The soldiers of the Waffen SS have proved to history—in the focal points of uncounted battles during an uneven struggle—that they could rank among the finest troops on this earth as far as training, efficiency, readiness of sacrifice, soldierly valor, and contempt of death were concerned. Actions of modern warfare have presented to some extent a picture of murder and horror on both sides. Who dares to raise his head before God and gainsay that? The men of the Waffen SS went as vanquished into captivity, out of unimaginable physical and mental war distress. That captivity was not free of bloodshed, ill-treatment and degradation of various kinds. To the men of the Waffen SS there was added to the weight of such captivity the frightful realization of the fact that their supreme commander, Himmler, had misused their cloak of honor and deceived them, that they had been cheated and then deserted by him. These decent men of the front Waffen SS certainly did not deserve that fate, the fate of being branded as members of a criminal organization. My request and my wish is that our former opponents should realize the honest idealism of these victims, do justice to it, and give them back belief in justice. F. Final Statement of Defendant Gebhardt[38] I wish to thank the high Tribunal for having granted me an opportunity, in the witness box, to describe my personal position in 1942 in such detail. The historical situation at that time placed me in a totalitarian state which, in turn, placed itself between the individual and the universe. Virtues in the service of the state were paramount virtues. Beyond that I do not know anywhere where the intellect was not debased as a tool for war. Everywhere, in some way values and solutions were put into the service of the war. And here again, in the intellectual field, the first step is the decisive one. I may be permitted to recall that in the war of nerves, it was propaganda with and for “medical preparations” which caused the first step, the order to examine the question of sulfanilamides. In my final statement today may I be permitted to describe my entire attitude. In doing so, I may perhaps utilize the most important of the four American freedoms, that is to say the freedom of speech, until the very end in such a way that I will refrain from any denunciation or from incriminating others.