Evening star., 1945-09-02
Bernodotte Felt Shadow Of Hitler in Talks
With HimmIer on Freeing Norwegian Cuptives
First of q Series. J
Y . " "e " y DO7 WV
BY COUNT FOLKE BERNADOTTE

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The chief of the security police,
Obergruppenfuehrer Ernst Kalten-
drummer, was courteous enough rs
he offered me American cigarettes
and French vermouth, but his look
was cold and inquiring.
| Our meeting was at Kaltenbrun-
ner's luxurious home at Wannsee,
on the day following my arrival
in Berlin, on February 16, l945. My
immediate object was to convince
Kaltenbrunner, Heinrich Himmler's
second-in-command in the Gestapo,
that it was essential for me to meet
his chief. Only by seeing Himmler
could I hope to have Danish and
Norwegian political prisoners evac-
uated to Sweden from German con-
centration camps.
Not only had nature provided
kaltenbrunner with the necessary
qualifications for his present Job
and earlier as Heydrich's successor
in Czechoslovakia, but in appear
ance he was all that one would ex-
pect a Gestapo chief to be. He sug-
gested that should explain my OBJ
JectS to him, for transmission to his
chief. I had to get him sufficiently
interested to arrange meeting with
Himmler, without giving away the
real object of my visit.
"As you are doubtless aware"
told him, relations between Sweden
and Germany are extremely bad.
Reichsminister Himmler
occupies a position which would
make it possible for him to adopt
measures calculated to improve
Swedish German relations"
Are you acting under official
instructions?" he asked.
Visit Unofficial.
I told him no, but added my views
were shared generally and that Ger
many could not afford to make an
enemy Of Sweden. 1t took time, but
when left I felt that I had made
good progress.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs,
Joachim Won Ribbentrop, received
me at the foreign office. Ribben-
trop seemed to be in excellent form.
and filled with the consciousness of
his own Importance and dignity.
He invited me to be seated by the
fire, and Immediately began to talk.
1 surreptitiously started my stop
watch.
Only few hours after nv ar
rival IN Berlin, the foreign office was
reported to be greatly interested in
my visit, and especially anxious to
know my reasons for wishing to
meet Himmler. 1t was no secret
that relations between Won Ribben-
trop and the head of the Gestapo
were decidedly cool.
I stopped my stop watch. Ribben-
trop had talked for one hour and
seven minutes without my being
given an opportunity to get in q
word.
Commenting on his own personal
achievements with simulated humil-
lty, he explained that Hitler had
succeeded in convincing the German
working man of the necessity for
retaining the classes that make up|
society, though these had to be
adapted to the Nazi theology. Boil
shevism, on the other hand, taught
that the privileged classes must be
This, in Ribbentrop'sl
opinion, was the fundamental differ
ence between the two systems.
War Called Inevitable.
Everything had shown that war
between Germany and Russia was
inevitable, and reliable evidence had
actually been received that it was
Russia's intention to attack Ger
many in August, l94l.
Every bomb Churchill and Roose-
velt dropped on Germany, he said
was helping Russia and was another
nail IN the collins of the British
empire and the United States. He
told me he was at that very moment
making last attempt, through spe-
cial channels, to convince the gov