ABSTRACT
There is already such an abundance of writings of every kind about the persecution of the Jews during the "Third Reich" that to add yet another piece can only be justified if it reveals something substantially new. The deeds of the persecutors and the sufferings of the persecuted, which have shocked the world, have been preserved in thousands of court records and in numerous first-hand accounts. Less, and in some cases nothing, is known about the persecution in its preparatory stage, how the Hitler regime's measures, behind the curtain of "Party and State," took on the shape—sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly—in which they would later come to light. The trials before the Nuremberg military tribunal 1 did, to be sure, subject these matters to the closest possible examination. What made its way into the press, however, was by necessity incomplete. 34Much of it was not included in the protocols, or was taken out of context. The author of this record held the Desk for "Racial Law" (Referent für "Rassenrecht") in the Reich Ministry of the Interior from mid-1933 until late 1942 and personally witnessed most of the early history of the persecution, at least those measures cloaked, albeit scantily, in legality. The only part of his lengthy and detailed testimony as witness at the Nuremberg Trials included in the protocols concerned his statements regarding the conduct of the accused Secretary of State Dr. Stuckart, 2 It seems likely that the large majority of the people who, apart from myself, experienced these proceedings and are still alive today—in other words, my opponents on the Nazi side—feel the urgent need to bury their knowledge of what transpired. In many of the preliminary events, meetings, and confrontations, I was probably the only participant who stood wholeheartedly on the other side. To describe the more remarkable of these experiences has thus, perhaps, a certain value as a contribution to uncovering the truth—provided that it is presented objectively. The fortunate circumstance of being able to save a number of reference files and notes from this time helped me come closer to this goal. Proceedings marked by such ever-escalating atrocity as Hitler's persecution of the Jews tend, perhaps more quickly than others, to give rise to legends and schematic sim plifications—in other words, to misjudgments that become seemingly insurmountable obstacles to uncovering the truth, and thus to assigning guilt more justly. It therefore seems incumbent upon me to explain at certain points how I, as a hostile and critical contemporary, personally viewed and judged things during this period.
