SEYSS-INQUART: I am not informed on that point. I can see from this document that we are talking about hostages from Michelsgestel. I do not recall that hostages were taken from this camp. But in the circumstances it may have been possible, for this was an actual hostage case.
M. DEBENEST: No. I am not asking you whether hostages were taken from the camp of Michelsgestel. I am asking you, in the case of the execution of the hostages of Rotterdam, whether one was not arrested on the eve of the execution and shot the next day?
SEYSS-INQUART: I do not know.
M. DEBENEST: I will give you the name. Maybe that will help you remember the case: Baron Schimmelpennink.
SEYSS-INQUART: As far as I recall Baron Schimmelpennink came from Zeeland. But I do not know any more than that.
M. DEBENEST: You do not know under what conditions he was arrested, and why?
SEYSS-INQUART: No; I know only that a Baron Schimmelpennink was among those five hostages who were shot.
M. DEBENEST: You therefore do admit that numerous executions followed the setting up of the summary justice courts in the Netherlands by you?
SEYSS-INQUART: No. That is certainly not the case. For these shootings, from the middle of 1944 onward, cannot be traced to my directives and my summary justice courts, but rather to a direct decree of the Führer.
M. DEBENEST: You therefore claim that there was not a single case of execution as a result of your order of 1 May 1943?