He let me know that he would carry all the costs for my defense and put his confidential lawyer at the disposal of my wife. I had never any doubt about his opposition to the Hitler government on principle. I knew how much he hesitated to take over the power through Hitler, and I knew that at the outbreak of the war he declared that it meant for him the collapse of his life's work and probably also the ruin of his family. I cannot imagine that Flick would ever have lifted his hand for any action which could be considered as a crime against humanity without being directly forced."
May I now hand this document over to the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT:I have already told the Secretary General, it is received as Exhibit Number 7, Flick Exhibit Number 7. I beg your pardon, Dr. Dix. I was reading ahead and didn't realize that you hadn't finished reading the document.
DR. DIX:I know, Your Honor. That wasmy fault and I had interrupted the translation by a personal remark. The next document Your Honor, is on page 27 of the German text, is an affidavit of the banke , Pferdmenges, a man who has been characterized already by the witness Schacht when he testified here. May I read the affidavit to the Court, third paragraph:
"I have known Herr Friedrich Flick for many years. Flick has worked himself up from small beginnings. He has a through knowledge of the coal and iron economy. Moreover, Flick was a financier full of bold and economically constructive ideas long before the Nazi time. Before the Nazi Government began, he was a very rich man, financially and economically independent. Flick belongs to the industrialists who most energetically supported the policy of conciliation in the years 1930 to '32 led by the Reich Chancellor Bruening who was a friend of mine and who had taken me to his negotiations with the industrailists at that time.
Flick was opposed to war. He knew what war would mean. During the winter 1938-39 in connection with the Chamberlain-Daladier-Hitler agreement of the autumn 1938, when Hitler again gave a provoking speech in Saarbruecken against the foreign countries, he said to me very much worried, and I quote: 'This mad man goes so far till it is too late to prevent a war and Germany will perish. I would give my last penny to succeed in making these gangsters disappear.' This utterance and many other similar ones showed me clearly that Flick did not agree with the war policy and also not with the ideology of Hitler and his people."
May I offer it to the Secretary General as Exhibit 8?
THE PRESIDENT:The document is received as Flick Exhibit No. 8.
DR. DIX:If your Honor please, I will now pass to another affidavit made by the industrialist Gustav Knepper. Already when Schacht was questioned here, this Gustav Knepper was referred to and he is also a character witness for Flick, and it is on pages 28 and 29 of the German text. The second paragraph reads?
"The great industrialist Herr Dr. Friedrich Flick has been very well known to me for more than twenty years in his capacity as a general manager of the Charlottenhuette in Niederschelden, Siegerland.
"He is descended from an old Christian middle class family from Ferndorf, Siegerland. He wasbrought up in the Christian faith, has a Christian conviction and as far as I know he never left the church but supported it." If Your Honor please, that might be striking to a foreigner, but it wasnot rare at all that during the Nazi period, people would leave the church for oppor tunistic reasons.
. That's why I draw Your Honors' attention to that point.
"His whole religious attitude was not of a nature which would permit persecution of prisoners of war or foreign workers for some racial, religious and political reasons. I can therefore truthfully state on my own initiative that I consider Herr Flick to be neither a war monger or a war criminal. On the contrary, during all the negotiations that I have had with him I have found that he hated and detested war. Incidentally, it is remarkable that he preferably made money transactions with Jewish bankers such as Goldschmidt, Louis Hagen and Simon Hirschland and he was connected through such close friendship with Herr Silberberg of Rine Soft Coal, that he even put some rooms in his new villa in Kottwig-Ruhr, at his disposal."
Now, Your Honor -
THE PRESIDENT:Mr. Ervin, have these been translated by the regular office where documents are translated?
MR. ERVIN:Yes, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT:I think they need considerable revision to make them read as English documents. You have noticed it yourself I am sure.
MR. ERVIN:Yes, I have.
THE PRESIDENT:That can be done.
MR. ERVIN:I think we can agree on it.
THE PRESIDENT:They are perfectly intelligible but they are certainly not idiomatic English.
MR. ERVIN:I think that is very true. I think perhaps the translators may be those whose native tongue is not English.
THE PRESIDENT:This document Offered by Dr. Dix on behalf of the defendant Flick is received and given the number 9, of the Flick exhibits.
