SCHLIEBEN: Did they also lock up any members of princely houses?
PFUHLSTEIN: Yes I met Prince Ernst August of HANOVER in the lavatory in the cellars of the Prinz Albrecht Strasse.[471]
SCHLIEBEN: Was STÜLPNAGEL still in KÜSTRIN on 30th January?
PFUHLSTEIN: Yes and was transferred with all the rest of them, in an omnibus; it was a ‘journey into the blue’ without any definite destination in view. It was simply flight from the Russians, with the intention of reaching the neighbourhood of BAD KÖSEN[472](?). We had planned that when the Russians came we would all break out, either with that damned commandant or without him, it didn’t matter to us, or we would do him in first.
SCHLIEBEN: Who was he?
PFUHLSTEIN: I don’t remember his name. A horrible fellow. I had a ‘Kriegsgerichtsrat’, who was with the ‘Oberste Generalrichter’ in BERLIN, who was responsible for these things. I managed to send a girl to him. I smuggled a letter to her round about 15th January, and I wrote to this ‘Kriegsgerichtsrat’ saying: “Please go immediately to the ‘Generalrichter’! What is the general intention regarding the transfer of the KÜSTRIN people further into the REICH? The Russians are coming! Please read the army communiqués. Time presses. It’s a question of days. Please go to the ‘Generalrichter’ today. We know nothing. Time presses!” Something after that style. The girl went to BERLIN immediately and saw this man. A few days later I received a letter from him in answer: “Many thanks for your letter, which I received. A transfer of the KÜSTRIN fortress is not under consideration.” Those damned fellows in BERLIN simply hadn’t tumbled to it.
PFUHLSTEIN: I had been connected with the preparations – together with STAUFFENBERG – since about 1943, i.e. over eighteen months.
THOMA: Was FELLGIEBEL really hanged?
PFUHLSTEIN: Yes. I was relieved of my command at the time of the attempted assassination itself. I had first commanded a ‘Division’, I was then wounded and was at ALLENSTEIN, where I was arrested. I spent three months in chains in the SS gaol, the ‘Reichssicherheitshauptamt’, BERLIN, Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse and then two months in a concentration camp.
THOMA: How did the SS behave there?
PFUHLSTEIN: Like swine! Like utter swine! People were hanged right and left of me. HALDER and SCHACHT were there.[473] HALDER is still stuck in Albrecht-Strasse.[474]
THOMA: What was he accused of?
PFUHLSTEIN: I don’t know.
THOMA: Were you there with them?
PFUHLSTEIN: Yes.
THOMA: Together?
PFUHLSTEIN: No. Each one was hand-cuffed in his own cell, not a word was exchanged, I only saw him. HALDER wasn’t hand-cuffed.
THOMA: Who else was there? It said in the newspaper today that SCHACHT’s brother had said that he was dead.
PFUHLSTEIN: I don’t know. CANARIS was hanged because as former head of the ‘Abwehr’ he was also implicated. Afterwards I spent two months in a newly organised officers’ concentration camp at KÜSTRIN, it was to have been a fortress but it was a concentration camp. There were about twenty senior and junior officers there.
THOMA: What were they there for?
PFUHLSTEIN: Some because they had participated and some because they had relatives who had, i.e. a PAULUS, a HOEPNER, a HASSELT, and FELLGIEBEL’s brother, and other brothers and close relatives of those deeply involved in the 20 July affair.
THOMA: What a race of scoundrels ours has become!
PFUHLSTEIN: Finally I was released, and then came the vital point, I had to report to General BURGDORF, Chief of the Army Personnel Directorate, and he informed me that I have been discharged from the service since 14 September without the right to call myself ‘Generalmajor’, without the right to wear uniform, but with a pension. It was their intention to give me an opportunity to make good my offence by seeking death in the front line and their intention was to call me up as a ‘Major’ available for further employment so that I should still be in time to give my life for HITLER at the front. But my health was in such a bad state that they gave me a reprieve to recuperate with my family. I went to WERTHEIM AM MAIN and was with my family when the Americans arrived.
THOMA: How was it that you got off so lightly in connection with the 20 July affair?
PFUHLSTEIN: They knew that I was to occupy a section of BERLIN and that I was to carry out the disarming of the SS artillery school. They found out that much but they didn’t find out that I knew that it was a matter of bringing about the death of HITLER.
PFUHLSTEIN: For three months I never left my cell except to go to the lavatory or to another part of the building. For three months I saw neither sun, nor moon, nor cloud, nor people, nor tree; I had no newspaper and, of course no clock. I never spoke to a soul, I had to do mouth exercises in my cell because I noticed that speaking had become difficult. I did tongue exercises so that I shouldn’t lose the power of speech. For three months the light was on day and night. I was in a little cell underground with a high-powered bulb shining on my head. Day and night, night and day; for three months, from 1 September to 24 November, to be exact, the thing was never turned off. I didn’t go mad, but I was near it, and I don’t even know if I’m normal now. On either side were people who – different faces every day, new ones kept coming and the old ones went. You saw these hangmen peeping through the door – when someone was hanged they were allowed to have his toilet articles – and you saw them looking to see what they could steal. They took his washing things, we’ll say he had a good piece of soap, and you saw them squinting at the soap. Then the next day the cell was empty, two hours later someone else was in it and the soap had been stolen.
