“I should, therefore, be grateful if you could soon find the occasion to point out positively that up to today”—that was 14 July—“I have loyally stood by and fought for you, your leadership, and your work for Germany.”
Now, Defendant, do you deny what I put to you a moment ago, that all you wanted was your loyalty to the regime to be made clear to the world? It was not worrying you at all that Von Schleicher and his wife, and Von Bose, and Jung, and all these other people had been murdered by the Government of the Reich; otherwise, why did you write a letter like that?
VON PAPEN: I wrote this letter, as the letter itself shows, because I was still being accused of having agreed to the attempts on the lives of Goebbels and Göring and of various other conspiracies. That is the reason why it was important to me to have Chancellor Hitler state that I was not involved in any conspiracies against him in connection with the various actions of this revolt. Of course, first of all I dealt in this letter with my position and the position of my associates. The restoration of General Von Schleicher’s honor was the task of the Army, and not my task.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Yes, I will come to that when we deal with the Army, but at the moment, you see, what I am putting to you is this: That even after you knew that your own friends had been murdered, to say nothing of your old colleagues, your own friends had been murdered, you again and again protest your loyalty and the fact that you had always worked and co-operated with Hitler in all his work. Was that honest? Is what is contained in these letters honest, or do you say they were just lies in order to protect yourself?
VON PAPEN: No, I wrote that because, in fact, the entire action against me, Himmler’s attempt to murder me, the fact that I was arrested, were all based on the supposition that I had participated in a conspiracy against Hitler’s Government. It had therefore to be clarified that as long as I was a member of this Government, I had acted toward it with absolute loyalty. That is the reason why I was asking for this clarification.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Do you remember your learned counsel, on your instructions, putting an interrogatory to Baron von Lersner? It is Number 2(a) on Page 212 of Defense Document Book 3, Question 2(a):
“Did the Defendant Von Papen continue to hope to change Hitler’s policy to his own way of thinking by impregnating it with conservative ideas, until the murders taking place on 30 June 1934 and Hitler’s justification of them had convinced him that his efforts and his hope had been in vain?”
And Baron von Lersner, not unnaturally, answers “yes” to that question.
Does that correctly express your point of view “....until the murders taking place on 30 June 1934 and Hitler’s approval of them had convinced him....”—that is you—“that your efforts and your hopes had been in vain”? Do you agree with that? It is an interrogatory put by your own learned counsel.
VON PAPEN: Yes, I agree with that.