7211 - Hjalmar Schacht Document Signed at Nuremberg, Calling for Buried Evidence of His "Opposition against Hitler and Goering"

Hjalmar Schacht Document Signed at Nuremberg, Calling for Buried Evidence of His "Opposition against Hitler and Goering" Partly-printed DS, in German, one page, 8 x 12, November 25, 1945. Document headed (translated), "The International Military Tribunal, Defendant's Application for Document," made while preparing his defense for the Nuremberg trials. Schacht and his defense lawyer request "statements against Hitler, letters by Lammer in matters of administration, copies of letters addressed to Funk, 'Das Reich' Hitler, etc.," which "were buried in a steel box in my garden in Lindow (Mark). This box with its contents was dug up and carried away by the Russians on 21st May 1945." Schacht asserts that these documents will prove his "opposition against Hitler and Goering" and that he "did not participate in a conspiracy." Signed at the conclusion in pencil by Hjalmar Schacht, and countersigned by his defense counsel. Backed by archival paper and in fine condition, with professional cleaning to the paper. Accompanied by a contemporary English translation. The letters Schacht describes had in fact been entrusted by Reich Chancellery Chief Hans Lammers to his secretary, who sealed them in jars and buried them in a Berlin garden rather than the steel box Schacht recalls, a detail suggesting Schacht was working from imperfect memory of documents he never expected to need again. Allied investigators recovered the buried correspondence intact, and it was introduced as evidence at trial, corroborated by Lammers' own testimony, to show that Schacht's written protests to Hitler and Göring over rearmament and war policy were genuine and contemporaneous rather than assembled after the fact for his defense.