MR. DODD: Herr Puhl, look up at me a minute, will you. Didn’t you tell Lieutenant Meltzer, Lieutenant Margolis, and Dr. Kempner, when they were all together with you, that all of this business with the SS was common gossip in the Reichsbank? These gentlemen who are sitting right here, two of them at the United States table and one up here. You know them. Now I want you to think a minute before you answer that question.
PUHL: We talked of the fact that the secret was not kept, and in the long run it is not possible to keep a permanent secret in a bank; but that has nothing to do with it. What we were speaking of just now were the technical details, how this sort of transaction was carried out; those details did not become general knowledge. What naturally could not be avoided was the transaction as such becoming known.
MR. DODD: Now, in case you don’t understand me, we are not talking about that. I think you cannot help but remember because this is only a day or so ago, and in this building, you had a conversation with these gentlemen, didn’t you? And I am now asking you if it isn’t a fact that you told them that this whole SS transaction with the bank was common gossip in the bank.
PUHL: There was a general whisper in the bank about this transaction; but details were, of course, not known.
MR. DODD: Are you worried about your part in this? I think that is a fair question in view of your affidavit in your testimony. Are you concerned about what you had to do with this business? Are you?
PUHL: No. I myself, once the matter had been set in motion, had nothing further to do with it. And in the statement, which you have submitted, Herr Thoms himself admits that he did not see me at all for months. The Directorate never discussed this matter in its meetings and was never approached for a decision.
MR. DODD: You know, when the Defendant Funk was on the stand, he said that you were the one who first told him about the SS business. Is that your version of it?
PUHL: No. My recollection is that the first conversation took place in the office of President Funk; and he told me, for reasons which I stated earlier, that we wanted to oblige the SS by taking over these “deposits”—that was the word used.
MR. DODD: You put it more strongly than that the other day when you thought about it, when you said “Can you imagine Himmler talking to me instead of Funk”? Do you remember saying that to these gentlemen?
PUHL: I’m sorry I didn’t understand the last question.