The Nuremberg Trials (Vol.9). International Military Tribunal

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СКАЧАТЬ order would most probably have meant death?

      MILCH: That has been proved in many hundreds of cases.

      DR. KAUFFMANN: Am I also correct in stating that the peril would have been equally deadly even if the order had been opposed on legal and moral grounds?

      MILCH: I believe that here, too, one would have had to be prepared to pay the penalty, and not only one’s own, but the family’s as well.

      DR. KAUFFMANN: Thank you. I have no more questions to ask.

      DR. WALTER SIEMERS (Counsel for Defendant Raeder): Witness, I have only a short question to ask you. You told us, on Saturday or on Friday, that in 1937 you had discussions with an English mission. This mission was headed by Air Vice Marshal Courtney. I should like to know from you if, in the course of these discussions, it was agreed that the competent German and British authorities should exchange information concerning the establishment plans for their respective Air Forces?

      MILCH: Your surmise is correct.

      DR. SIEMERS: How was the agreement made?

      MILCH: The agreement was drawn up in writing.

      DR. SIEMERS: Had the British and German Air Forces establishment plans for each year?

      MILCH: No. The plans covered several years.

      DR. SIEMERS: How many years ahead were covered by the 1937 plan?

      MILCH: I cannot tell you from memory. At that time it may possibly have covered 2 or 3 years.

      DR. SIEMERS: That would have been from 1938 till 1940?

      MILCH: Possibly 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940. I cannot say for certain. I have forgotten.

      DR. SIEMERS: Had this plan a technical name? Was it called “Establishment Plan,” or did it have some other name?

      MILCH: I cannot remember now. We generally referred to it as the projected establishment plan.

      DR. SIEMERS: On the English side, were the plans also drawn up to cover a definite period—say 3 years?

      MILCH: I believe the periods covered were very much the same. The system was more or less the same.

      DR. SIEMERS: I thank you very much.

      THE PRESIDENT: Does the Prosecution now wish to cross-examine? Mr. Justice Jackson, I am sorry to have called you up. Perhaps it would be convenient to adjourn for 10 minutes now.

      [A recess was taken.]

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Witness, you are a prisoner of war of the United States at the present time?

      MILCH: No, I am not a prisoner of war of the United States. I was an English prisoner of war, and since I have been here I have been declared an internee. I do not know what that means. At any rate, it is not correct to apply it to a prisoner-of-war officer taken by the enemy during action before the end of hostilities.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You have been allowed to confer with counsel both while this Trial was in progress and . . .

      MILCH: I have been able to confer with some of the Counsel for the Defense, not with all of them. I assume that the other Defense Counsel did not desire it.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Now, you will save a great deal of time if you will answer my questions as briefly as possible and with “yes” or “no” where possible. You have been allowed to prepare, keep, and bring to the Court notes after your consultations with counsel?

      MILCH: The notes which I had with me were made by me before I conferred with defendants’ counsel.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You have made none of the notes since your consultations with counsel?

      MILCH: I made one note for myself about one consultation. It was merely about a date which had been mentioned to me and which otherwise I could not have remembered.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you occupied a very high position in the German Air Force?

      MILCH: I was Inspector General.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You frequently attended conferences on behalf of Göring?

      MILCH: On behalf of Göring, very rarely.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You deny that you attended conferences on behalf of Göring frequently?

      MILCH: No. I do not deny it at all, but I was called upon to attend some of these conferences by virtue of my own office. I rarely had occasion to represent Göring as he usually attended these conferences himself.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You had a very large part in building up the Luftwaffe, did you not?

      MILCH: Yes.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you were honored for that, were you not, in 1941, by the Hitler regime?

      MILCH: 1941—no; I believe, Mr. Justice Jackson, you mean 1940.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: 1940—well, perhaps I am wrong.

      MILCH: You mean the promotion to Field Marshal, don’t you?

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: When was your promotion to Field Marshal?

      MILCH: On 19 July 1940.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And did you not receive a gift from the Hitler regime in recognition of your services?

      MILCH: In 1942, on the occasion of my fiftieth birthday, I received a recognition.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And the recognition was in the form of cash, wasn’t it?

      MILCH: Yes, it was a cash recognition, with which I could buy myself an estate.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And what did it consist of?

      MILCH: The sum amounted to 250,000 marks.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And now you come here to testify, as I understand your testimony, that the regime of which you were a part put Germany into a war for which it was in no way prepared. Do I understand you correctly?

      MILCH: It is correct insofar as Germany in 1939 entered into a war for which she was not prepared as far as the Air Force was concerned.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Did the head of the Air Force ever give any warning of that fact to the German people?

      MILCH: That I am unable to say. I do not believe he could do that.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You do not know that he ever did do it, do you?

      MILCH: I cannot remember that he ever gave such a warning to the people publicly. I assume that the warning was given to his superior military officer.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And what officer would be above him?

      MILCH: That would be the Führer, Adolf Hitler.

      MR. СКАЧАТЬ