dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. DODD: I am not much concerned with what you did with it, I only want to know if you got it. And you got it, didn't you? You got 520,000 Reichsmark.
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: You also made a present out of public funds on your own account to the Defendant Frick on one occasion, didn't you? Didn't you give Frick a birthday present of 250,000 Reichsmark on 12 March 1942? FUNK That I don't know.
MR. DODD: You don't remember? You don't remember that? Do you know anything about the other gifts that were given to any of these other defendants out of public funds, either through your position as President of the Reichsbank or as an important functionary of the Nazi Party? Do you know anything about these other men and what they have got from the public treasury?
FUNK: These moneys were not given by me. They were given from the fund of the Fuehrer by Lammers. I did not dispense such moneys.
MR. DODD: They were public funds, were they not? They did not come from anywhere else except the public? You don't know then that Rosenberg got 250,000 Reichsmark? Did you know that?
FUNK: No.
MR. DODD: In January 1944; you were then President of the Reichsbank?
FUNK: Yes, but these moneys never came from the Reichsbank. These were moneys from funds which were administered by Lammers and I assume that the moneys came from the Adolf Hitler donation or from other funds. But the Reichsbank had nothing to do with these funds.
MR. DODD: Do you know that Von Neurath got 250,000 Reichsmark on 2 February 1943? Do you know anything about that? You were the President of the Reichsbank then.
FUNK: I know nothing about that.
MR. DODD: You heard about Lammers and his 600,000 Reichsmark. You know that Keitel got 250,000 Reichsmark on 22 September 1942. You never heard about that?
FUNK: The Reichsbank had nothing at all to do with these things.
MR. DODD: You know that Von Ribbentrop got 500,000 Reichsmark on 30 April 1943. You never heard of that? General Milch got 500,000 Reichsmark in 1941; none of these things ever came to your attention?
FUNK: I never had anything to do with these matters. They were Lammers' concern and the money did not come from the Reichsbank.
MR. DODD: Now, I understood you to say that you were not the economic advisor in fact to Hitler or to the Nazi Party of the early days. That is in your own judgment you were not. It is a fact, however, that you were generally regarded as such by the public, by industrialists, by Party members and the high Party officials. Is that not so?
FUNK: I was called that, as I said here, on the basis of my activity in 1932. I acted as a mediator in conversations between the Fuehrer and some leading economists and for a short while carried out the activity in the Party which has been described here.
MR. DODD: You have called yourself the economic advisor on occasion, have you not? At least on one occasion, during an interrogation, did you not refer to yourself as the economic advisor for the Party? You remember that?
FUNK: No.
MR. DODD: I think you will agree that you were generally recognized as such, but the really important thing is that the public thought you were.
FUNK: I have testified here that I was called that by the press and from the press this designation apparently went into record. I did not use this term myself.
MR. DODD: Were you the principal contact man between the Nazi Party and industry in the very early days?
FUNK: In 1932, and this is the only year which we need consider in connection with Party activities on my part, because I was not active in the Party before or after this year. I did arrange discussions between Hitler and leading men of industry, whom I can name. But other men also acted in that capacity; for example, State Secretary Keppler.
MR. DODD: I am not asking you about other men, I am asking you whether or not you were not a principal contact man. Actually you were encouraged by industry, were you not, to become active in the Party?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: You acted as a go-between for the Nazis and the big business in Germany.
FUNK: It did not take up much time, but I did it.
MR. DODD: Whether it took much of your time or not, that doesn't interest us. It took a little bit of your time. That's what you were doing?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: You remember Document Number EC-440 perhaps. It is really a statement that you made and prepared on the relationship of German industry to the Party in the National Socialist leadership of the State. You remember that paper you drew up on 28 June 1945? You may recall that you yourself said, "Keppler, who later became State Secretary, and who served as economic advisor to the Fuehrer before me...." You used that terminology. You recall that?
FUNK: Keppler?
