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Ernst Janning’s Speech, from "Judgment at Nuremberg"
I wish to testify about the Feldenstein case because it was the most significant trial of the period. It is important, not only for the tribunal to understand it, but for the whole German people, but in order to understand it, one must understand the period in which it happened.
There was a fever over the land – a fever of disgrace, of indignity, of hunger. We had a democracy yes, but it was torn by elements within. Above all, there was fear – fear of today, fear of tomorrow, fear of our neighbors, and fear of ourselves. Only when you understand that can you understand what Hitler meant to us because he said to us, “Lift your heads! Be proud to be German! There are devils among us -- communists, liberals, Jews, gypsies -- once these devils will be destroyed, your misery will be destroyed!” It was the old, old story of the sacrificial lamb.
What about those of us who knew better, we who knew the words were lies and worse than lies? Why did we sit silent? Why did we take part? Because we loved our country. What difference does it make a few political extremists lose their rights? What difference does it make if a few racial minorities lose their rights? It is only a passing phase – it is only a stage we are going through; it will be discarded sooner or later. Hitler himself will be discarded sooner or later. The country is in danger. We will march out of the shadows. We will go forward -- forward is the great password! And history tells how well we succeeded, Your Honor. We succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. The very elements of hate and power about Hitler that mesmerized Germany mesmerized the world. We found ourselves with suddenly powerful allies. Things that had been denied to us as a democracy were open to us now. The world said, “Go ahead! Take it. Take it! Take Sunderland, take the Rhineland -- remilitarize. Take all of Austria! Take it!”
And then one day we looked around, and found that we were in an even more terrible danger. The ritual began in this courtroom swept over the land like a raging, roaring disease. What was going to be a passing phase had become the way of life.
Your Honor, I was content to sit silent during this trial. I was content to tend my roses. I was even content to let counsel try to save my name until I realized that in order to save it, he would have to raise the specter again. You have seen him do it. He has done it here in this courtroom. He has suggested that the third Reich worked for the benefit of people. He has suggested that we sterilized men for the welfare of the country. He has suggested that perhaps the old Jew did sleep with the sixteen year old girl after all. Once more it is being done for love of country.
It is not easy to tell the truth, but if there is to be any salvation for Germany, we who know our guilt must admit it, whatever the pain and humiliation. I had reached my verdict on the Feldenstein case before I ever came into the courtroom. I would have found him guilty whatever the evidence. It was not a trial at all. It was a sacrificial ritual in which Feldenstein the Jew was the helpless victim.
Your honor I must interrupt. The defendant is not aware of what he is saying. He is not aware of the implications...
I am aware. I am aware. My counsel would have you believe we were not aware of the concentration camps -- not aware! Where were we? Where were we when Hitler began shrieking his hate in Reichstag? Where were we when our neighbors were being dragged out in the middle of the night to Dakow? Where were we when every village in Germany has a railroad terminal where cattle cars were filled with children being carried out to their extermination? Where were we when they cried out in the night to us? Were we deaf? Dumb? Blind?
Your honor I must protest!
My counsel says we were not aware of the extermination of the millions. He would give you the excuse we were only aware of the extermination of the hundreds. Does that make us any the less guilty? Maybe we didn’t know the details, but if we didn’t know, it was only because we didn’t want to know!
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