That is, of course, Raeder’s note; and it indicates the extent of his contact in this conspiracy. The report continues:
“On the grounds of the Führer’s discussion with Quisling and Hagelin on the afternoon of the 14th of December 1939, the Führer gave the order that preparations for the Norwegian operation were to be made by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
“Until that moment the naval operations staff had taken no part in the development of the Norwegian question and continued to be somewhat skeptical about it. The preparations which were undertaken by Captain Krancke in the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces were founded, however, on a memorandum of the naval war staff.”
The Court may well think that the note of the Defendant Raeder referring to the crucial moment was an appropriate one because the Court will see that on that day, the 14th of December, Hitler gave the order that preparations for the Norwegian operation were to be begun by the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces.
If the Court will now turn to Document 007-PS, which is further on in the document book and which the Court will remember is Rosenberg’s report on the activities of his organization—it is after the “D” documents—if the Court will turn to about 10 lines from the bottom of the first page of Annex I dealing with Norway, the Court will see that there were further meetings between Quisling and the Nazi chiefs in December; and I am going to read now the section beginning:
“As a result of these steps Quisling was granted a personal audience with the Führer on the 16th of December, and once more on the 18th of December. In the course of this audience the Führer emphasized repeatedly that he personally would prefer a completely neutral attitude of Norway as well as of the whole of Scandinavia. He did not intend to enlarge the theater of war and to draw still other nations into the conflict.”
As I have said in opening the presentation of this part of the case, here was an instance where pressure had to be brought to bear on Hitler to induce him to take part in these operations.
The report continues:
“Should the enemy attempt”—there is a mis-translation here—“to extend the war, however, with the aim of achieving further throttling and intimidation of the Greater German Reich, he would be compelled to gird himself against such an undertaking. In order to counterbalance increasing enemy propaganda activity, the Führer promised Quisling financial support of this movement, which is based on Greater Germanic ideology. Military exploitation of the question now raised was assigned to the special military staff which transmitted special missions to Quisling. Reichsleiter Rosenberg was to take over political exploitation. Financial expenses were to be defrayed by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs”—that is to say, by Ribbentrop’s organization—“the Minister for Foreign Affairs”—that is to say, Ribbentrop—“being kept continuously informed by the Foreign Affairs Bureau”—which, of course, was Rosenberg’s organization.