MR. DODD: Yes, he was the advisor before you. You remember that?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: Now, in the Propaganda Ministry, if I understand you correctly, you want the Tribunal to believe that you were something of an administrative functionary and not a very important man, and you did not really know what was going on. Is that your position?
FUNK: No. I had quite a large task, and that was the direction of an extensive cultural and economic concern. I stated that here. It consisted of film companies, theaters, orchestras, the German Trade Publicity Council, and the administration of the entire German radio, an undertaking worth a hundred millions, that is to say, a very extensive activity, an organizational, economic and financial activity. But propaganda was taken care of solely and exclusively by Goebbels.
MR. DODD: Yes. You knew the policies and the purposes of the Propaganda Ministry; there isn't any doubt about that?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: You knew that, did you not?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: All right. Now, we can pass on to one other matter that I referred to earlier, to clear up another matter. Do you recall that the Defendant Schacht, when he was on the stand, said, I believe, at that now famous meeting where a number of industrialists were gathered to greet Hitler, that he did not take up the collection? Schacht said he did not do it. I think he said that Goering did it or somebody else. Do you remember that testimony about Schacht on the stand? You remember being interrogated about that subject yourself?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: Do you remember what you told us at the time?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: What did you tell us?
FUNK: I said that Schacht after addresses by Goering and Hitler made a brief speech, and that he asked those present to, so to say, go to the cashier and subscribe, that is, raise money for the election fund. He took over the collection and said that the coal industry. . .
MR. DODD: Who?
FUNK: He said...
MR. DODD: Who was the one who took up the collection? I don't understand whom you mean by "he."
FUNK: Schacht.
MR. DODD: That's all I wanted to know about that. When did you first learn that the uprisings of November 1938 were not spontaneous?
FUNK: On the morning of 9 November, on my way from my home to the Ministry, I saw for the first time what had taken place during the night. Before that I had not had the slightest hint that such excesses and terror measures had been planned.
MR. DODD: I think you misunderstood me. I did not ask you when you first came to know about the uprisings; I asked you when you first learned that they were not spontaneous; when you first learned that they were instigated and planned by somebody else.
FUNK: I only found out about that later.
MR. DODD: Well, how much later?
FUNK: I believe very much later. Later on there was much discussion about this matter and it was never clear just who had been the instigator of these measures of terror and violence and where the order had originated. We knew that it had come from Munich. We had learned that in the meantime on 9 November; but, whether it was Goebbels or Himmler, and to what extent the Fuehrer himself participated in this measure, I was never able to find out clearly. From my telephone conversation with Goebbels, which I mentioned today, one thing was clear: The Fuehrer must have known about this matter, for he told me that the Fuehrer had decreed, and Goering also said this, that the Jews were completely to be eliminated from economic life. From this I had to conclude that the Fuehrer himself knew about this matter.
MR. DODD: Now from that telephone conversation we can also see one other thing. You knew that Goebbels had started this business, did you not, and that was the day after it happened? You knew it was not spontaneous and that is why you called up Goebbels and got after him; is that not so?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: How many days later did you make that inflammatory speech about what should be done to the Jews? About six days afterwards, did you not? I am referring to the one that was published in the Frankfurter Zeitung ; your counsel referred to it this morning.
FUNK: Yes, to begin with. . .
MR. DODD: And in that speech you tried to make it appear to the public that that was a spontaneous uprising, did you not?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: That was not true, was it?
FUNK: I did not know that at the time. At that time I still believed that it was really something favored by large elements of the population. Very much later I found out that routine machinery had been put in motion.
MR. DODD: Are you telling this Tribunal now that on the morning of your telephone call to Goebbels, when you in effect blamed him for these uprisings, you were not well aware then that he had started it? Is that your position?
FUNK: At that time I did not know who had started this regime of terror and how it had been carried through; that was entirely new to me.
MR. DODD: If you did not know who started it, you knew that somebody started it and that it was not spontaneous?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: And still in your speech of 15 November you tried to make it appear to the public that it was just an uprising on the part of the German people, did you not?
