Before answering the question to what extent Sievers could involve third persons, I have to sketch in a few lines the tactics of Hielscher and the position of Sievers.
It was not in vain that Hielscher himself gave full particulars on this question. We also heard other witnesses, Dr. Borkenau, Dr. Topf. Sievers clearly outlined his tasks. All this evidence is in such unanimous agreement that no doubt of its truth could arise.
Hielscher was one of the first and few people who realized that the way to take measures against the system could be only from within the ranks of the party itself. He had gained the firm conviction that a prospect of success could be seen only by doing away with the heads of the Nazi Government and assuming the government from the top and that nothing, nothing at all, was to be anticipated from a revolution of the people from below. A revolution of such a kind would have been of no avail, as it would very quickly have been stifled in torrents of blood.
The knowledge of these facts required four groups of measures to be taken, the particulars of which Hielscher detailed on 15 April:
Preparation of the undertaking by a well-camouflaged organization of trusted men and spies within the ranks of the NSDAP, i.e., the Trojan Horse policy.
Placing suitable courageous men in positions as near as possible to leading personages of Nazism, the most dangerous of whom was Himmler.
Doing away with Himmler and other leaders of the Nazi Government upon a given cue.
Taking over the government by an organization prepared in advance.
In spite of all liberty of action granted to the “activists” of his group, Hielscher had realized that success could only be expected if everybody, in strict discipline, obeyed his orders only. This was the only way for him to hold the reins and to give the cue at the right moment. Here I must emphasize that within the scope of this indispensable discipline, Sievers in all details acted in complete unison with Hielscher, that in all important moments he described the real state of affairs and asked for his instructions. In this way Hielscher obtained ample information of everything enacted around Sievers and of what Sievers did himself. Sievers was nothing but the tool in the hands of the leader of the movement. Therefore, your Honors, your verdict affects Sievers’ commissioner, Hielscher, in just the same way as Sievers himself. Hielscher is condemned together with Sievers, as he is acquitted with Sievers. With the same courage of responsibility with which he placed Sievers and other accomplices in most dangerous positions, Hielscher could declare at the end of his evidence that he not only took but also claimed the whole responsibility for all the deeds with which his follower Sievers would be charged as a result in this trial.
Hielscher sketches the task of Sievers as follows: In the belly of the Trojan horse, i.e., under the color of eager and enthusiastic cooperation his duty would be (a) to scout and to spy, (b) profiting by his influence, to place other persons in similar positions for the same purposes, or in places where they would be given the possibility of working undisturbed, (c) to back endangered members of the resistance movement and if possible to rescue them, and finally (d) to do away with Himmler at the moment of action.