Tapping Hitler's Generals

I received the news that I was a deputy member of the Court of Honour by a telephone call one afternoon from General REINECKE, who was not a member of the Court of Honour, but was the only officer on the People’s Court, and I was told to be in BERLIN the following morning. I was to go at 11 o’clock to a small villa in DAHLEM which KEITEL had set up as an office, and that’s where the Court of Honour sessions were held. When I arrived the first session of the Court of Honour was over. Then it turned out that I had been told to come two hours too late. That was the session at which the first victims of the People’s Court were judged by Court of Honour, that’s to say HOEPNER, WITZLEBEN, etc. On that occasion I found the officers extremely depressed. The members were: KEITEL, RUNDSTEDT, GUDERIAN, who was not present on that day, SCHROTH, SPECHT; and as deputies, KRIEBEL from MUNICH, and myself. The officers said: ‘There is probably no hope for any of the officers who have been tried today, for they all admit that they not only knew of the plot, but also helped with the preparations.’ Then the question was discussed as to whether it would be expedient or possible to refuse to accept the nomination to the Court of Honour. The officers were unanimous in saying that it would be a betrayal of one’s friends to refuse. For the inevitable result would be that either the Court of Honour would be dissolved, just as a great many of the trials later took place without a Court of Honour, or else, that another Court of Honour would be appointed, in which they would select the ‘Generale’ with extreme care, and in which the majority of the members would probably be SS ‘Generale’. I accepted this point of view, but during the following days I became doubtful as to whether I should not ask to be released from this job after all, especially after I had read the first description of the proceedings in the People’s Court. Then I said to myself: ‘If I have got to hand over officers who are merely suspected, but against whom nothing has been proved, but who have had to leave the service for the time being, so that they may be handed over to the People’s Court–if I have got to hand these officers over to a brutal court like that I cannot square that with my honour.’

For that reason I made the request to be allowed to be present at a session of the People’s Court as a spectator. This request was granted, and I attended the session at which the People’s Court was to pronounce legal sentence on some of the officers on whom judgment had been passed at the first session of this Court of Honour. I only stayed there until noon. During that time a regular ‘Major’ whose name I don’t remember; his father-in-law, a ‘Major’ in the reserve; and TROTT ZU SOLZ, the Counsellor to a Legation, were sentenced. It was the same day on which Graf HELLDORF was sentenced.[485] Now as regards the appearance of the accused: they appeared to be in perfect physical condition. You couldn’t see any exhaustion resulting from a considerable time in prison. The Court of Honour session had taken place at least a week earlier. They looked splendid, and were not badly dressed as HÖPNER was at the first session. They were all well dressed and groomed, and everything was in order. Their behaviour was good too: the ‘Major’ behaved with great dignity, although I admit his father-in-law did not.[486] The judge dealt with him rather ironically.

The first thing which astounded me was the manner in which the President of the Court treated the accused–and that was the reason why I had asked to be present. I have never seen a trial at which the prisoners were treated with such politeness by the president.[487] He was such an actor and obeyed his orders so implicitly that at one time he treated the people in the most cruel and brutal manner; and then he got a tip from higher authority that the report in the newspapers had probably made an extremely unpleasant impression at home and abroad, so he adopted different tactics. To give you an example, how he treated TROTT ZU SOLZ–TROTT ZU SOLZ behaved really admirably; he conducted himself with perfect calm and pride and didn’t deny anything. After he had been cross-examined for about an hour the presiding judge said to him: ‘Well, accused, how do you reconcile that with your obligation of loyalty to the FÜHRER?’ So TROTT ZU SOLZ said: ‘I don’t understand how you can say that. You know perfectly well that I have never been bound by an obligation of loyalty to the FÜHRER.’ On another occasion he said: ‘But don’t you realise–you say that so simply–don’t you realise that you are signing your death warrant?’ Then he said: ‘I know that perfectly well. I can’t think why I’m still being cross-examined here, for I have already admitted everything so often: that I knew of the plot, that I helped in the preparations; that is sufficient grounds for my death sentence; what is the point of my cross-examination being continued any longer?’ Thereupon the presiding judge–