FUNK: I based that on the attempted assassination of-I do not know who he was; some attaché in Paris-and actually the attempt caused much agitation. There is no doubt of it.
MR. DODD: Now I think you understand my question, Witness. You said on that occasion, you used these words: "The fact that the last violent explosion of the indignation of the German people because of a criminal Jewish attack against the German people took place," and so on, and you went on. You were trying to make it appear there that this was a spontaneous reaction of the German people, and I insist that you knew better and had known it for some days, had you not?
FUNK: But I did not know that that is what took place. I admit that I knew that an impulse had come from some of lice or other.
MR. DODD: Well, all right. When did you coin the expression "crystal week"? Do you know what that expression is; where it came from?
FUNK: "Crystal week?"
MR. DODD: Yes.
FUNK: Yes, I did use these words once in connection with this action.
MR. DODD: You coined the phrase.
FUNK: Because much was shattered.
MR. DODD: You are the fellow who started that expression. You are the man, are you not? that was your expression?
FUNK: Yes, I used it.
MR. DODD: And you were using it-because you made this Frankfurter Zeitung speech?
FUNK: I once characterized that action with that term, it is true, because much had been shattered.
MR. DODD: Now, let us move on a little bit to the well-known meeting of 12 November, when Goering and Goebbels and all of the other people made their remarks about the Jews and you said you were present. You did not make any objection that day to anything that was said, did you?
FUNK: No. I merely attempted to have certain things put through in order to save something for the Jews, for example, their securities and stocks. Then I managed to have the stores reopened, so that things would move less rapidly, and I did more, too.
MR. DODD: I understand that, but I thought this morning you were really pretty sensitive about the terrible things that had happened to the Jews, and you remember some of the suggestions that were made that day by Goering and Goebbels; they were pretty nasty things, were they not?
FUNK: Yes, I openly admitted that I was much shaken. ..
MR. DODD: Were you? Well . . .
FUNK: And that my conscience bothered me. O
MR. DODD: All right. You went on after that and made your Frankfurter Zeitung speech and you carried out these decrees, even though your conscience was bothering you; is that so?
FUNK: But the decrees had to be issued. I have already emphasized that several times here. I had no pangs of conscience because the decrees were issued. I had pangs of conscience because of the reasons for them. But the decrees themselves-
MR. DODD: That is what I'm asking you about.
FUNK: But the decrees had to be issued. The reasons for them -yes; I admit that.
MR. DODD: You know Schacht said on the stand that if he had been the Minister of Economy he did not think those things would have happened? Do you remember him saying that here the other day, do you?
FUNK: Yes. He must have had very powerful and influential connections in the Party, otherwise he could not have been successful.
MR. DODD: You did not have these connections in the Party, did you? You were not in the Party, you were a Minister?
FUNK: No, I did not have these connections and I could not prevent these terror actions.
MR. DODD: Well, we will see about that. Your counsel has submitted on your behalf an affidavit from one Oeser, O-e-s-e-r; do you remember that man? O-e-s-e-r, do you remember him?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: Do you remember him? O
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: And his affidavit-interrogatory, I believe it was . . .
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, we will adjourn for a bare 10 minutes. [A recess was taken.]
MR. DODD: Witness, I was inquiring about this man Oeser when we recessed-O-e-s-e-r; do you recall him? He was one of your employees in the Frankfurter Zeitung, was he not?
FUNK: Yes, he was the chief of the Berlin administration office of the Frankfurter Zeitung, a respected journalist.
MR. DODD: Yes. You know, do you not, that you have an interrogatory or an affidavit from him, which you are submitting to this court; it is in your document book?
FUNK: He volunteered to do that.
MR. DODD: Well, I'm not asking you-that is all right-whether he did or not; I just wanted to establish that you know that he did.
