DR. SERVATIUS: Witness, as Commander of Submarines, you did once have some official contact with Sauckel?
DÖNITZ: No, not official but private.
DR. SERVATIUS: What was the occasion?
DÖNITZ: A submarine, which was to go into the Atlantic for 8 weeks, had reported to me that it had been discovered after leaving port that Gauleiter Sauckel had crept aboard. I immediately sent a radio message ordering the submarine to turn back and put him on the nearest outpost steamer.
DR. SERVATIUS: What was Sauckel’s motive?
DÖNITZ: No doubt a belligerent one. He wanted to go to sea again.
DR. SERVATIUS: But he was a Gauleiter. Did he not have particular reasons in order to show that he too was ready to fight in the war and did not want to remain behind?
DÖNITZ: It surprised me that he, as a Gauleiter, should want to go to sea; but, at any rate, I considered that here was a man who had his heart in the right place.
DR. SERVATIUS: You believe that his motives were idealistic?
DÖNITZ: Certainly. Nothing much can be got out of a submarine trip.