rudely declines the offer to accept the comfortable post of Ambassador at the Vatican. Such was his negative attitude.

As to the positive one, he strives to bring about the intervention of the Armed Forces. He turns to his friend Generaloberst Von Fritsch. Blomberg, because of his attitude, is out of the question. Fritsch will not act without an express order from the Reich President. So now Papen endeavors to get in touch with Hindenburg. But Hindenburg’s entourage keeps him off.

THE PRESIDENT: You might stop there.

[The Tribunal adjourned until 23 July 1946 at 1000 hours.]