362.1121 Hirsch, Helmut/56
Memorandum by the Secretary of State
The German Ambassador called upon my invitation in order that I might make a final appeal to him and his government either for a commutation of the death penalty imposed upon Helmut Hirsch, who is sentenced to be executed in Berlin on tomorrow, June 4, 1937, or, to secure a delay of the execution in order that this government might have an opportunity to become more fully acquainted with the record in this case. I rested my appeal on several grounds, but on two in particular,—first, the youth and inexperience and highly nervous and emotional temperament of Hirsch, and, second, that the penalty is unusually and unnecessarily severe. In the event of adverse action on this appeal for clemency, the request was repeatedly emphasized for a delay in the execution for the purpose aforesaid. I emphasized my view at the outset that, of course, the German Government has the fullest and unquestioned right and privilege to enact and administer its own laws pertaining to its security and safety; that it is not my purpose to make any unreasonable request in the instant case or a request that would in the least interfere with the proper course of security and justice as administered by the German Government. I [Page 402] emphasized also the righteous condemnation I and my government feel towards deliberate criminals who thus deliberately plot or conspire to injure a government; and that it is in the light of all the circumstances and facts, to the extent that they are known to me, and of this feeling that I ventured to make this final appeal to the German Government. I need not elaborate the numerous detailed statements intended to support my appeal.
The Ambassador said that he is thoroughly familiar with the case; that it had been up before he left the Foreign Office recently to come to Washington. He said that Hirsch is a very intelligent person; that he deliberately associated himself with an organization in Prague which had for its purpose the destruction of the German Government from beyond the boundaries of the latter; that he deliberately brought from Prague to Stuttgart a valise filled with dynamite and other explosives; that he had freely admitted his purpose was to use these explosives in blowing up government buildings and injuring government officials; that he was given a fair trial by a thoroughly competent and properly conducted court; that to this date he has admitted his guilt on all occasions; that the law he violated prescribes the offense of treason and makes it a capital offense; and that he, the Ambassador, sees no reasonable occasion or opportunity for further favorable action by the German Government; that if anything at all could be done it would be more effectively come through contacts with the German Government by the United States Embassy at Berlin.
The Ambassador then reverted to the recent case of the American communist Simpson, who was pardoned upon the request of this Government, and who since has been busy traveling over this country denouncing the German Government; that, therefore, it is more calculated to hurt than to help relations between the two countries for deliberate criminals to be pardoned and set free. He also referred to the Hauptmann case, in which the latter, a German citizen, was tried in our courts and executed without complaint by the German Government. I offered some comment to the effect that the cases and the situations were very different and that, of course, whatever could and should properly be done in the instant case should be governed solely by the facts and circumstances of this case alone. It is due the Ambassador to say that he cited these cases in reply to some remark of mine to the effect that world conditions and relations are very unsettled and peoples are on tenterhooks in many respects, so that it would not in the least contribute to the improvement of these relationships among nations to have a secret trial and conviction and execution without the other government interested being given a chance at least to become familiar with the entire record.