THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Horn, you did not give a number to that last
affidavit.
DR. HORN: TC-75 will become Exhibit Number Ribbentrop-322.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
DR. SIEMERS: Mr. President, with the permission of the Tribunal, I
should like to deal with those points of my examination which have not
yet been dealt with.
First of all we are concerned with the witness who has been allowed me
by the Tribunal, Generaladmiral Böhm. The Tribunal will recall that I
was permitted to examine this witness at the end of the presentation of
evidence. In the meantime, after consultation with Mr. Elwyn Jones and
Sir David, I have obtained an affidavit from Generaladmiral Böhm in
Hamburg, so that I could perhaps dispense with calling him as a witness.
I submitted this affidavit to Sir David and to Mr. Elwyn Jones and Mr.
Jones told me yesterday afternoon that Sir David agreed, and that he
would dispense with the cross-examination, and at the same time I agreed
not to insist on an examination, but to be satisfied with the submitting
and the reading of the affidavit. I believe Sir David agrees.
I should like to submit this affidavit of Generaladmiral Böhm’s as
Exhibit Number Raeder-129. This was sworn to on 13 June this year in the
presence of notary Dr. Sieveking at Hamburg.
THE PRESIDENT: It is not necessary to read it now, is it?
DR. SIEMERS: Mr. President, I should be very grateful if I might be
permitted to read this affidavit, as it deals with a portion of evidence
which is quite significant. The Tribunal will, I am sure, recall the
fact...
THE PRESIDENT: But I have already told you, Dr. Siemers—you can
certainly confine yourself to the really important part of it and
summarize anything that is really not so important. We cannot have all
these documents read out to us.
DR. SIEMERS: The Tribunal will agree with me that as far as my other
documents are concerned, I read remarkably little. My reason for wanting
to read a part of it was because the British Delegation, at the close of
the cross-examination, submitted two very lengthy summaries, GB-464 and
GB-465. These are summaries about the key documents of the 22d.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Siemers, surely you can tell us what the subject
matter of the affidavit is. We will then know the general subject matter
of it, and then I should have thought you could direct your attention to
the particular matters which are of special importance here. It only
takes up time if you are going to tell us what the Prosecution have
done.
DR. SIEMERS: I beg your pardon. Mr. President, if I have been
misunderstood. It was my intention to do that.
I shall not read from “I” of the affidavit. I shall only summarize it.
It is a discussion between Raeder and Generaladmiral Böhm in the summer
of 1939, on which occasion Böhm told Raeder that he was worried about
the political developments. He then asked Raeder whether he had called
Hitler’s attention to the great dangers and to the fact that the German
Navy would not be in a position to carry on a war at sea:
“Grossadmiral Raeder replied to me”—and these are his
words—“that he had put this up to Hitler more than once, and
that he had concluded his exposition to Hitler with the
fundamental sentence: ‘In such a case the Navy could not do
anything but die gloriously.’”
Number II of the affidavit of Generaladmiral Böhm:
“On 22 August 1939 Hitler made a speech to the top leaders of
the Armed Forces at the Obersalzberg. I was present during the
entire speech, which lasted 2 to 2½ hours. The speech was
delivered in Hitler’s office.”