M. DEBENEST: You discussed this beforehand?
SEYSS-INQUART: I wrote a letter as well. I believe the enclosure to my letter to the Finance Minister, which was mentioned just now, contains the proposal that this property be given to the Party.
M. DEBENEST: Did you not threaten to let the people of the Netherlands starve as a result of the railroad strike in September 1944?
SEYSS-INQUART: You can look upon it as a threat, but in any event I described it as very probable.
M. DEBENEST: You asked the secretary general to stop this strike?
THE PRESIDENT: M. Debenest, the Tribunal would like to have further investigation as to who ordered the confiscation of the Freemasons’ property.
Defendant, do you know who ordered the confiscation?
SEYSS-INQUART: Yes, I do. The confiscation was ordered by Heydrich and was set in motion by the Police. Then a trustee of the Party started the actual liquidation and at that stage I took it over and transmitted it to my offices.
M. DEBENEST: At what date was this liquidation ordered?
SEYSS-INQUART: In the first few months. The whole thing went very rapidly. It was only a matter of weeks.