DR. DIX:If Your Honor please, the remark made by the bench-I mean I don't want to supplement the remark, but it is really a catastrophe with these translations everywhere. I don't know how to get out of that but--
JUDGE RICHMAN:Catastrophe is a pretty strong word, Dr. Dix.
DR. DIX:Judge Richman, if one knew what is wrong around here then you would agree to that term, catastrophe, but I don't want to bother Your Honors, and I don't want to tell you all the sad experiences we had in those matters.
THE PRESIDENT:Well, I think the translators can be corrected. They are intelligible. I don't mean that we don't understand them, but they are not in idiomatic English.
DR. DIX:Besides, Your Honors, I am of the opinion that catastrophes are there to be surmounted.
THE PRESIDENT:I think you have scored enough with that.
DR. DIX:The next document now is an affidavit of another former secretary of the defendant Flick, and it's on pages 30 and 32 of the German text and I am going to offer it as document exhibit no. 10. That's paragraph 2 of the document and it reads:
That is, paragraph 2 of the document reads, "In former years, from August 1924, to December 1936, I was employed as a secretary of Herr Friedrich Flick and later from September, 1937, until August, 1940, I was a secretary in another section of the same concern. And I would be pleased to testify as follows: We employees in this concern had so good positions and were treated so well that none of us wanted to leave their job and consequently we all worked there for a long period of time. We had a lot of work to do, but on the other hand we were paid good monthly wages. We were paid fourteen times a year, one extra wage period for the holidays and one extra wage period for Christmas, and concerning our food we received considerable support from there during the office hours. In the morning and afternoon we always had coffee, at noon good food at a restaurant near the office and when, in the evening, we did extra hours Herr Flick or his manager never forgot to see that we got our supper. Besides that, we had the possibility of buying fruit, honey and other food at low prices from Herr Flick's estates. When anybody incurred special expenses because of illness or accident we always received a contribution from the firm. It often happened that Herr Flick or the firm paid the whole of the expense. Very often I was surprised that at no time Herr Flick forgot to see that his driver had a dinner or his supper, even during the greatest rush jobs, as soon as he knew that he didn't need him any longer at that time. And in this respect he was most considerate. Even during the holidays when I accompanied the family on holiday trips, the hardest work might have to be done, but he always saw to it that the employees received their meals in time and in sufficient quantities and that we were well billeted. On trips he was very generous with tips for hotel employees, be it the lift boy or the head-waiter, and he always helped wherever he could, even when strangers asked for support. I have no special reason for testifying this in favor of Herr Flick, because I worked very hard during these twelve years when I was a secretary. And we had not much of a private conversation during this long space of time, because there was so much work, and as I left the concern in anger in 1940.
But still I feel obliged to tell this as a duty, because I learned about this trial. In my presence Herr Flick never talked of politics. However, I witnessed how horrified he was in the autumn of 1932 when the Nazis had received a majority of votes in the Reichstag and I knew he was against war because he was convinced that Germany could not win a second world war. The last information I have heard from third persons."
If your Honor please, I now pass to Exhibit 11 -
THE PRESIDENT:This document offered by Dr. Dix on behalf of the Defendant Flick is received as Flick Exhibit 10.
DR. DIX:If your Honor please, I am now passing to Exhibit 11, and this is an affidavit again. It is given by the sister of the witness Oelmann, which we have just referred to. The girl's name is Gertrud, and she also was a secretary in the office. And in the second paragraph it reads, "I have known Herr Friedrich Flick since 1927, when my sister Helene Oehlmann entered the house of Herr Flick as a governess for his three sons.
From 1934 to 1946 I was employed as a secretary in the Berlin office of the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke which was closely connected with Herr Flick. During all these years I often was together with Herr Flick in private and during this time I often heard his expressions which very often were very uncautious and derogatory to the German Nazi Government. Herr Flick disapproved of the pompous appearance of the leading Nazis; for example, he expressed very great disapproval about Goering's excessive appearance. Herr Flick always tried if possible to keep away from official invitations or demonstrations or other activities arranged by the Government. After the Munich agreement in the autumn of 1938 very soon spiteful caricatures of the foreign statesmen and in particular of the English Prime Minister as well as the American President appeared in the German newspapers. Herr Flick was enraged because of these publications and told me personally that this was an unheard of faux-pas of the German press and could only harm us most severely.
