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A. Well, I shall give you a few points. We camouflaged for reasons of
tax savings. The Foreign Organization, on the other hand, wanted to carry on
decamouflage activities so that we could show the swastika flag. We wanted to
keep our Jews because they were skilled people who knew their work. The Foreign
Organization, on the other hand, had instructions to see that they be
eliminated. The Foreign Organization wanted us to attend Party meetings. We,
however, neither had the desire nor the time to attend them. They wanted us to
pay higher contributions to the Foreign Organization. We were not really keen
on doing that. The Foreign Organization had instructions to see that the
pro-German press and the German press abroad were supported. Our customers, on
the other hand, read the Jewish press and the anti-German newspapers. I am
referring to the case of Bayer in Argentina, where all the chemists and all the
pharmaceutical people read the anti-German and Jewish press. We had to
advertise in those if we wanted to sell. Our people out there had been
successful. They were the rich people. The little people who had gone there
recently and had not yet got a job and joined the Party were mostly the
"have-nots" — not all of them, but many. Our leading representatives were
people of good repute, they were representatives of Germanism of the old
coinage. These were all deep controversies.
Q. Dr. Ilgner, what were
your personal experiences?
A. They varied. The most difficult problem
in the Foreign Organization was to deal with the little people, the agitators,
and we had the most trouble with them; for instance, there was my clash with
the Ortsgruppenleiter in Paris in 1933. By accident, I heard that he asked the
Paris police to write down numbers of the motor cars of immigrants. I said it
harmed the German prestige, and I opposed that. A row resulted. He denounced me
to the AO, the Foreign Organization. I went to Bohle [in Hamburg], but Bohle
adjusted that matter. Being a German living in South Africa, and having more
sense, he displayed more understanding with respect to such matters.
Q.
During your trips abroad, did you have contact with the AO, the Foreign
Organization?
A. No, but that actually was expected. In fact, up to my
trip to East Asia, inclusively, I had no, or at least only sporadic, contact
with them. Later, I only contacted them during my large trans-Atlantic trips,
or whenever there was a special occasion to do so. The reason for my more
emphasized contact on the occasion of my trip to South America was due to the
fact that, when going to East Asia, I didn't concern myself about them at all,
and these people were rather opposed to me as a result. That |
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