MR. DODD: I am going to ask you to look at another Document, Number EC-271, which will become Exhibit USA-841, and this document consists of a letter which you wrote to Lammers, a letter which Lammers wrote to the Chief of the High Command, Field Marshal Keitel, and one or two other letters not pertinent for the purposes of this present inquiry. It was written on 31 March 1938, and I want you to turn to the second page because that is where your letter appears. The first page is just a letter of transmittal from Lammers to Keitel, but let us look at the second page. Have you got it?
FUNK: Yes.
MR. DODD: You are writing to Lammers and you say—I am not going to read the whole letter, but the second paragraph. You wrote to Lammers and you say among other things:
“On the occasion of a trip to Austria I have, among other matters, also talked to Field Marshal Göring about the position of the Plenipotentiary for War Economy. I pointed out in this conversation that, contrary to the attitude of the OKW, of which I was informed, the decree of 4 February 1938 concerning the leadership of the Wehrmacht did not change the position of the Plenipotentiary for War Economy.”
And you go on—aside from the fact that the decree applied exclusively to the command of the Armed Forces, and so on, and that especially the last paragraph of that decree stated that you were dependent upon instructions of the Führer—to say:
“Moreover, among the instructions of the Führer is included the decision of the Reich Government of 21 May 1935, according to which the Plenipotentiary for War Economy, in his sphere of duty as supreme Reich authority, is immediately subordinated to the Führer.
“General Field Marshal Göring assured me that my interpretation, as mentioned above, was correct in every respect and also corresponds with the Führer’s opinion. Thereupon I asked him to give me a brief written confirmation. Field Marshal Göring promised to grant this request.”
Now, you wrote that letter to Lammers, did you not, on 31 March 1938, “yes” or “no?”
FUNK: Certainly.
MR. DODD: All right. You were trying to have supreme authority and make yourself answerable only to the Führer and that is what this contest was about, and that is what Document Number EC-271 referred to and this is your answer to the OKW’s objection that you had too much power. This does not look like you were a little man, does it, Mr. Witness?