DR. MARX: Did you know that the amounts paid in the Aryanization of
houses or real estate represented only about 20 percent, or even less,
of the actual value?
STREICHER: Holz had not come to see me for weeks. He had carried on the
Aryanization in the Labor Front Office with the expert there. Not until
later, in Berlin during the meeting which the Reich Marshal held, did I
learn of the real facts; and thus the dispute and the break between Holz
and me came about, because I had to disapprove the manner in which the
Aryanization had been handled.
DR. MARX: You are further accused of having had shares in the Mars Works
at Nuremberg acquired at an extraordinarily low price, for purposes of
enriching yourself and, in the course of this acquisition, of having
exerted an undue pressure on the owner of the shares?
STREICHER: It says in the Göring report, literally, that I had
instructed and in another place that I had given the order that the Mars
shares be acquired for me. I state here that I neither instructed nor
ordered anyone to acquire the Mars shares. The whole thing was like
this. The director of my publishing house, who had power of attorney
because I, personally, never in all the years bothered with financial or
business matters, could do what he wanted. One day he came to see me
with my adjutant. I do not recollect now whether the adjutant or the
director of my publishing house was the one who spoke first. I was told
the following: An attorney had called and said that the Mars shares were
being offered for sale at an advantageous price. The director of my
publishing house asked me whether I agreed. I stated that never in my
life had I owned any shares, that I had never bothered about financial
matters in my publishing house. If he thought that the stock should be
bought, then he could do it. The shares were bought. It was the most
serious breach of confidence ever committed against me by any Party
comrade or employee. After a short time it turned out; that is, I was
informed how these shares had been acquired. I found out that the owner
had been threatened. When I found out under what conditions this stock
purchase had been made, I gave the order at once to return the stock. In
the Göring report it is noted that this return took place. Among the
confiscated files of my publishing house there is an official statement
about this affair which shows that these shares were returned.
In this connection perhaps I may be permitted to say that my publishing
house was located until the end of the war in a rented house. At the
time of the Aryanization I was approached with the plan that an
Aryanized house be acquired for my publishing firm. I refused that. I
state here in conclusion that I have in my possession no Jewish
property.
When those demonstrations occurred in 1938, jewels had been brought into
the Gau house. These pieces of jewelry were turned over to the police. A
man who was bearer of the honorary Party emblem was convicted and
sentenced to 6 years penal servitude because he had given his sweetheart
a ring and another piece of jewelry dating from that time. But I may add
one thing: The guilt of this bearer of the Party emblem rests perhaps
with those who gave the order: “Go into the Jewish houses.” That man, as
far as I knew him, had always been personally decent. Because of that
order, he got into a position in which he committed a crime.