COL. POKROVSKY: I want to ask him one question, My Lord, and I must explain to him why I am asking this question.
[Turning to the defendant.] I consider this order a revelation of your loyalty, your fanatical loyalty, to fascism; and in this connection I want to ask you whether you consider that it was because of the fact that you showed yourself to be a fanatical follower of fascism and fascist ideas that Hitler chose you to be his successor—because you were known to Hitler as a fanatical follower who was capable of inciting the Army to any crime in the spirit of the Hitlerite conspirators and that you would still call these crimes pure idealism. Do you understand my question?
DÖNITZ: Well, I can only answer to that that I do not know. I have already explained to you that the legitimate successor would have been the Reich Marshal; but through a regrettable misunderstanding a few days before his appointment, he was no longer in the game, and I was the next senior officer in command of an independent branch of the Wehrmacht. I believe that was the determining factor. That fact that the Führer had confidence in me may also have had something to do with it.
COL. POKROVSKY: The Soviet Prosecution, My Lord, has no more questions to ask of this defendant.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Kranzbühler, do you want to re-examine?
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: I should like to put a few more questions, Mr. President.
[Turning to the defendant.] Admiral, during the cross-examination by Sir David you were asked about your knowledge of conditions in concentration camps; and you wanted to make an additional statement, which you could not do at the time. What personal connections did you have with any inmates of concentration camps, or did you have any connections at all?
DÖNITZ: I had no connections with anybody who had been sent to a concentration camp; with the exception of Pastor Niemöller. Pastor Niemöller was a former comrade of mine from the Navy. When my last son was killed, he expressed his sympathy; and on that occasion I asked him how he was.
FLOTTENRICHTER KRANZBÜHLER: When was that?
DÖNITZ: That was in the summer of 1944, and I received the answer that he was all right.