SCHMIDT: It cannot be described like that. That was not the case. We had to negotiate the details with Ribbentrop. Hitler had stated that we should discuss the detail together with the experts.
MR. DODD: Well, could it be that you do not realize it yet? Are you sure that that was not the situation, or is it only that you have not realized it to this day?
SCHMIDT: About what?
MR. DODD: That situation that I suggested—that you were being maneuvered between the good man and the bad man.
SCHMIDT: No.
MR. DODD: Well, if you do not understand, I do not think we need to go on with it.
Now, how late did you stay there that day, and what time did you leave Berchtesgaden?
SCHMIDT: In the late hours of the evening. It must have been between 9 and 10, as far as I remember.
MR. DODD: And when you got back to Vienna, did you tell Seyss-Inquart about what had happened in Berchtesgaden?
SCHMIDT: First of all there was a conference between Zernatto and Seyss-Inquart in which Zernatto gave Seyss-Inquart an exact picture of the situation, since Zernatto had been informed by the Federal Chancellor as well as by myself. Later I joined in this conversation. However, I had the impression that most of the description was already over and only details were still being mentioned.