THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
DR. EXNER: It says, on 3 February:
“General Thomas reports that the liaison officer to the Ministry of Economy ... Lieutenant Colonel Drews, visited him by order of Schacht. He was of the opinion that the SS would employ all means to cast suspicion on the Wehrmacht and to force it to the wall in its present weak state.”
Then it says under the date of 10 February:
“Himmler is said to be distressed that senior officers of the Wehrmacht had made unheard of accusations against him.”
Then perhaps one other passage; from the next document, on Page 4 of the document book, again the same diary, Document Number 1809-PS, the entry of 25 May 1940:
“The plan for the unlimited expansion of the SS sounds generally suspicious.”
Did you, even at that time, have misgivings about the dangers of this dualism that you just mentioned?
JODL: As a man very well versed in history, I had many misgivings about this. Not only did I have misgivings, but even during the war I quite openly expressed these misgivings to Himmler and Bormann.
DR. EXNER: How did it come about that Himmler acquired more and more influence in military spheres?