I have read in the papers that during the trial against Herr Flick the treatment of the foreign workers played a certain part. In this connection perhaps the following facts will be of interest. In the autumn of 1943 I spent my three weeks' leave in the house of Herr Flick's son at Rombach. On my request to see the steel works there, these were shown to me by a chief engineer. Inspection took place in the morning and took approximately four hours. I had the opportunity of seeing the French and other prisoners of war at work. I expressed my surprise at these people standing idly around. The chief engineer told me the prisoners had been assigned their work and the people didn't like the job and a good production could not be obtained from them. The prisoners of war looked well fed and well clothed. I did not notice any wrong treatment whatsoever or anything of this nature."
I will therefore offer this as Exhibit No. 11, and have it handed over to the Secretary General.
THE PRESIDENT:Just a minute. What is the balance of that exhibit that we received?
DR. DIX:As Exhibit No. 12. Now I will submit an affidavit of a certain Julius Brurein, who was plant manager of Eisenkontor GmbH, which belonged to Maxhuette, which concerns Flick's attitude toward the armament production and also the question of the personal management. Second paragraph there reads:
"I was employed by the firm Gebrueder Roechling, iron wholesale concern, in their establishment in Berlin. There I had to deal with the sale of the production of the Maxhuette, which consisted mostly of molded iron, bar iron and tins and surface material for the Reichsbahn. In September, 1929, the Maxhuette was incorporated in the Flick group. I then entered into a direct employment relation to the Max huette, namely as a manager of the Eisenkontor GmbH., the shares of which belonged 100 per cent to the Maxhuette.
The Eisenkontor G.m.b.H. represented the Maxhuette, and my range of duties remained the same. I was responsible only to the board of directors of the Maxhuette in Rosenberg. Since about 1936-1937, the then chairman of the Vorstand of the Maxhuette, the late Geheimrat Boehringer, was in connection with the Montan-Industrie A.G. This Montan Industrie A.G. was a company of the German Reich, which had its own plants built and set up such plants with means and funds provided by the Reich. The management of these works was transferred to private enterprises by lease or contracts for cession of the plant. Since about 1936-1937 the Maxhuette took over such Reich-owned lands, by the Betriebsgesellschaft Maschinenfabrik Donauworth G.m.b.H. which was founded for this purpose. In those plants, equipment for the Armed Forces was manufactured according to the directions and orders of the Supreme Command. I received the order from Geheimrat Boehringer to take care of the transmission of correspondence and the connection between the Maxhuette, Maschinenfabrik Donauworth and the Army Ordnance Office in Berlin. About 1938 the construction and 1939 the management of plants in Brandenburg was added; these plants were also Reich-owned establishments of the High Command of the Army respectively of the Montan industry. The Brandenburger Werke were managed by the Brandenburger Eisenwerke G.m.b.H., founded for this purpose. The shares of this pure management enterprise belonged to the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke A.G. Here, too, the whole business was conducted according to the directions of the Army High Command respectively the Montan Industrie A.G. General Director Moeller of the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke in Riesa inserted me as a liaison man -- between the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke and the Army Ordnance Office, as far as the army manufacturing of the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke was concerned. However, I was not employed by the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke. My task consisted in transmitting the correspondence between the Mittel deutsche Stahlwerke and the Army Ordnance Office and to take care of an orderly business procedure.
