Hitler's Table Talk

INDICTMENT OF LAWYERS 377
think that my activity against the usurpers constitutes a case of
high treason, then let me tell you that, as a German, I have for
six years considered it a duty to wage the struggle against the
usurpers, and thus to commit—if you really cling to this expression—the
crime of high treason!" Frick, too, conducted
himself admirably at that time. As adjutant to the Chief of
Police, he was able to supply us with all kinds of information,
which enabled the Party rapidly to expand its activity. He
never missed an opportunity to help us and protect us. I can
even add that without him I'd never have got out of prison.
But as it is. ...
There exists, unfortunately, a particular type of National
Socialist who at a certain moment did great things for the
Party, but who is never capable of doing still better. When
our activities spread beyond the framework of what he has been
able to grasp, and of what corresponds to his own ideas, he
takes fright, for lack of being able to take into account the
logic of the facts and that certain acts inescapably demand
certain consequences.
Dietrich Eckart always judged the world of jurists with the
greatest clear-sightedness, the more so as he had himself
studied law for several terms. According to his own evidence,
he decided to break off these studies "so as not to become a
perfect imbecile". Dietrich Eckart, by the way, is the man who
had the brilliant idea of nailing the present juridical doctrines
to the pillory and publishing the result in a form easily accessible
to the German people. For myself, I supposed it was
enough to say these things in an abbreviated form. It's only
with time that I've come to realise my mistake.
Thus to-day I can declare without circumlocution that every
jurist must be regarded as a man deficient by nature, or else
deformed by usage. When I go over the names of the lawyers
I've known in my life, and especially the advocates, I cannot
help recognising by contrast how morally wholesome, honourable
and rooted in the best traditions were the men with whom
Dietrich Eckart and I began our struggle in Bavaria.