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: Now, in that affidavit, as I read it, Oeser maintains that you were really being quite decent about the Jews in that newspaper. Is that not so? Is that not the sense of it; that you saved them from dismissal and so on, you put them under the exceptions provided in the decrees?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: All right.
FUNK: I allowed quite a number of editors to come under these exceptions.
MR. DODD: Yes, I know. Now I want to ask you this: There was a real reason, other than decency towards Jews, for your conduct with reference to that particular paper, was there not?
FUNK: No.
MR. DODD: Well, now, wait a minute.
FUNK: I do not know these people personally.
MR. DODD: I do not say that you knew the people personally. I say that there was a reason, other than your feeling for Jews as people, but which you have not told the Tribunal about yet, another reason maybe.
FUNK: In the case of the editors of the Frankfurter Zeitung?
MR. DODD: Yes.
FUNK: No.
MR. DODD: Now, is it not a fact that you and probably Hitler, and certainly Goebbels, and some of the other higher-ups of the Nazi Party, decided that that paper should be left in status quo because of its vast influence abroad? Is that not true?
FUNK: We did not tank about that at that time. That issue came up later. It came when the Fuehrer demanded that almost all leading daily newspapers should either be taken over by the Party or merged with Party papers. And on that occasion I succeeded in having exception made for the Frankfurter Zeitung , and the Frankfurter Zeitung continued to exist for a long time. But that was much later. Here, in fact, the only reason was to help a few Jewish editors.
MR. DODD: Well...
FUNK: It was a purely humane reason.
MR. DODD: You can answer this. I just wanted to get your answer on the record because I'll have more to say about it later. Do I understand you to deny that it was your established policy to preserve the status quo of the Frankfurter Zeitung because of its influence abroad?
FUNK: No, it was always my opinion that the Frankfurter Zeitung should remain as it was.
MR. DODD: Well, was it for the reason that I suggest, because these people were well known in the financial world abroad, and you did not want to impair the usefulness of that paper abroad? That's what I'm getting at, and I say that that is why you kept them on, and not because you felt badly about their plight as Jews.
FUNK: No, not in this case. In this case that was not the reason.
MR. DODD: Very well; now, with respect to your activities as the Plenipotentiary for Economy and their relationship to the wars waged against Poland and the other powers, I have some questions that I would like to ask you. Now I will tell you what it is about first, so you will be aware. You are not maintaining, are you, that your position as Plenipotentiary for Economy did not have much to do with the affairs of the Wehrmacht?
FUNK: Yes, I assert that. With the Wehrmacht...
MR. DODD: Now, I have in my hand here a letter which Von Blomberg wrote to Goering. Do you remember that letter? It is a new document and you have not seen it in this Trial, but do you remember any such letter?
FUNK: No.
MR. DODD: Well, I ask you to be handed Document Number EC-255. [The document was handed to the defendant.] Mr. President, this becomes Exhibit USA-839. [Turning to the defendant.] Now, in this letter from Von Blomberg, I am only concerned now with the last sentence, really. You will notice that Von Blomberg, in this letter, refers to the fact that Schacht had been appointed, but the last sentence says, or in the next to the last paragraph he first urges that you be appointed immediately, and that is underlined in his letter; and in the last paragraph he says: "The urgency of unified further work on all preparations for the conduct of the war does not admit of this office being paralyzed until 15 January 1938." This letter, by the way, was written on 29 November 1937. Certainly Von Blomberg thought that the job that he was suggesting you for would have some very great effect upon the conduct of the war, did he not?
FUNK: That may be, but in the first place, I do not know about that letter and, secondly, I was not immediately appointed Plenipotentiary for Economy but only in the course of 1938. Quite some time after I had been appointed Minister for Economics I asked Lammers why my appointment as Plenipotentiary for Economy had taken so long; he replied that my relationship to the Delegate for the Four Year Plan had to be cleared up first. That was the reason why several months passed before I became Plenipotentiary for Economy, because it had to be ascertained that Goering had the decisive authority for war economy...
MR. DODD: You really do not need to go into all that.
