. NMT04-T1175
Volume IV · Page 1175
| around with a ministerial passport. This was
an identification paper which showed that I was a high government official. It
had a sort of diplomatic character and it had been issued to me by the Foreign
Office. Q. In the basic information the Staff Main Office has been described as one of the main offices of the SS. Is that correct? A. No. The Staff Main Office of the Reich Commissioner was always a component of a main Reich agency. Q. Could you know at all, or did you know, just what happened in the police or what happened in the SS as an organization and what work the individual SS main offices did? A. No. I was unable to know that. |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| EXTRACT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF
DEFENDANT MEYER-HETLING* |
| DIRECT EXAMINATION |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| DR. BEHLING (Counsel for the defendant
Meyer-Hetling) : Did you ever hold any office in the Party [NSDAP] ?
DEFENDANT MEYER-HETLING: No. Q. Did you ever receive a distinction from the Party? A. No. I did not receive any medals from the Party, nor did I ever attach any importance to those things. Q. How did you come to the SS? A. That was as a result of my contact with the Peasant leader and my appointment to the Reich Council of Peasants. Q. Just what sort of an organization was the Reich Council of Peasants? A. The Reich Council of Peasants was a representative council of a number of leading personalities who wanted to devote their time to the development and solution of agricultural problems in practice and in theory. Q. Who was in charge of the Reich Council of Peasants? A. Darré. Q. What was Darré's relationship to Himmler at the time? A. They were friends. Both of them graduated in agricultural science, and as a result of this they agreed in their agricultural political views. Q. And what was the effect of this on your personal career? A. At the time it was customary for men in public life to belong to one of the units whose members wore uniforms, for example, the SA, the SS, the NSKK. For the most part, the Peasant |
* Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 9-11 December 1947, 2 February 1948, pp. 2201-2289 and 4776-4778.