I didn't have any influence or power of decision regarding the acceptance or refusal of orders. This decision was exclusively reserved to the management Mittelstahl as well as to the Maxhuette, that is, to their board of directors in Riesa or in Rosenberg. Only very seldom did I have to deal with Dr.Friedrich Flick, and this only then when a matter of special interest was involved. I know, that Dr. Flick told me repeatedly that I should, if possible, take care that the plants should not receive new orders for armament equipment or establish new manufacturing establishments. I should, he said, if possible. proceed in such a way that he could not be prosecuted as saboteur. Mr. Flick was, according to his view, which I knew very well, not interested in army orders. He preferred to execute orders for civilian use. I could therefore only very rarely influence him to go to the Army Ordnance Office together with me, because some gnetlemen there wanted to meet him personally. In this case it was only a matter of general conversations, and business transactions were not made by Herr Flick, as these methods pertained only to the Vorstand of the different plants. I confirm that the Friedrich Flick Kommandit-Gesellschaft, in other words Herr Flick personally, as well as his Berlin collaborators, the Defendants of today, did not conduct the plants personally. In spite of the fact that I had my office in the same building in Berlin, in Bellevue Strasse, in which also the administration branch of the Mitteldeutsche Stahlwerke was located, I have never heard from a member of the Vorstand of a plant that Mr. Flick or one of his plenipotentiaries general had given him an instruction which might have curtailed his rights as a member of the Vorstand."
I might submit this document Exhibit 12, and hand it over to the Secretary General.
THE PRESIDENT:It may be received as such number. The affiant doesn't say directly, as I read the affidavit, how long he remained in his enterprise.
He says -- he speaks of things occurring in 1938 and 1939.
DR. DIX:Yes, your Honor, that is quite correct. He didn't say that. That is quite correct. Well, I am just informed, your Honor, that he remained there until October 31, 1945.
THE PRESIDENT:May we note that as a concession on your part?
MR ERVIN:If Your Honor please, I am willing to stipulate that with Dr. Dix -----
THE PRESIDENT:What is that date in '45?
THEINTERPRETER: 31 October 45, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT:October 31st?
THE INTERPRETER:Yes, right.
DR. DIX:Now another certificate of good conduct by a character witness. This will be Exhibit No. 13 and it is by the owner of a saw mill named Heiss.
"I have known Mr. Friedrich Flick, head of a large industrial concern of Berlin, since 1940 as owner of the estate Sauersberg in the community of Oberfischback, district Toelz, Upper Bavaria.
"I was closely connected with Mr. Flick, and I often have had the opportunity to talk with him, besides other subjects, also about politics. The whole impression gathered from it was clear to me. Mr Flick was not in favor of the Hitler regime and decidedly rejected National Socialism. By his appearance as a respectable citizen and his good social standards he was considered a decent citizen. To the community of Oberfischback and its poorer inhabitants he has always been of help in any emergency. To the then Mayor Bauer he gave the assurance of continuous help at all distress and emergency cases and he kept his word by donating money to a degree that absolutely took care of all emergencies. On account of his social standards and continuous readiness to help, he has assured himself of a grateful recognition with the people of Oberfischbach. It was also generally known that Mr. Flick entertained patriarchal relations with the house and domestic personnel of his estate Sauerberg.
"I had knowledge of the fact that Mr. Flick made a donation of 5,000 Reichmark every year at Christmas to the town community of Bad Toelz for the poor of the town, and that was apart from the obligatory donations for the winter relidf work; and he furthermore donated 50,000 marks each for the town hospital foundation and for the town highschool which the administration senior inspector, Ludwig de Courtins in Bad Toelz confirmed to me as being true.
"I have never been a member of the Party nor of any of its divisions" and so on and so forth, certified, and this is Exhibit 13.
I will add to the same effect an affidavit by the pastor, Vethake.
THE PRESIDENT:Just a moment, Dr. Dix. The document being the affidavit of Josef Heiss, is received as Flick Exhibit No. 13. Now the Ferndord certificate.
DR. DIX:Yes, Your Honor. That is the one we are proceeding to, and that will be Exhibit 14, Your Honor. The letterhead is: "Protestant Reformed Community, Ferndorf.
"Director-General Dr. Friedrich Flick was born on 10 July 1883 at Fernsdorf, now Kreuztal, and was baptized there on 12 August. He comes from an old family of out church community, the members of which have been faithful to the Protestant Church also under the National Socialist regime. At the restoration of our church in 1928 Fritz Flick has donated to us the new organ. In many cases of destress he has also helped the poor and needy of our community. Also during the time of the church struggle he has never supported the German Christians, the so-called Deutsche Christens, or the so-called National Socialist ideology. As far as is known to me, he was very reserved --" and here I want to say I don't know whether the Tribunal knows what the German Christians were.
