As I myself ordered, you were to secure the provinces, and to correctly guide the people and make them obedient. [...] That was how I had instructed you. Why have you not acted as I ordered you?

With regard to the abuse of authority, this also may come about in two ways. First, when what is ordered by an authority is opposed to the object for which that authority was constituted (if, for example, some sinful action is commanded or one which is contrary to virtue, when it is precisely for the protection and fostering of virtue that authority is instituted). In such a case, not only is there no obligation to obey the authority, but one is obliged to disobey it, as did the holy martyrs who suffered death rather than obey the impious commands of tyrants. Secondly, when those who bear such authority command things which exceed the competence of such authority; as, for example, when a master demands payment from a servant which the latter is not bound to make, and other similar cases. In this instance the subject is free to obey or disobey.

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

The men of my group who are under indictment here were under my military command. If they had not executed the orders which they were given, they would have been ordered by me to execute them. If they had refused to execute the orders they would have had to be called to account for it by me. There could be no doubt about it. Whoever refused anything in the front lines would have met immediate death. If the refusal would have come about in any other way, a court martial of the Higher SS and Police Leader would have brought about the same consequences.

For rebelling against every form of authority fate has punished me by making me an authority.

Remember, I have not appointed you as commanders and tyrants over the people. I have sent you as leaders instead, so that the people may follow your example. Give the Muslims their rights and do not beat them lest they become abused. Do not praise them unduly, lest they fall into the error of conceit. Do not keep your doors shut in their faces, lest the more powerful of them eat up the weaker ones. And do not behave as if you were superior to them, for that is tyranny over them.

I was authorized to do everything that I did.

It is useless for you to ask me single facts. Whatever has been committed against Italy and the Italians for the past ten years was willed and permitted by me, whenever I did not personally take part in the acts themselves. … The raids, too, were ordered by me and some of them carried out by me.

They made you responsible only for what is in your power – the proper use of impressions.

“So use your initiative!”
“I don’t have initiative. I follow orders, thank you. It’s much safer.”
“Fine, I order you to use your initiative.”

What right had you not to let me die?

He didn't direct you. He never told you what to do. He would talk to you, mostly about something completely different, and you find yourself doing the right thing. It was really very spooky—what he did.

"One must require from each one the duty with each one can perform," said the king. "Accepted authority rests first of all on reason. If you ordered your people to go and throw themselves into the sea, they would rise up in revolution. I have the right to require obedience because my orders are reasonable."

Il faut exiger de chacun ce que chacun peut donner, reprit le roi. L’autorité repose d’abord sur la raison. Si tu ordonnes à ton peuple d’aller se jeter à la mer, il fera la révolution. J’ai le droit d’exiger l’obéissance parce que mes ordres sont raisonnables.