[Page 336]

You see, we have an extract for practically every week or month over the course of three years.

I would just like you to turn to Page 30 "A" of the "A" bundle. I just want you to see what you were writing after having heard, or after having read, or anyway ... after those copies of the "Israelitisches Wochenblatt" had been published. This is a leading article by yourself:-

"If the danger of the reproduction of that 'Curse of God' in the Jewish blood is finally to come to an end, then there is only one way open, the extermination of that people whose father is the devil."

A. First of all, I would like to ask whether this issue is known to my defence counsel, and if the translation is correct?

Q. It does not matter. He has copies of all this and he will be able to protect your interests. We are now just testing the truth of the evidence that you have given.

Can you tell me, is that "extermination?" Does that mean murder of Jews? What else can it mean?

A. It depends on the whole context. In that case I want you to read the whole article.

Q. Well, if there is anything in the rest of the article which can be helpful to you, your counsel will have an opportunity to see the article and be able to put it before the Tribunal. I can assure you that the remainder of your articles, as a general rule, do not assist your case.

A. When that article appeared, mass killing had already taken place a long time ago.

Q. Very well. Well now, we will not go through this at any length.

If you will look at your "B" bundle, your bundle of extracts from the "Israelitisches Wochenblatt" -

THE PRESIDENT: I think you should draw his attention to the date on Page 30A.

LIEUTENANT COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES: I am very much obliged to your Lordship. 25 December, 1941.

BY LIEUTENANT COLONEL GRIFFITH-JONES:

Q. If you will glance at "B" bundle you will see a number of extracts going from Page A to Page 21. Now, I would like you to glance at Page 24 of that "B" bundle.

A. Page 24?

Q. Yes, Page 24. This is an article which appeared in the "Israelitisches Wochenblatt" on 27 November, 1942. I just wondered whether you read this:-

"At the Zionist Congress in Switzerland the representative of the

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'Jewish Agency' in Geneva gave a report on European Jewry. The number of victims goes into millions. If the present conditions continue and the German programme is carried out, it is to be reckoned that, instead of six or seven million Jews in Europe, only two million will still be left."

"The Jews who were there had mostly been deported to the notorious unknown destination further to the East. At the end of this winter the number of victims will be four million."

A. I cannot recollect that I have ever read that, but I do want to say that if I had read it I would not have believed it.

Q. Well now, let us just turn to the "A" bundle again and look at the article that you wrote on 17 December, 1942. It is Page 34 "A." This is an article which is initialled "STR" so I presume it was written by you:-

"The London newspaper, 'The Times' of 16 September, 1942, published a ..."

Q. Page 34 "A."

A. Just a minute.

Q. Find it for him. It is headed:-

"Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth."

"The London newspaper, 'The Times,' of 16 September, 1942, published a resolution which had been unanimously passed by the Board of Deputies of British Jews. This resolution expresses the grief and horror of the Anglo- Jewish community at the unspeakable atrocities committed by Germany and her allies, and vassals against the Jews of Europe which had only one aim, to exterminate the whole Jewish population of Europe in cold blood."

A. Yes.

Q. "Strange how the Jews of the Anglo-Jewish community suddenly begin to prick up their ears! When the second World War began the Fuehrer of the German nation warned the Jewish warmongers against plunging the world into a blood bath again. Since then the German Fuehrer has warned and prophesied again and again that the second World War, instigated by world Jewry, must necessarily lead to the destruction of Jewry. In his last speech too, the Fuehrer again referred to his prophecies.

A. Yes, that is merely a quotation. It refers to a forecast from the Fuehrer, of which nobody could possibly tell what is really meant.

Q. Very well.

If you had not even read that or the "Israelitisches Wochenblatt," did you ever hear of the declaration of the United Nations which was made on 17 December, 1942?

(Witness is handed a document.)

Do you remember hearing of that? You appear to have been reading "The Times," you appear to have been reading some copies of the "Israelitisches Wochenblatt." Maybe that you heard of this declaration which was published in London, Washington and Moscow at the same time with the assent and support of all Allied nations and dominions. I will just read it to you and see if you remember it:-

"The attention of the Belgian, Czechoslovak, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norwegian, Polish, Soviet, United Kingdom, United States, and Yugoslav Governments and also the French National Committee, has been drawn to numerous reports from Europe that the German authorities, not content with denying to persons of Jewish race in all the territories over which their

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barbarous rule has been extended the most elementary human rights, are now carrying into effect Hitler's oft repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people in Europe.

From all the occupied countries Jews are being transported in conditions of appalling horror and brutality to Eastern Europe. In Poland, which has been made the principal Nazi slaughterhouse, the ghettos established by the German invaders are being systematically emptied of all Jews except a few highly skilled workers required for war industries. None of those taken away are ever heard of again. The able-bodied are slowly worked to death in labour camps. The infirm are left to die of exposure and starvation, or are deliberately massacred in mass executions.

The number of victims of these bloody cruelties is reckoned in many hundreds of thousands of entirely innocent men, women and children.

The above-mentioned governments and the French National Committee condemn, in the strongest possible terms, this bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination. They declare that such events can only strengthen the resolve of all freedom-loving peoples to overthrow the barbarous Hitlerite tyranny. They reaffirm their solemn resolution to ensure that those responsible for the crimes shall not escape retribution, and to press on with the necessary practical measures to this end."

