I now invite the Court to look at Document C-64 which, for the purpose of the record, will be Exhibit GB-86. The Court will observe that that is a report by Raeder of a meeting of the Naval Staff with Hitler on the 12th of December 1939, at 1200 hours, in the presence of the Defendants Keitel and Jodl, and Puttkammer, who at this time was adjutant to Hitler.
The report is headed “Norwegian Question,” and the first sentence reads:
“Commander-in-Chief, Navy”—who of course was the Defendant Raeder—“has received Quisling and Hagelin. Quisling creates the impression of being reliable.”
And then there follows, in the next two paragraphs, a statement of Quisling’s views, views with which the Court is by now familiar because of my reading of extracts from the Document 007-PS; but I draw the Court’s attention to the fourth paragraph in Document C-64, beginning:
“The Führer thought of speaking to Quisling personally so that he might form an impression of him. He wanted to see Rosenberg once more beforehand, as the latter has known Quisling for a long while. Commander-in-Chief, Navy”—that is, of course, Raeder—“suggests that if the Führer forms a favorable impression, the OKW should obtain permission to make plans with Quisling for the preparation and carrying out of the occupation: (a) By peaceful means—that is to say, German forces summoned by Norway; (b) to agree to do so by force.”
That was the 12th of December, the meeting at which Raeder made this report to Hitler.
If the Court will now look at Document C-66, which is Raeder’s record of these transactions for the purpose of history, the Court will observe, in the last sentence of the second paragraph of the section of C-66 headed “(b) Weserübung,” these words:
“. . . thus we got in touch with Quisling and Hagelin, who came to Berlin at the beginning of December, and were taken to the Führer by me with the approval of Reichsleiter Rosenberg.”
And then the Court will observe a note at the end of the page:
“At the crucial moment R”—presumably Rosenberg—“hurt his foot, so that I visited him in his house on the morning of the 14th December.”