THE PRESIDENT: There is neither any charge nor any issue about this.
DR. DIX: That is quite correct, Your Lordship, but I thought it would be helpful to touch upon these things. But we are now at the end, and will come to the Reichsbank presidency from 1933 on.
[Turning to the witness.] After his short period of retirement Schacht again became President of the Reichsbank in 1933. Did you have any conversations with him about his relations to Hitler and to the Party?
VOCKE: Yes.
DR. DIX: Would you like to describe to the Tribunal the kind of statements Schacht made to you?
VOCKE: First, I would like to mention two conversations which I remember almost word for word. During the period when Schacht was not in office, that is about three years, I hardly ever saw him, maybe three or four times at occasions at the Wilhelmstift. He never visited me, nor did I visit him, except once, when Schacht came into the bank—maybe he had some business there—and visited me in my office. We at once...
DR. DIX: When was that?
VOCKE: That must have been in 1932, a comparatively short time before the seizure of power. We immediately began to speak about political questions, about Hitler and Schacht’s relations to Hitler. I used that opportunity to warn Schacht seriously against Hitler and the Nazis. Schacht said to me: “Herr Vocke, one must give this man or these people a chance. If they do no good, they will disappear. They will be cleared out in the same way as their predecessors.”
I told Schacht: “Yes, but it may be that the harm done to the German people in the meantime will be so great that it can never be repaired.”
Schacht did not take that very seriously, and with some light remark, such as: You are an old pessimist, or something like that, he left.