1
Dec. 45
impression
on me. During this conversation, and in this
circle, where there were several other gentlemen
present, Reichenau held quite different ideas
and judged things quite differently from what I
had expected of him. Apart from that, I do not
know anything about this particular question.
DR. FRITZ: Also nothing concerning the
fact that Paulus had rescinded the order within
the sector of his army?
LAHOUSEN: No,
not in connection with the name Paulus, but in
general I believe, as I also stated yesterday,
that several army commanders, whose names are no
longer in my memory today, or whose names have
been recorded, were mentioned by me.
DR.
KURT KAUFFMANN (Counsel for Defendant
Kaltenbrunner): Do you know Mr. Kaltenbrunner?
LAHOUSEN: Kaltenbrunner? I met
Kaltenbrunner only once in my life, and that was
on a day that will always remain in my memory.
It was also the first meeting between Canaris
and Kaltenbrunner. It took place in Munich in
the Regina Hotel, and it was on the day when two
young people, a student and his sister, were
arrested and executed. They had distributed
leaflets in the auditorium of the University of
Munich. I read the contents of the leaflets, and
I remember, among other things, that they
contained an appeal to the Wehrmacht.
I
can easily reconstruct that day. It was the
first and last time that I saw Kaltenbrunner,
with whose name I was familiar. Of course,
Kaltenbrunner mentioned this subject to Canaris,
who was completely shattered because of what had
happened that day and was still under the
painful impression and thank God there
are still witnesses available who can testify to
this. When discussing the matter Kaltenbrunner
was very much to the point, but at the same time
he was quite cynical about it. That is the only
thing I can tell you about this matter.
DR.
KAUFFMANN: Kaltenbrunner claims that Himmler
retained full executive powers for himself,
while he was only in charge of the intelligence
service. Is this borne out by the conversation
that you just mentioned?
LAHOUSEN: I
would like you to know what bearing that has on
the Kaltenbrunner-Himmler matter the
struggle for power which was taking place in the
SS. I have merely described this event. I can
give you the names of the people present, who
like myself were very much impressed for the
reasons which I have mentioned.
HERR
GEORG BÖHM (Counsel for the SA): You were
asked yesterday whether the orders regarding the
treatment of Soviet prisoners of war were known
to the leaders of the SA and other
organizations, and your answer was that these
orders must have