Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume IIVarious
Philosophy
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume II
Various
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; War crime trials -- Germany -- Nuremberg
Q. And who would have assassinated Himmler and Hitler?
A. Sievers was to do that and a few young men belonging to my
organization.
Q. And why was it in effect not carried out?
A. After the Stauffenberg assassination had failed, the Wehrmacht
circles that came into question were eliminated by Himmler and therefore
it was no longer possible to remove that system. The only consequence of
any attempted assassination would have been—since the foreign political
situation would not have changed—that the people would have said again,
“This is the stab in the back for the victorious front line.”
Q. What did Sievers do to further your activity in addition to what you
have already said?
A. He, for instance, supported my representative, Arnold Deutelmoser,
when he was put on the list of those who were to be removed under the
pretext of the assassination which took place in Munich at the
Buergerbraeu. He also protected Bomas who was working in the
Netherlands. He protected Dr. Schuettelkopf whom we had sent into the
RSHA and it was possible for him in turn to send me to Sweden. He saved
Niels Bor, Professor Seyb of Oslo University, and he saved a number of
Norwegian students, etc.
Q. Do you know that Sievers informed you about Himmler’s double play in
the case of the minister Popitz, and that as a consequence he saved that
entire group against measures by Himmler?
A. Yes. The following thing happened. One day Sievers approached me and
said that he had just heard Himmler ridicule in a close circle an
attempt on the part of Popitz. He said that Minister Popitz with the
mediation of the lawyer Lampe had approached Himmler and tried to
persuade him to bring about a change of the National Socialist system,
perhaps by removing Hitler. He said Himmler thought it was very funny
that these men had so little sense as to think of him in that
connection. Thank God one could enter negotiations with them because
certainly nobody in the country was behind these people, but it did seem
that these gentlemen had many foreign political relationships and it
would be advisable to find out what in effect was behind it all and to
enter into negotiations with them. We were quite surprised about the
naive attitude shown by Himmler, and I sent Deutelmoser to Reichwein
whom I knew had connections with Popitz. In that way Popitz was warned.
Reichwein was so surprised and hardly wanted to believe the situation.
I was asked to participate in a conference, and Reichwein after having
convinced himself that all of this was true promised to warn all of the
gentlemen concerned in Berlin and then asked Deutelmoser, who was to go
to Norway shortly thereafter to notify Reichwein’s friend, Stelzer, the
present Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein, in order to see that
he, too, took the necessary precautionary measures. In this way we hoped
that a number of these people had actually been saved. Popitz, however,
himself was careless and was captured.
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