DR. STEINBAUER: But perhaps you may know that he prevented the destruction of the synagogues in Rotterdam and in The Hague. The police wanted to destroy them, and he prevented them from doing it. Do you know anything about that?
VORRINK: I do not know whether he wanted to prevent it; but in any case, the synagogues were destroyed; and those who destroyed them went unpunished and later took part in the worst persecution of the Jews.
DR. STEINBAUER: Witness, do you know that out of the Catholic and Protestant Dutch clergymen deported to Germany, Seyss-Inquart succeeded in getting two-thirds sent back to their country?
VORRINK: I do not know.
DR. STEINBAUER: Do you know that he prevented the departure of valuable cultural treasures, especially libraries, which were already prepared for transportation from Holland to the Reich?
VORRINK: I do not know whether he used his personal influence in that respect; I only know that enormous quantities of our art treasures and books were taken away by the Germans, and in any case he was then powerless to prevent it.
DR. STEINBAUER: You said also that the radio was prohibited because it stimulated the organization of resistance. As a leader, would you have allowed a radio speaking against you?
VORRINK: I would by all means allow the radio. I am of the opinion that there can be no human dignity if people are not allowed to form their opinions by hearing reasons for and against.
DR. STEINBAUER: Was Mussert given the task of forming a government, or was that not done because Seyss-Inquart objected?
VORRINK: I really do not know what happened behind the scenes, but perhaps you may be right that Seyss-Inquart was no friend of Mussert. While in prison I was taken out of my cell one night and asked to write an article on the National Socialist movement in Holland, and I was requested to give my own personal opinion about Mussert. When I answered, ‘Why should I do this? You know what I think of Mussert and of all the Nazis,’ they said: ‘You cannot make it bad enough.’ I took this to be one of the many machinations of the Nazi cliques which fought against each other.