A. I don't know, but if I should have heard of it, then I would have to say the following:-

After the seizure of power the foreign Press published so many atrocity stories which turned out to be rumours, that I would have had no reason to believe anything like this; nor is there any mention here that millions of Jews were killed.

Q. Well, you see, it isn't altogether uncorroborated. You say you had no reason to believe it, but your "Israelitisches Wochenblatt," which you were subscribing to, was saying exactly the same thing.

Would you look at Page 26-b of the "B" bundle? That is the declaration of the United Nations of 17 December. Just see what the "Israelitisches Wochenblatt" says on the 18th. And there I quote the second paragraph:-

"At that time the Polish Government in London gave the number of Jews executed as 700,000. The Berlin radio hereupon declared that these reports were untrue, but admitted that in Poland Jews 'had had to be executed' because they carried out acts of sabotage."

"'Up to the end of September, 1942,' writes the 'Daily Telegraph,' 'two million Jews have lost their lives in Germany and in the countries occupied by the Axis, and it is to be feared that the number of victims will be doubled by the end of this year.'"

A. I can't remember having read it, but I would not have believed it if I had.

Q. You see, there is another article in that same paper on 23 December, in the same terms; another on 30 December; and another on 8 January. Look at what it says on 8 January:-

"The Polish Government in London has issued a new declaration which states that all the information received agrees that a third of the three million odd Jews have lost their lives."

A. I don't know, but I have to repeat, I would not have believed it.

Q. Well now, let's see just what you were writing on 28 January. Look at 35-a of your own bundle; 35-a. Now just see what your chief editor, the witness you are going to call, I understand, Hiemer - see what he has got to say first of all:-

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"But the ghetto too, which has today been re-established in nearly all European countries, is only an interim solution; for humanity, once awakened, will not merely solve the ghetto question but the Jewish question in its totality. A time will come when the present demands of the Jews will be fulfilled. The ghetto will have disappeared ... and with it, Jewry."

A. That was a statement of his opinion, his conviction. That conviction must be understood in the same way as something which a Jewish author wrote in his book in America. Erich Kauffmann wrote that German people capable of having children should be sterilised, and in that manner the German people should be exterminated. It was at the same time that Hiemer wrote his article, and I want to say that the very severe tone is due to that book from America.

The interrogating officers realise and know that I have repeatedly pointed out - and so does my defence counsel - that I wanted that book to be produced. It was in the "Volkischer Beobachter."

If in America an author, called Erich Kauffmann, can publicly demand that all men in Germany capable of having children should be sterilised, for the purpose of exterminating the German people, then I say, "an eye for an eye" and "a tooth for a tooth." This is a theoretical matter.

Q. Very well. I am sure we have heard your explanation. Let's see what you have to say about your own article on the same date. I quote from the middle of the next paragraph:-

"But now, in the fourth year of this war, world Jewry is beginning to understand that the destiny of Jewry is finding its fulfilment at the hands of German National Socialism."

"When, with the outbreak of the second World War, world Jewry again began to manifest themselves as warmongers, Adolf Hitler announced to the world from the platform of the German Reichstag that the World War conjured up by world Jewry would result in the self-destruction of Jewry. This prophecy was the first big warning. It was met with derision from the Jews, as were all the subsequent warnings."

"But now, in the fourth year of this war, world Jewry is beginning to understand that the destiny of Jewry is finding its fulfilment at the hands of National Socialism."

A. Pardon me?

Q. What did you mean by saying "World Jewry is finding its fulfilment at the hands of National Socialism?" How did you mean that National Socialism was finding the fulfilment of Jewry's destiny?

A. National Socialism could not fulfil the fate, that is to say, find the solution, since the Fuehrer intervened. That wasn't a solution.

During an interrogation I pointed out that I who personally wanted a total solution, was, right from the beginning, against trying to solve the Jewish problem by means of pogroms. If I said that the destiny of Jewry was to be fulfilled by National Socialism, then I wanted to say that through National Socialism the world would gain the knowledge and the realisation that the Jewish problem must be solved internationally.

Q. Let us proceed:-

"That which the Fuehrer of the German people announced to the world as a prophecy at the beginning of this second World War is now being fulfilled with unrelenting inevitability. World Jewry, which wanted to

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reap big dividends from the blood of the warring nations, is rushing with gigantic steps towards its extirpation."

Does that mean, just as it sounds, as though the fulfilment that you were aiming at was warning the world about Jewry? What did you mean by it? "Rushing with gigantic steps towards its extirpation" - Ausrottung? What did you mean by it?

A. This is a warning. The Fuehrer made a prophecy; nobody could interpret that prophecy properly. The prophecy wasn't quoted only in this article, but in ten others. Again and again we referred to these prophecies, for the first time in 1929. Today we know what the Fuehrer wanted to say; at that time we didn't. And I confess quite openly that with this quotation we wanted to warn world Jewry.

To defend myself, I might mention in this connection that the author, Dr. Emil Ludwig Kohn, who had left Germany and emigrated to France, had written in the paper "Le Fanal," in 1934, "Hitler does not want war, but he is being forced into it. Britain has the last word." Thus -

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