VON NEURATH: Yes, yes.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Did you know that in April 1933 both these newspapers were full of the most terrible stories of the ill-treatment of Jews, Social Democrats, and Communists in Germany?
VON NEURATH: Yes, that is quite possible. I cannot remember it any more now; but those were certainly the very cases which I brought up before Hitler, drawing his attention to the effect that this was having abroad.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Well, I just want to consider the extent which these papers were alleging. As early as the 12th of April 1933 the Manchester Guardian was saying:
“The inquirer, by digging only an inch below the surface, which to the casual observer may seem tranquil enough, will, in city after city, village after village, discover such an abundance of barbarism committed by the Brown Shirts that modern analogies fail...”—describing them as an instrument—“...of a Terror that although wanton is systematic—wanton in the sense that unlike a revolutionary Terror it is imposed by no outward necessity, and systematic in the sense that it is an organic part of the Hitlerite regime.”
Did you know that this and quotations like these were appearing in responsible British papers?
My Lord, that is D-911, which is the collection of extracts and, with Mr. Wurm’s affidavit, will be Exhibit GB-512.
[Turning to the defendant.] Did you know that was the line that was being taken, that it was systematic in the sense of being an organic part of the Hitler regime?
VON NEURATH: No, in that sense certainly not.
SIR DAVID MAXWELL-FYFE: Did you know that the British paper, the Manchester Guardian, was quoting, “...an eminent German conservative, who is in close touch with the Nationalist members of the German Government, and certainly more sympathetic to the Right than to the Left...” has given the number of victims as 20,000—as many as 20,000 in April? Did you know that the figure was being put that high?