“This attitude of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy made it
possible for the Navy, as the only branch of the Armed Forces
until the end of the war, not to have to transfer to the
Peoples’ Court or to a special court any criminal procedures of
political coloring.”
On page 113 in Volume II of my document book I have included a lengthy
extract from Exhibit GB-211, a document of the Prosecution; and this is
an application by the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy addressed to the
Führer and asking for supplies for the construction and repair of naval
and merchant ships. During the interrogation and cross-examination of
Admiral Dönitz this document has already been referred to. I should
merely like to point out that this is a memorandum containing more than
20 pages; the Prosecution took up two points contained therein.
The origin of the document is dealt with in Document Dönitz-46, Page 117
and the following pages. This is an affidavit from the officer who had
drafted this memorandum. I can summarize the contents. The memorandum is
concerned with measures which did not actually come within the sphere of
the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy. It arose on the basis of a
discussion which took place between all departments taking part in the
construction and repair of war and merchant vessels. All these measures
are summarized in this memorandum. The point objected to in particular
by the Prosecution as amounting to a suggestion in favor of punitive
measures against sabotage in shipyards is dealt with in detail on Page
119. I should like to point out particularly that at that time seven out
of eight ships under construction were destroyed by sabotage.
It was not a question of terror measures but of punitive measures
entailing the forfeiting of certain advantages and, if necessary, the
concentration of workers in camps adjoining the shipyards, so as to cut
them off from any sabotage agents.
Following Exhibit GB-209 of the Prosecution, which deals with the
alleged renunciation of the Geneva Convention, I submit Dönitz-48, which
is on Page 122 and the following pages. It will show the model treatment
afforded Allied prisoners of war in the only prisoner-of-war camp which
was under the jurisdiction of Admiral Dönitz as the Commander-in-Chief
of the Navy.
To begin with, the document contains an affidavit from two officers who
dealt with prisoner-of-war affairs in the High Command of the Navy. This
statement is to the effect that all the suggestions of the International
Red Cross regarding these camps were followed.
The next extract is a report by the last commandant of that camp,
Korvettenkapitän Rogge, and I should like to read the second paragraph
from that report:
“In the camp Westertimke there were housed at my time about
5,500 to 7,000, at the end 8,000, prisoners of war and internees
of different nations, mainly members of the British Navy. The
camp had a good reputation, as was generally known. It was the
best in Germany. This was expressly stated at a congress of
British and other prisoner-of-war physicians of all German
camps, which took place in Schwanenwerder near Berlin at the
villa of Goebbels about December 1944. This statement was
confirmed by the British chief camp physician in Westertimke,
Major Dr. Harvey, British Royal Army, whom I am naming as a
witness.”