THOMS: No. During my term of service, I never had an opportunity of talking to Minister Funk.
DR. SAUTER: Have you any positive knowledge, perhaps from some other source, as to whether President of the Reichsbank Funk had exact knowledge of these things, or is that also unknown to you?
THOMS: I cannot say anything about that either, because these matters happened on a higher level, which I could not judge.
DR. SAUTER: Then I would be interested in hearing something about this deposit, or whatever you call it, which was under the name “Melmer”?
THOMS: I want to point out that this was not a deposit, but that these were deliveries which were delivered under the name “Melmer.” Insofar as the transactions were those which the Reichsbank had to deal with, the Reichsbank took over these articles directly, and insofar as it was a question of matters not pertaining to the bank, the Reichsbank to a certain extent was the trustee for the conversion of these things.
DR. SAUTER: More slowly, more slowly. Why was this matter, whether we call it a deposit or anything else, not dealt with under the name “SS,” why was it given the name “Melmer”? Did you ask anybody about that, Witness?
THOMS: I have already mentioned at the beginning of the examination that this was a particularly secret affair in connection with which the name of the depositor was not to appear. In this case, therefore, it was Vice President Puhl who had to decide the way this affair was to be dealt with; and he desired and ordered this.
DR. SAUTER: Did only officials of the Reichsbank come to the strong-room where these things were kept, or did other persons also have access to it, for instance, people who had a safe in the strong-room?
THOMS: The Reichsbank did not have any private depositors, that is to say, we did not have any locked deposits which belonged to customers of the Reichsbank—at least not in those vaults. Deposits from private customers were in another vault so that there was no contact between the deposits of the bank and the deposits of the customers.
DR. SAUTER: But quite a number of officials went down there. You have already said that.