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

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      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: I think you said in your interrogation that after the 5th of March 1943, Hitler was no longer normal. Did you make that statement?

      MILCH: I said that, in my opinion, the Hitler of the later years was not the Hitler of the early period from 1933 until the outbreak of war, and that after the campaign against France a change came over him. I formed this opinion, which was a purely private one, because what he did afterwards was diametrically opposed to what he had previously taught; and that I could not consider normal.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you want us to understand that Göring continued to act as second man in the Reich and to take the orders from an abnormal man from that period on? Is that your story?

      MILCH: The abnormality was not such that one could say, “this man is out of his senses,” or, “this man is insane”; it would not have to reach that stage. It often happens that abnormalities are such that they escape both the public and the nearest associates. I believe that a doctor would be better able to give information on that subject. I talked to medical men about it at the time.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And it was their opinion that he was abnormal?

      MILCH: That there was a possibility of abnormality was admitted by a doctor whom I knew well, personally.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: A doctor of repute in Germany?

      MILCH: No, he is not very well known. He never told anybody else. It would not have been wise to do so.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: If he had, he would have been put in a concentration camp, I suppose?

      MILCH: Or worse.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And if you had expressed your opinion that he was abnormal, you probably would have been put there also, would you not?

      MILCH: I would have been shot immediately.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON; So you never dared to tell your superior, Göring, your opinion about Hitler?

      MILCH: I only once had an opportunity of stating my views about the war to Hitler. That was the only time.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You informed Göring of your opinion?

      MILCH: I talked to Göring. What I have just mentioned was a conversation I had with Hitler.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Well, you do not—I think you misunderstood me—you do not mean that you informed Hitler that you considered him abnormal; I am sure you do not mean that.

      MILCH: No, I did not tell Göring that either.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: That is what I said. You knew, did you not, that Göring, who was your immediate superior, was issuing the anti-Jewish decrees of the Reich Government?

      MILCH: No, I did not know that. As far as I know, they emanated from a different office, from . . .

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Didn’t you know that the decrees which excluded Jews and half-Jews from holding posts were issued by Göring?

      MILCH: No, I did not know that. As far as I know, these regulations emanated from the Ministry of the Interior, which also would have been the proper department to deal with them.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: As a matter of fact, did you not have to take certain proceedings to avoid the effect of those decrees yourself?

      MILCH: No. I know what you mean. That was a question that had been cleared long ago.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: How long before that was it cleared?

      MILCH: As far as I know, in 1933.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: 1933, just after the Nazis came to power?

      MILCH: Yes.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And at that time Göring had you—we will have no misunderstanding about this—Göring made you what you call a full Aryan; was that it?

      MILCH: I do not think he made me one; I was one.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: Well, he had it established, let us say?

      MILCH: He had helped me in clearing up this question, which was not clear.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: That is, your mother’s husband was a Jew; is that correct?

      MILCH: It was not said so.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: You had to demonstrate that none of your ancestry was Jewish; is that correct?

      MILCH: Yes; everybody had to do that.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And in your case that involved your father, your alleged father; is that correct?

      MILCH: Yes.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you certainly were informed from the very beginning of the attitude of the Nazi Party to Jews, were you not?

      MILCH: No, I was not informed. Everybody had to submit his papers, and the certificate of one of my grandparents could not be found.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you were never required to do that under the Weimar Republic?

      MILCH: No, there was no such question at that time.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you knew that this whole question was raised by the Nazi Party, of which you became a member in 1933; in other words at about the time this happened. Is that right?

      MILCH: I had applied for membership earlier, before this question came up.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: When did you apply for membership?

      MILCH: I do not know exactly—I think in March or April.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And you had to clear up this question before you could become a member; wasn’t that the point?

      MILCH: That had been cleared up in the meantime. I cannot say exactly when.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: In 1933 you became aware of the concentration camp, the first one?

      MILCH: Yes, I believe in 1933 there was a public announcement about it.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And later, as I understand you, you heard so many rumors about concentration camps, that you thought the matter ought to be investigated; that you ought to go there and see?

      MILCH: Yes.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: When was it that these rumors became so persistent that you thought the matter should be investigated?

      MILCH: That must have been at the end of 1934 and in the spring of 1935, because, if I remember correctly, I was in Dachau in the spring of 1935.

      MR. JUSTICE JACKSON: And those rumors persisted throughout the entire period until the collapse of Germany, didn’t they?

      MILCH: Those rumors which led me to ask to visit Dachau were really only current in the СКАЧАТЬ