BOHLE: I do not know, because I am not familiar with these reports and I cannot say whether there was anything to report. We had no Party organization in the United States, because it had been dissolved by Rudolf Hess in April 1933.
COL. AMEN: So you say; but you nevertheless had an individual in Germany whose duty it was to read and pass upon these reports from Draeger as they came in. Is that not a fact?
BOHLE: So far as I know, and I believe my information is correct; the reports that we received were of a purely technical nature. We merely had few Party members in the United States whose card index and membership fees had to be looked after in order to preserve their privileges as Party- members. Political activity in the United States was forbidden and did not actually exist.
COL. AMEN: But I am suggesting to you that in spite of the order the activities of your organization nevertheless continued.
Now, is it not a fact that there was an individual in your organization in Germany who received these reports from the United States regularly?
BOHLE: It was my assistant, Mr. Grothe, who. ..
COL. AMEN: I beg your pardon?
BOHLE: It was my assistant, Mr. Grothe.
COL. AMEN: Correct. Why didn't you tell me that befor'e when I asked you about the, individual who read these reports from the United States as they came in?
BOHLE: Please repeat the question. I did not fully mderstand it.
COL. AMEN: Well, I will withdraw that question. After Grothe received these reports from the United States regularly, tb whom did he report the substance of those reports?
BOHLE: So far as I know, he usually kept them, because they contained nothing of interest and he himself was not in a position to use them. Mr. Grothe had an honorary position with us because of his advanced age and took over this branch of the office because it was of no importance at all in the Auslands-Organisation.
COL. AMEN: So that you were in no position to know what was contained in those reports? Is that correct?
BOHLE: That is for the most part correct.
COL. AMEN: So you do not know whether they were important or not and you do not know whether they contained information relative to espionage matters or not. Is that correct?
BOHLE: I am sure that if they had contained such information, Grothe would have submitted them to me.
COL. AMEN: Well, outside of that, you have no knowledge of it whatsoever. Is that correct?
BOHLE: That is correct.
COL. AMEN: Now, let me just read you one or two more excerpts from the interrogation of Von Strempel:
"Question: 'These relationships seem to have violated the order you mentioned before. Did you report these violations to the Foreign Office?'
"Answer: 'Yes, several times. In reports that I drafted for Thomsen when I was in the Embassy, we called the attention of Berlin to the fact that this relationship to the Bund was very detrimental. . . and stated that the continued support of the Bund by the foreign section of the Party was harming diplomatic relations with the United States.'
"Question: 'What action was taken in Berlin to halt the activities of which you complained?'
"Answer: 'I know of no action."' Does that conform to your knowledge of the facts?
BOHLE: I have not the slightest idea of this report by Herr Von Thomsen. This is the first time that I have heard of protests from the Embassy in Washington regarding prohibited connections between Dr. Draeger and the Bund.
COL. AMEN: You know who Thomsen was, do you not?
BOHLE: Thomsen was Chargk d'Affaires in Washington.
COL. AMEN: And you know that from time to time various officials of the Bund came over here and had conferences with representatives of your organization and of the Fuhrer, do you not?
BOHLE: I have h'eard that they visited the Führer but they did not visit me and we had no conferences of any description.
COL. AMEN: I did not say with you. I said with representatives of your office; perhaps your friend, Mr. Grothe?
BOHLE: That might be possible but I cannot say definitely because he did not report to me on this matter. They could not hsve discussed any official matters with Grothe, because he knew very well that I completely repudiated the activities of the German Volksbund in America.
COL. AMEN: In any event, however, you accept responsibility for everything which was done in your organization. Correct?
BOHLE: Naturally.
THE PRESIDENT: Do either of the other Chief Prosecutors wish to cross-examine? [There was no response.] Then, Dr. Seidl, you can re-examine if you wish.
DR. SEIDL: Witness, you have already answered a question that I intended to ask you, that is, that there was no secret transmitter in Germany which would have been in a position to broadcast secret communications to foreign countries. I ask you now, did you yourself have a transmitter in Germany?
BOHLE: I myself hmad no transmitter.
DR. SEIDL: Did the Auslands-Organisation have such a transmitter?
BOHLE: I consider that to be absolutely impossible; if there had been one, I would have known of it. I never saw one.
DR. SEIDL: Is it correct that in order to communicate with Germans overseas by radio you yourself did not use code on the German network?
BOHLE: That is correct.
DR. SEIDL: You stated previously that the-Deputy of the Führer, Hess, was your immediate superior?
BOHLE: Yes.
DR. SEIDL: Were the directives given to you by the Deputy of the Führer of a general nature, or did he go into the details of the work of the Auslands-Organisation?
BOHLE: The Deputy of the Führer gave only general directives and left all the details to me because I had his complete confidence.
In his general directives he impressed upon me repeatedly in the sharpest terms the fact that it was my duty to avoid any measures by the Auslands-Organisation that might be detrimental to foreign relations.
DR. SEIDL: I have no further questions.
THE PQESIDENT: The witness can retire.
[The witness left the stand.]
DR. SEIDL: Your Honors, before I go on to my next witnessthat is the witness STRÖLIN-I should like to submit the suggestion or rather the application to the Tribunal that the affidavit of the witness Gaus be handled in the same way as the interrogation of the witness Bohle. Gaus has already been admitted as a witness for another defendant. However, the Defense Counsel for the other Defendant waived his right to call this witness. The situation is the same as it was in the case of Bohle; therefore it would be preferable, in my opinion, to hear the witness Gaus now and to read his sworn statement to him during his examination as has been done in other cases, for instance in the case of Blaha.
THE PRESIDENT: Has the affidavit been translated yet and submitted in the various languages to the Chief Prosecutors?
DR. SEIDL: I do not know whether the translation is complete.
At any rate, this noon I submitted six copies of the affidavit to the Translation Division.
THE PRESIDENT: Can you tell me, Sir David or Colonel Pokrovsky?
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: My Lord, I have not seen this affidavit, and, My Lord, with regard to the last one, we got it hurriedly translated into English, but it was only by the kindness of my Soviet colleagues, who1 allowed the matter to go on without a Russian translation and left it to my delegation to deal with, that the matter