Document 166
CSDIC (UK), GRGG 294
Report on information obtained from Senior Officers (PW) on 2–5 May 45 [TNA, WO 208/4177]
[Generalleutnant KIRCHHEIM on his broadcast appeal over Luxembourg Radio to Feldmarschall KEITEL to bring fighting to an end]
KIRCHHEIM: When it came to it, I told myself that there was still some point in it, because every day not only so-and-so many soldiers were dying, but also women and children. Then I said to myself: It’s necessary too that it should be officially stated in public that we have really had nothing to do with these appaling horrors. We didn’t know that 50,000, 100,000 – and in REVIN[475] there were two Generals, one of whom was General BRUNS, who was in the Ordnance Branch, and he said he himself had seen how 42,000 Jews were shot. He described that in the most dramatic, terrifying way. The second was a ‘Generalmajor’ from a Thuringian family, who had latterly been in command of a ‘Panzerkorps’,[476] and he said he had actually seen how 100 civilians in FRANCE were locked up in a church which was then set on fire. When I heard that I said: ‘HITLER must know about it, I won’t wear his Knight’s Cross any longer.’
KIRCHHEIM: I listened at the trial of a gentleman from the Foreign Office called TROTT ZU SOLZ; he behaved excellently.[477] For instance when he was asked whether he knew anything about the plot, he said: ‘Of course; I have admitted that on more than one occasion.’ He always stuck to that. Finally the presiding judge,[478] that infamous – who managed the first proceedings so frightfully roughly and brutally, and who said to HOEPNER:[479] ‘Well, you certainly are a swine’ – said to him finally: ‘How can you reconcile that with your obligation of loyalty to the FÜHRER?’ ‘Oh,’ he said, ‘a tie of loyalty has never existed between me and the FÜHRER.’ Finally he said: ‘Why, your honour, are you having all this questioning done at all? I have admitted everything and I know quite well that it is punishable by death. I was fully aware of that when I decided to take part in this plot.’ Then this man, who had treated the others so roughly, said: ‘Well, even if you refuse to continue your defence, this court, which really wants to find out the truth, will not agree to it. We want to find out the exact motives, in order that we might perhaps be able to pronounce a milder sentence after all.’ Then came a ‘Major’ from the reserve, who was acquitted; then a third on whom judgment was deferred. Then came the Police President of BERLIN, Graf HELLDORF,[480] and then unfortunately I had to go. I didn’t hear his trial.
471
Ernst August Prinz von Hannover (1914–87) during the Russian campaign an Oberleutnant on Staff, Pz.Gr.4 (Generaloberst Hoepner). Severely wounded at Kharkov in the spring of 1943, he was arrested after 20 July and spent a few weeks at Gestapo HQ.
473
Hjalmar Schacht (22.1.1877–3.6.1970), 1933–39 President, Reichbank; 1934–37 Reich Economy Minister; 1935–37 General Plenipotentiary for the War Economy; until 1944 Reich Minister without Portfolio. He was in touch with the conspiracy from 1938. Arrested 23.7.1944 and taken directly to Ravensbrück; 31.8.1944 transferred to Gestapo HQ where according to his own testimony he remained four months before being sent to Flossenbürg. Schacht, ‘Abrechnung mit Hitler’.
474
Franz Halder was arrested at Aschau, 21.7.1944 and delivered to Ravensbrück three days later. He spent the period 7.10.1944–7.2.1945 in the Gestapo HQ dungeons. Schall-Riaucour, ‘Aufstand und Gehorsam’, pp. 329–32.
475
Revin, town in northern France where the US Army had an interrogation camp for a short while.
476
Which Generalmajor commanded a panzer korps in the spring of 1945 is not known. The details are too general to identify whom Kirchheim meant here.
477
Kirchheim was speaking of the trials of: Oberstleutnant Bernhard Klamroth, Major (Reserve) Hans-Georg Klamroth, Major Egbert Hayessen, Legationsrat Adam Trott zu Solz, Legationsrat Bernd von Haeften and SA-Gruppenführer Wolf Graf von Helldorf before the People’s Court on 15.8.1944. All six accused were sentenced to death. Adam von Trott zu Solz (9.8.1909–26.9.1944) worked in the information section at the Foreign Ministry and acted as an intermediary between the conspiracy and overseas. He was arrested 26.7.1944. Execution of his sentence of death was delayed for over a month. For the trials of 15.8.1944 see Wagner, ‘Volksgerichtshof, pp. 601–67; Würmling, ‘Adam Trott zu Solz’.
478
Roland Freisler (30.10.1893–3.2.1945), 1933 Secretary of State, Reich Justice Ministry, from 1942, President, People’s Court.