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Partly-printed DS, in German, signed “Hans Fritzsche,” one page, 8 x 12.5, November 13, 1945. Document headed (translated), "The International Military Tribunal, Defendant's Application for Document," made while preparing his defense in the Nuremberg trials. In part (translated): "I, Hans Fritzsche, hereby request that the Tribunal require the production of the following document to be used for my defense: texts of all my broadcast addressed during the years 1932–1945…kept in the radio room of the air raid shelter cellar of the Propaganda Ministry." Fritzsche asserts that "against the claims in the indictment I have not encouraged and incited to the commitment of war crimes and crimes against humanity, to anti-Jewish measures or to ruthless exploitation of occupied territories." He further notes: "The prosecution is likely to select isolated sentences during the main trial to support certain things for which I am being blamed in the indictment." Signed at the conclusion in pencil by Fritzsche, and countersigned by his defense counsel. Backed by archival paper and in fine condition.
Fritzsche's stated purpose was to prove that, contrary to the indictment, he had not "encouraged and incited to the commitment of war crimes" and anticipated the prosecution would pull isolated sentences from his broadcasts out of context to support the charges against him. He therefore sought the full record to counter that.
The Tribunal granted a compromise version of this request, giving Fritzsche's defense access to available Allied-monitored transcripts of his broadcasts rather than a complete archive. That evidence proved decisive: the defense showed his weekly program, "Hans Fritzsche Speaks," never explicitly called for the annihilation of Jews or conquered peoples, and that Fritzsche was reading news items handed to him by the German Navy and state apparatus without personal knowledge they were falsified. The IMT ruled his broadcasts were aimed at bolstering public morale rather than inciting atrocities, acquitting him of all charges on October 1, 1946, one of only three defendants acquitted at the main Nuremberg trial.
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