DR. STEINBAUER: At the end of 1944 and early in 1945 there was a large-scale operation to deport all the men in Holland able to bear arms. Was that operation directed by the Reich Commissioner or by a different office?
WIMMER: That was an operation by the Reich, primarily an operation by the Armed Forces.
DR. STEINBAUER: Why did that operation take place?
WIMMER: It took place because during those critical times there were objections to the fact that men who were able to bear arms remained in Holland. First, because a large number of former prisoners of war who were released by order of the Führer in 1940 were later on mostly brought back to the Netherlands and a part of them remained there. Secondly, the resistance movements increased greatly during that time, and so it was stated that, from the military point of view, the responsibility of leaving those people able to bear arms in the Netherlands could not be assumed.
DR. STEINBAUER: Did the Reich Commissioner, in order to moderate that operation, issue so-called “release certificates” (Freistellungsscheine)?
WIMMER: Yes.
DR. STEINBAUER: Did not a part escape this operation by way of the Allocation of Labor?
WIMMER: As far as I know, yes; but I have no detailed knowledge of it.
DR. STEINBAUER: Do you know what happened to the diamonds confiscated after the battle of Arnhem?
WIMMER: These diamonds were placed in safety in Arnhem, during artillery fire, by a German office, the Economic Testing Office I believe, and then after some time they were taken to Berlin, from where, as indeed I learned in Holland, after the surrender they were brought back to Amsterdam again.