FUNK: I do not know about that letter, and I have never spoken to Von Blomberg about the affair.
MR. DODD: All right. You do recall perhaps that the OKW, after you were appointed, made some objection about the amount of authority that you had. Do you remember that?
FUNK: No.
MR. DODD: Now, I am holding here another new document, Number EC-270, which I will ask that you be shown, which will become Exhibit USA-840. While you are waiting for it, I will tell you that it is a letter written on 27 April 1938. You will notice that in the first paragraph of this letter from the OKW it says that the interpretation which has been put on the decree of the Fuehrer-the decree of 4 February 1938-does not correspond to the necessities of total warfare. And then you go down to the third paragraph on that first page and you will find other objections with respect to your authority. Apparently at this time the OKW thought you had too much to do with what would be the war effort, and finally on the last page, Mr. Witness, if you will look at this paragraph, you will see this sentence-on the last page of the English, anyway; near the end of the letter this sentence appears: "The war economy, which is subordinated to the Plenipotentiary, represents the economic rear area of the armaments industry." And I want you to observe carefully those words "armaments industry." And then it goes on to say: "If this stage fails, the striking power of the Armed Forces becomes questionable." I ask that you pay attention to the words "armaments industry," because I recall that this morning you said you had absolutely nothing to do with the armaments industry; but apparently the OKW thought that you did, on 27 April 1938. Is that not so?
FUNK: I do not know this letter either. I do not know the attitude of the OKW but I do know this: The OKW, especially the Codefendant Field Marshal Keitel, was of the opinion at that time that I, as Plenipotentiary General for War Economy, should assume the authority and competence of Schacht; but there was a conversation between the Reich Marshal and Field Marshal Keitel-Keitel confirmed this to me-in which the Reich Marshal clearly declared; "The war economy will not be turned over to Funk." I can honestly and sincerely say that I did not have the slightest idea of all these things. I did not know what kind of position the OKW intended me to have. I never had that function because the administration for the armaments industry was never included in the Ministry of Economics. I do not remember the matter.
MR. DODD: All right. That is your answer. I suppose at the time you were also aware, as you told the Tribunal, that you were really subordinate to Goering and in a very inferior position about all of these things. Is that so?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: I am going to ask you to look at another Document, Number EC-271, which will become Exhibit USA-841, and this document consists of a letter which you wrote to Lammers, a letter which Lammers wrote to the Chief of the High Command, Field Marshal Keitel, and one or two other letters not pertinent for the purposes of this present inquiry. It was written on 31 March 1938, and I want you to turn to the second page because that is where your letter appears. The first page is just a letter of transmittal from Lammers to Keitel, but let us look at the second page. Have you got it?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: You are writing to Lammers and you say-I am not going to read the whole letter, but the second paragraph. You wrote to Lammers and you say among other things: "On the occasion of a trip to Austria I have, among other matters, also talked to Field Marshal Goering about the position of the Plenipotentiary for War Economy. I pointed out in this conversation that, contrary to the attitude of the OKW, of which I was informed, the decree of 4 February 1938. concerning the leadership of the Wehrmacht did not change the position of the Plenipotentiary for War Economy." And you go on-aside from the fact that the decree applied exclusively to the command of the Armed Forces, and so on, and that especially the last paragraph of that decree stated that you were dependent upon instructions of the Fuehrer-to say: "Moreover, among the instructions of the Fuehrer is included the decision of the Reich Government of 21 May 1935, according to which the Plenipotentiary for War Economy, in his sphere of duty as supreme Reich authority, is immediately subordinated to the Fuehrer. "General Field Marshal Goering assured me that my interpretation, as mentioned above, was correct in every respect and also corresponds with the Fuehrer's opinion. Thereupon I asked him to give me a brief written confirmation. Field Marshal Goering promised to grant this request." Now, you wrote that letter to Lammers, did you not, on 31 March 1938, "yes" or "no?"
FUNK: Certainly.