GÖRING: I knew him.
DR. MERKEL: Did you know that he and his immediate associates came from the Bavarian Political Police, as it existed before 1933?
GÖRING: I did not know that; I knew only that he came from Bavaria.
DR. MERKEL: Do you know that the Secret State Police did not take part in the disturbances on 9 November 1938?
GÖRING: It has always been my conviction that they did not take part in them. I saw a document here which instructed them not to intervene. I do not believe that they took part.
DR. MERKEL: If I understood you correctly, you said recently that on this 9th of November, after your return to Berlin, you at once called up the chief of the Gestapo. Did you make this call only because you wanted more precise information, or did you make it because you thought the Gestapo had taken an active part in these disturbances, had organized them and carried them out?
GÖRING: If I had been convinced that the Gestapo had instigated the disturbances I would certainly not have asked them for information. I gave the order to my collaborators through the police, and in this case through the Gestapo, because they had the necessary connections, or to the criminal police—it was all the same to me. I could address myself only to the Chief of Police, who was Heydrich, and say that I wanted a report quickly on what had happened; a report which merely stated the facts.
DR. MERKEL: It is correct that when you gave up your position as Chief of the Police to Himmler you made the statement that it was unworthy of a German official to ill-treat prisoners, and that you would not fail to deal most severely with any officials who were guilty of such acts?
GÖRING: The speech I made on this occasion is known and it contains such passages.
DR. MERKEL: Do you know that there was an order from the Reich Security Main Office—that is, issued after your resignation—which forbade any official or employee of the state police, under threat of the most severe punishment, to beat prisoners or ill-treat them?