THE PRESIDENT: General Zorya, the Tribunal observes that you are about to read a deposition of General Warlimont, who, the Tribunal understands, is in Nuremberg, and the Tribunal considers that, in accordance with the order that it made the other day in another case, in the case of another deposition, that if the defendants’ counsel desired, and you wish to use this deposition, you ought to be prepared to allow General Warlimont to be submitted to the defendants’ counsel for cross-examination.
GEN. ZORYA: I am about to read into the record an extract from the interrogation of General Warlimont. This interrogation was carried out by General Alexandrov of the Soviet Prosecution, and if the Defense desires to call General Warlimont for cross-examination here before the Tribunal, the Soviet Prosecution will do its utmost to satisfy this request.
THE PRESIDENT: That is, of course, on the supposition that I am right to saying that General Warlimont is in Nuremberg—available in Nuremberg. Go on.
GEN. ZORYA: I am definitely of the opinion that it would be useful, when establishing the actual moment of the beginning of military operations for the attack on the Soviet Union, to resort not to documents only—for not everything is always put down in writing—but to revert to the testimony of people who participated directly in the realization of these preparations.
I should now like to pass on to those depositions of Walter Warlimont which you, Mr. President, have just mentioned. These depositions were given by Warlimont on 13 November 1945. I am presenting them as evidence under Document Number USSR-263.
Walter Warlimont, as is known, was the Chief of the Department of National Defense in the OKW, and later Deputy Chief of the Operational Staff.
I shall read into the Record that part of his deposition which touches on the question before us. I ask you to turn to Page 2 of the Russian text of this document, which is on Page 20 in the bundle of documents presented by the Russian Prosecution on the question, and the answers to questions put to Warlimont:
“Personally, I first heard of this plan”—that is Plan Barbarossa—“on 29 July 1940. On that day General Jodl arrived in a special train at Bad Reichenhall, where Department ‘L’ of the Operational Staff was stationed. Hitler was in Berchtesgaden. This struck us immediately, because General Jodl had, till then, hardly ever, I believe, come to see us. Besides myself, the three other senior officers were ordered to be present.”
I now skip several lines and pass on to Page 3 of the minutes of Warlimont’s interrogation; this will be Page 21 in the bundle of documents:
“I cannot repeat his statements verbatim. The meaning was as follows: Jodl said that the Führer had decided to prepare for war against Russia. The Führer justified this by saying that war had to come one way or another, so that it would be better to prosecute this war in connection with the one already being fought, and, in any case, to start the necessary preparations for it.”