STRÖLIN: What page is that on?
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Lt is on the same page.
STRÖLIN: Page 461?
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: I beg your pardon, it is on Page 462. And it is the third paragraph in the center of the page.
STRÖLIN: Yes, I found the place.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: "Deputy Gauleiter Schmidt, representing DT. Goebbels, stated, 'The local Party leadership (Gauleitung) is prepared to co-operate through thick and thin with the new officers of the Deutsches Auslands-Institut.' " Hess, you know, was in charge of the Party leadership, wasn't he--the Gauleiter? We will go on: "National Socialism will demand the blood unity of all Germans as its historic right." Will you look now at Page 463-we will leave that-Will you look now...
STRÖLIN: May I say something in connection with this?
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: If you please, yes.
STRÖLIN: The Deputy Gauleiter, Schmidt, was here purely in his capacity as a deputy of the Gauleiter, but he was not the Deputy of Rudolf Hess.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: No. But the point I am putting-I will make it quite clear-is that the Gauleitung which came under Hess was going to co-operate with your institution through thick and thin. You appreciate that?
STRÖLIN: That is obvious.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Would you look at Page 463, and on the second paragraph: "In his address the new director of the DAI, Dr. Csaki, stated: 'We followed with deep distress the inner disunity of the German people. Now since all that has been overcome, since we see that all the German Folk (Volksdeutsche) organizations are standing in one line, we are filled with a feeling of pride fbr our German mother-country, a feeling of happiness: Germany is united.' "'The feeling of adherence to the German people gives us a happy consciousness. In the course of centuries this or that position has been lost. We must prevent any from being lost.
It gives us a feeling of pride and self-confidence that we are bridges for the German Lebensraum.' " Was that in fact what the purpose of the Deutsches Auslands-Institut was?
STRÖLIN: Dr. Csaki said in this quotation that the Germans abroad were bridges to the German Lebensraum. This German Lebensraum also applied, for instance, to the Germans in Hungary and Romania and to that extent it is true when he says the Germans are "bridgesn to this Lebensraum, that is, the space in which Germans live. This has also always been the attitude of the Deutsches AUSlands-Institut; to build bridges to the Lebensraum in which these Germans live.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Very well. Now, have you ever read a book by Dr. Emil Ehrlich, or seen it, entitled: Die Auslandsi-Organisation der NSDAP? You need not look at that. Have you ever read that bwk? A title of that kind?
STRÖLIN: I do not think so.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Do you know that Dr. Emil Ehrlich was the personal adviser to Bohle?
STRÖLIN: I believe he was Bohle's adjutant at one time.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Will you look at Page 305 of the book that you have in front of you-My Lord, this passage appears on Page 5 of the document the Tribunal has-and that is a reproduction of Dr. Emil Ehrlich's book. Would you look at the second paragraph on Page 305, half way down that paragraph, starting: "On 27 August 1936 the Führer designated Stuttgart as the 'City of Germans Abroad,' and the Gauleiter of the Auslands-Organisation of the NSDAP assumed protection of this beautiful city, which. also houses within its walls the German Auslands-Institut, which works in hearty co-operation with the Auslands-Organisation." Would I be right in saying that throughout the whole histom, from 1933 onwards, the Deutsches Auslands-Institut was working in the heartiest co-operation with the Auslands-Organisation?
STRÖLIN: This is not correct, inasmuch as there was no practical or scientific co-operation between the Deutsches Auslands-Institut and the Auslands-Organisation. The hearty co-operation, as I have already mentioned, referred to the fact that the Ausland Germans had their meetings in Stuttgart. That was the hearty co-operation between them. There was no co-operation in practical matters since it was not necessary.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Will you look at Page 127 of this book? I want you to tell me, looking at the last paragraph, whether that is an accurate report, "All persons who in the future..." this is, I beg your pardon, a confidential report on the special schooling work conducted by the DAI for the foreign organizations. You did fact, did you not, assist the foreign organizations in training their Landesgruppenleiter and other leaders abroad?
STRÖLIN: May I ask who signed this article or report?
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: No, I cannot tell you who signed that report. I asked you a question. Did the Deutsches Auslands-Institut assist in training leaders for the Auslands-Organisation abroad?
STMLIN: I am not informed on that point.
LT. COL. GRIFFTTH-JONES: Now, just turn over ta Page 128, second paragraph, which I read to you quite shortly: "The Auslands-Institut plays a part in determining the curriculum for the training camps (Schulungslager) as well as serving as an intermediary between the party authorities wb run these camps and the Germans from abroad who attend them." You still say that that report is...
STRÖLIN: May I ask the date of this report?
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: I told you it is a report...
STRÖLIN: I had no knowledge of this report.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Very well, I just want to ask you one or two very short questions on the evidence that you have given about the Defendant Von Neurath. You have told us that he was a man of peace, with an excellent, kind character. Do you know that on the 5th of November 1937 he attended a meeting at which Hitler addressed the leaders of his Armed Forces? Did you ever hear of that meeting, on the 5th of November 1937?
STRÖLIN: No, I did not hear of this meeting, at least not until I was imprisoned.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: Well then, perhaps I could tell you quite shortly what took place. Hitler said at the meeting, among other things, that the only way out of the German difficulties was to secure greater Living space, and he said that that problem could be solved only by force. And, having said that, he then went on to say that he had decided to attack Austria and Czechoslovakia. You never heard of that meeting?
STRÖLIN: No, I have not heard anything of that meeting, and concluded only later that...
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: But ...
STRÖLIN: May I finish my sentence?
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: I only wanted to know. . .
STRÖLIN: I said just that Von Neurath indicated to me that he had serious differences of opinion with Hitler. That was toward the end of 1937. It was only later that I realized that he must have meant the conference with Hitler and the attitude I which he took on 5 November; however, it was only when I was in prison that I heard through the newspapers that such a conference actually took place.
LT. COL. GRIFFITH-JONES: I shall come to all that in a moment. I just want you to get a picture of what happened at this meeting, and I quote four lines from the minutes of that meeting: "Hitler believed that very probably England and presumably France had already secretly abandoned Czechoslovakia and were satisfied that this question would one day be cleared up by Germany." And Hitler then went on to say that the embodiment of Czechoslovakia and Austria would constitute a conquest of food for 5 or 6 million people, and that he visualized the compulsory imigration of 2 million people from Czechoslovakia.
Now, that is what took place at that conference. Do you know that some 4 months later-on 12 March 1938-Von Neurath was giving an assurance to M. Masaryk, and among other things he assured him, an behalf of Herr Hitler, that Germany still considered herself bound by the German-Czechoslovak Arbitration Convention of 1925? Do you know that he said that?
- STRÖLIN: I do not recall it.
LT.