Then come the “Personal Data;” and I am now quoting literally from Figure 2:
“I was employed as private secretary of the Führer’s Deputy, Rudolf Hess, in Munich, from 17 October 1933 until his flight to England on 10 May 1941.
“Beginning in the summer of 1940—I cannot remember the exact time—I had, by order of Hess, to obtain secret weather reports about weather conditions over the British Isles and the North Sea, and to forward them to Hess. I received the reports from a Captain Busch. In part I also received reports from Miss Sperr, the secretary of Hess with his liaison staff in Berlin.
“Hess left a letter behind on his departure by air for England, which was handed to the Führer at a time when Hess had already landed in England. I read a copy of this letter. The letter began with words more or less like this:
“ ‘My Führer; when you receive this letter, I shall be in England.’ I do not remember the exact wording of the letter. Hess occupied himself in the letter mainly with the proposals which he wanted to submit to England in order to achieve peace. I can no longer remember the details of the proposed settlement. I can however state definitely that no word was mentioned about the Soviet Union or about the idea that a peace treaty should be concluded with England in order to have the rear free on another front. If this had been discussed in the letter, it certainly would have been impressed upon my memory. From the content of the letter the definite impression was to be gained that Hess undertook this extraordinary flight in order to prevent further bloodshed, and in order to create favorable conditions for the conclusion of a peace.
“In my capacity as secretary of long standing, I have come to know Rudolf Hess quite well and his attitude towards certain questions. If I am told now that, in a letter of the Reich Minister of Justice to the Reich Minister and Chief of the Reich Chancellery, Dr. Lammers, of 17 April 1941, it was mentioned that the Führer’s Deputy had discussed the introduction of corporal punishment against Poles in the annexed Polish territories, I cannot believe that this attitude of the department headed by Hess was due to any personal decision of his. Such a proposal would be totally contradictory to the behavior and attitude which the Führer’s Deputy displayed with regard to similar questions on other occasions.”
I shall refrain from reading the affidavit of the witness Ingeborg Sperr, Page 166 of the document book.
From the first two volumes of the document book I wish still, as I have already said, to read only parts from a discussion between Hess and Lord Simon. However, in order to prevent the report of this discussion from being interrupted, I ask permission of the Tribunal to read this document to the Tribunal next Monday?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, certainly. You mean not to go on any more now?
DR. SEIDL: With the permission of the Tribunal, I shall stop now.