As the defense of the 20 Nazis accused of war crimes at the Allied trial here begins to unfold, it is becoming more and more evident that many of the defendants will attempt to base their case on claims of having protected Jews, or at least of not having played an active part in their extermination in Germany and German-occupied Europe.
The military tribunal today heard counsel for Baldur von Schirach, Nazi youth leader and Gauleiter of Vienna, ask for the calling of witnesses and admission of documents in an attempt to prove that Schirach had actually protected individual Jews in the face of criticism and had opposed the anti-Jewish policy of the Nazis.
The former Jugend leader, who once declared that his contribution to European culture was the deportation of Viennese Jews to the East, where they were enslaved and slaughtered, will try to prove that his wife, with his permission, interceded with Hitler to mitigate the German policy of extermination of Jews.
Hjalmer Schacht, Nazi economic wizard, who financed Germany’s rearmament, will call witnesses to prove that he protected Jews and that on May 3, 1935 he presented a memorandum to Hitler asking for legal protection for the Jews. Fritz Saukel, Nazi labor chief, will also try to demonstrate that he was no enemy of the Jews, it was revealed today.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