THE PRESIDENT:No, I don't think the Tribunal knows.
DR. DIX:Well, if I summarize, the German Christians were no Christians at all in his sense. They were rather a group which split from the Protestant Church and made a sort of a pact with the Hitler regime and tried to reconcile their ideology with the National Socialist ideology, and they thought that Christian principles would be compatible with this ideology.
If Your Honor please, that is, of course, quite a superficial definition but I wanted to make it very brief. It is quite superficial.
"As far as is known --" and I am going to read -- "he was very reserved in political matters and only active in the economic field. Mr. Flick has always kept friendly relations with his old church community. I would like to emphasize furthermore that I never have had connections to National Socialism, but that as leader of the Confessional Church (Bekennende Kirche) and President of the Church Council, I have always been in open opposition to the Party."
I may say for the guidance of the Tribunal it is quite impossible for the Court to know all these matters. The Bekennende Kirche, the Confession Church, was the exponent of the struggle of the Protestant Church against the Hitler regime,-and this church council, Bruderrat, of this Protestant Church was the highest executive council of this confessionial church. There were quite a number of trials against members of the church and mainly against the members of the Bruderrat (church council). This, of course, Your Honors, is only for the guidance of the Tribunal.
THE PRESIDENT:I suppose we might translate the word "Bruderrat" by "session," the "session" of the church. That is the -
DR. DIX:Your Honor, it would be the Board of Directors of the church.
JUDGE RICHMAN:The governing body.
THE PRESIDENT:The governing body of the church itself.
DR. DIX:Yes, what we call the board of the society.
THE PRESIDENT:Yes. All churches have church boards. This document is offered by Dr. Dix, and this is the certificate of the pastor and is received as Flick Exhibit No. 14.
DR. DIX:And now, Your Honors, as Exhibit 15 -- and that is on page 39 of both the German text -- I will submit an affidavit by the pastor, Hebart, of the church community Oppershofen-Brachstadt. It goes on, "I, Martin Hebart, --" etc., etc., "Evangelic pastor by profession." Then it goes on: "During the years 1919-46 I was pastor in Bad Toelz.
I am now pastor of Oppershofen, Brachstadt Donauworth. No member of the former Nazi Party or any of its organizations according to Control Council Law No. 8, not related or related by marriage with the below named, declare, conscious of the legal consequences of a false affidavit, under oath, --" and so on and so forth. It goes on in the second paragraph:
"I met Dr. Friedrich Flick first at Toelz where he belonged to my parish. I was a frequent guest of his house and have Baptized his first grandson. Outstanding among Mr. Flick's various good character qualities was his unique kindness and readiness to help, and the small Protestant community of Bad Toelz has profited by it on a large scale. Mr. Flick had not only once but repeatedly asked me to let him know every need that should be relieved; he would be very glad to help, he said. He kept his promises. I never had a refusal when I sent him a request to help for Berlin. Whether it was the Gustav-Adolfverein, the Inner Mission, the orphan asylum at Arzbach or their own community with their needs, whethe r it was a question of donations for the poor at Christmas, Mr. Flick answered every request by action. If anybody has kept Christ's command, "Love thy neighbor", then it has been Mr. Flick. I can confirm this from my own knowledge, and I can confirm it with a clear conscience.
"I may also add that when the Toelzer-highschool had money difficulties, he put a considerable sum at their disposal.
"I would never have believed that I would have to help Mr. Flick, the great patron of my former Toelz community, who has helped me so often and much. I have done it gladly and I only wish that my statement may help to form a different picture of the character of Mr Flick than the one that is now wrapped in darkness, incomprehensible to me, because he has been accused of crimes against humanity."
THE PRESIDENT:The document just read is received as Flick Exhibit No. 15.
