Tapping Hitler's Generals

What things were like afterwards we shall admittedly only find out later on, and I believe that when we do find out the fate of the unfortunate people who were sentenced after the Court of Honour had ceased to exist, and compare it with the fate of the others, not all of whom could be saved–that was impossible; when it had been proved and they had admitted that they had taken part in the plot, they could not be saved. But I attended three sessions. At each session several were acquitted, and at each session there was at least one who was not punished in such a way as KEITEL said in his opening speech: ‘The FÜHRER is informed and believes that they are guilty, or wishes that they should be handed over to the People’s Court.’

I will now describe to you the last proceedings against General SPEIDEL, the Chief of Staff to Generalfeldmarschall ROMMEL. At the beginning of the trial we were told that in the FÜHRER’s opinion an investigation must be held in the People’s Court, as he was at any rate guilty of negligence. At the time the Court of Honour consisted of the following: KEITEL, RUNDSTEDT, GUDERIAN, myself, KRIEBEL. The youngest had to speak first, so I had to give my opinion first. I said: ‘The General made his report to his immediate superior. In the case of a personage such as Generalfeldmarschall ROMMEL, he couldn’t have any doubts that the report would be passed on; therefore he is not guilty, not under suspicion.’ Then it was said: ‘But as Chief of Staff he must have known that the report was not passed on.’ I said: ‘Well, the Generalfeldmarschall, in view of his relations with the FÜHRER, might have passed on the information in a private letter.’ Afterwards the sentence read–it was undoubtedly not quite watertight from the legal point of view, because as Chief of Staff he must have known, it was negligence at least–the sentence read: Not guilty! But as he must have known that the report was not passed on an investigation must follow in order that he may be cleared of all suspicion. Therefore a temporary removal from the Army is considered necessary, but the Court of Honour adds a rider that they hope and expect that he would return to the Army with full honours after a short time. I don’t think more could have been done for General SPEIDEL under the circumstances. Just imagine what would have happened if the Court of Honour hadn’t been available; he’d have been handed over the People’s Court.

That sitting was the last one held by the Court of Honour, the reason for the disbanding of the Court of Honour being that all those arrested and under suspicion had been tried and that the task of the Court of Honour was therefore completed. But in actual fact a number of arrests were still made and a number of sentences were also passed. But how these sentences were arrived at we don’t know. We don’t know before what court they were brought and we don’t know whether a different authority sat and dealt with the matter from their point of view. It may be that they were simply handed over to the People’s Court.