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I always repeated these instructions; but naturally it was left up to
the department heads to decide what fell into this category and what did not.
It is true that the burning of the files was done very hastily, and was
repeatedly interrupted by air raids, and it lasted a week to 10 days.
Q. Thank you, Witness. In view of what you have just said, may I, in
that light also evaluate the fact that within the sphere of the Chemicals,
Sales Department B, upon your own instructions, and I quote, "copies of the
sales documents with firms all over the world," were destroyed in order to
avoid seizure by the enemy?
A. I believe that the translation is not
100 percent right here. It should not read "sales documents," but "sales
agreements"; they were carbon copies of international trade agreements. When I
was asked yesterday, I did not correct this, because I considered it
unimportant.
MR. SPRECHER: Your Honor, that is correct; it is alright
in the English; it is wrong only in the German.
MR. HENZE: Herr von
Heider, did you convince yourself personally what actually was destroyed in the
various departments, and what was being destroyed in the other departments
after your instructions had been given?
WITNESS VON HEIDER: No, I have
said repeatedly that I was not technically able to do that. I was often asked
in individual cases for general decisions.
Q. You left the execution to
the discretion of the individual departmental heads?
A. Yes. That is
how I arranged it from the very beginning.
Q. Would it not have been
necessary to establish close contact between you and department heads if you
wanted to see to it that certain files should be destroyed in the main
administration building?
A. Yes, but as I said, that was done rather
hastily, and as I say, many errors were definitely made, but the majority of
the things were destroyed by the department heads.
Q. Witness, in that
case this operation — and pardon the expression — was rather like the
work of amateurs?
A. Yes, I admit it. That depended on the department
chief.
Q. Let me briefly point to a number of matters. Under A in your
report, you say that the office of the Central Committee had destroyed records
of the Commercial Committee; were these files preserved in other departments?
A. I believe that copies of virtually all of these minutes were
preserved because the judgment of what was to be destroyed was |
465 |
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