DR. DIX:If Your Honor please, the next affidavit informs us of what Mr. Flick has told us when he was a witness on his own behalf; namely, it refers to his participation in the complex of assassination attempt of the 20th of July. This is an affidavit of Herr Horst von Petersdorf, and it will become Exhibit No. 16. This is on page 40 and 41 in the Ge rman text. The beginning are just the usual clauses and then a little farther down you see:
"On or about 26 July 1944 about 14:00 I met the General of the Artillery Fritz Lindemann at Berlin-Grunewald, who like myself had left his office after the attempt on Adolf Hitler's life on 20 July 1944. Lindemann intended to hide in the house of the industrialist Flick. He told me that Flick was on our side, completely on our side, and had promised him to give every possible help to those who would try to establish a new government and finish the war. Lindemann had also stayed often and for a longer time with the manager of a plant of the Flick concern, Mr. Weiss, a nephew of Mr. Flick and was a friend of his. When I objected that Mr. Flick was not in Berlin and his house was not fit as a hide-out on account it served as a billet for officers, Lindemann answered he only wanted to know where Flick was staying. Flick would then help him. Lindemann then went into Flick's garden all around the villa with me because he still hoped to meet an acquaintance there, but I warned him again that he should proceed more cautiously and not give his name, but only use the papers put at his disposal by me in order to leave, that is, leave the country with them. Lindemann then went with me to Flick's, garage appartment which was occupied by Nurse Frau Sjoestedt. Lindemann always repeated that we could completely depend on Flick. He had also promised to give him, Lindemann, later aa job in his concern. Also in further talks with Lindemann, during the next days he made it clear that he was convinced that Flick's trustworthiness was beyond doubt and that I should under any circumstances get in touch with Flick. Flick would not desert him also not in this time, even if it would cost his existence and life.
Lindemann was convinced that the war would end within a month and Flick would probably find means and ways to hide and protect him that long."
THE PRESIDENT:Now let me call to your attention that the date at the head of this affidavit is lacking. It says "Ludwigsburg, May, 1947". There is no date. Is there in your copy?
DR. DIX:Yes, your Honor, I am very sorry, but that is the way it is in our copy too.
THE PRESIDENT:And then in the copy of the certificate it is dated "Ludwigsburg, May 1927." Of course that means 1947?
DR. DIX:Your Honor, in the original it is 1947, of course.
THE PRESIDENT:That should be '47, but the day is lacking there also. This document just read by Dr. Dix and offered in evidence is received as Defendant Flick's Exhibit No. 16.
DR. DIX:Now I am going to submit an affidavit of a very interesting gentleman. I am sorry, your Honor, I apologize. I forgot to put the enclosure of this affidavit in the document book and that refers to Exhibit No. 16. That is, it is in the document book and that I have not read it and when I say enclosure, I mean that I, myself, have added this newspaper clipping to the affidavit, and not the affiant. This is a report from the newspaper "Wuerttembergische Zeit Echo" concerning the Spruchkammer proceedings at Stuttgart against Schact. Relevant for us is only the following passage:
"Furthermore, the witness Franz Gronau, former Wehrwirtschafts (Army Economic) officer in Berlin, was questioned, who, according to his description, was an active participant of the military part of the conspiracy of 20 July. He testified that General Lindeman, one of the main personalities of the conspiracy, had the urgent desire to meet Schacht and that Schacht had consented to join at the right moment.
"General Lindemann had been advised by Schacht about the political civil line. Schacht then insisted on action." Relevant for us is only this passage as a proof for the fact that Lindemann was really an active participant of the assassination attempt of July 1944. That is why I added it, your Honors.
THE PRESIDENT:It seems rather remote to me but at thesame time, if you deem it important and offer it in evidence and there is no objection, we will receive it as Defendant Flick Exhibit No. 16.
DR. DIX:The next exhibit which I am going to submit as No. 17, is the affidavit of a Doctor Felix Kersten. Dr. Felix Kersten is a physio-therapist. He is now at Stockholm. During the Nazi regime he lived at Berlin and, amongst other things, he was also Himmler's physician. In this capacity he had very frequent meetings with Himmler but only as a doctor, of course, only as a doctor. Today I just received an excerpt of a newspaper which you very well know, your Hohors - "Foreign Affairs" - and there Kersten is referred to and mainly his work, which now is being publiched outside of Germany in the United States, that is, a book concerning his recollection of the Nazi regime.
THE PRESIDENT:Can you tell us the number of "Foreign Affairs" in which it occured? "Foreign Affairs" is published 4 times a year.
