DRAFT
- Author:
- Dr. Werner Best
- Print Source:
- Nuremberg, Germany: International Military Tribunal, 1945-08-05
- Publication Info:
- Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Law Library
- Volume:
- 002
- Subdivision:
- German Activities / Subdivision 6 / History Generally
- Section:
- 6.11 (Werner Best statement)
- Description:
- English; the translator's name is not given., 5 p.
- Witness:
- Dr. Werner Best
- Other names:
- Prof. Dr. Burckhardt; Dr. Karl Mierendorf; Goebbels; Hitler; von Stauffenberg
- Other dates:
- 4 August 1945; 1933 to 1939; 1940 to 1945; March 1933; 1 May 1933; 5 May 1933; 9 November 1938; 20 July 1944
- Abstract:
- In this statement, Werner Best attempts to explain, "why the measures taken by the National Socialist State Control in regard to the treatment of prisoners in the concentration camps and the treatment of the Jews did not induce [him] to 'desertion.'" Although he distinguishes between 1933-1939 and 1940-1945, Best neither addresses the nature of the concentration camps during the latter period nor comments on the Nazi state's treatment of the Jews after 9 November 1938. One might fairly summarize Best's posture as that of the dutiful German loyally serving the Fatherland by following orders, and accurately characterize his statement as an evasive apologia for unacknowledged atrocities. This document is a typewritten original.
- Keywords:
- Concentration camps, Persecution of Jews, Versailles Treaty, Nazi State, Osthofen, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, The Jewish Question, Palestine, Communism, German race, German people