DR. DIX:Yes, your Honor. It is the Fo eign Affairs of 7 April 1947, and there appears an excerpt of this book. I do not propose to read it here because, first of all, it is not relevant to the Flick Case, but it is very interesting concerning the personal judgement of Himmler's personality. I might recommend to the Bench just briefly to read this article at a possible occasion that is offered to the Court; it might be quite amusing to read it. I will pass it to Mr. Ervin in private and he might be interested and pass it on.
Well, this man Kersten, I knew myself. He was a Finnish citizen and belonged to the Finnish Colony at Berlin. I was Finnish Consul General for almost 20 years in Berlin and in this capacity I made his acquaintance too. I made his acquaintance also in my capacity as a lawyer, because the part he plays here in this affidavit was involved. He was a very courageous helper for all persecuted by his possibility of treating Himmler every day, magnetically; I had a case with one of my own clients -- where he would complain to Himmler that he had no magnetic powers that particular day.
Himmler was very unhappy about that and asked him why, and then he would say; "Because my friend, Mr. So and So, or my girl-friend, Miss So and So, is arrested; because your men, Himmler, have arrested them and that makes me so sad and that is why I have no magnetism today." Then again that made Himmler very sad. That is not a joke, your Honers; I have known that from ray own experience; and that way this man was actually able to help. I don't pretend that he did it always in this magnetic manner but, as I said he met Himmler almost every day, as a physician, and he helped quite a number of people. As Herr Flick has testified, when he was witness, Herr Kersten was also Herr Flick's physician, if I remember well. Now this very interesting affidavit will be submitted and its volume is justified for the interest it presents. I think I may read it before the recess, your Honors.
"I hereby certify that----"
Oh, I forgot to say that it was given in Stockholm on the 19th of April 1947. It reads:
"I hereby certify that Dr. Friedrich Flick has been my patient since 1937 and that he was under my medical care regularly every year until 1943.
After that we met often and were in constant touch until the end of the war.
"At the end of May 1940, the then Reichsfuehrer SS, HeinrichHimmler, whom I then treated in private as Massage Therapist, said that I should at once break my connection with Herr and Frau Flick because it could do a lot of harm to my reputation in Germany if I were connected with both of those who were traitor-swines to the National Socialist ideas. I said to Himmler that as a Finnish citizen I was not interested in German politics and that I treated every German who asked me for it. Himmler then answered that he had clear proof that acts of sabotage were being committed in the industries of Dr. Friedrich Flick on the instigation of Flick. Furthermore, Dr. Flick was most probably being employed by the Allies; he was dishonorable traitor who, hating the great ideals of the Fuehrer, is selling his country to the Allies for money.
Therefore he, Himmler, would, after termination of the campaign in France, put Dr. Flick and his family in a concentration camp because this, he said, was the reward for the enemies of the Third Reich. I drew Himmler's attention to the fact that I could not believe this infamous accusation against Dr. Flick because I considered Dr. Flick an honest man who had been denounced by mean individuals. Himmler answered that these accusations were not made by anybody but by an absolutely reliable and responsible person, namely by SS Standartenfuehrer Fritz Kranefuss......."
That is our Kranefuss, your Honors, we know him.
"(Director and president of the Braunkohlen Benzin A. G. - Soft Coal and Gasoline A.G.) and his faithful associates. Himmler said that Kranefuss, during several years, had watched Dr.. Flick closely and found out that Dr. Flick belonged to the most unshakeable enemies of National Socialistic Germany and that all his orders, regarding the industrial program, contained hidden sabotage against the great armament program of the Fuehrer."
"After that, for days, I spoke with Himmler while I was treating him and discussed the Case Flick until I finally succeeded in convincing him that the accusations against Dr. Flick were without foundations. At the beginning of June 1940, Himmler gave me his word of honor that he would not do anything against Dr. Flick and his family, and not continue the case. He kept this promise.
"In July 1943 I stayed with Himmler in his headquarters in East Prussia for several weeks. Suddenly Himmler began again to scold severly against Flick and said 'I regret that I did not render Flick and his family harmless at that time. I continuously get confirmation from the ranks of my Gestapo and from my SS circle of friends that Friedrich Flick is a great saboteur and enemy of the Fuehrer. He makes us difficulties wherever he can.