Q. Do you know that Sievers informed you about Himmler’s double play in the case of the minister Popitz, and that as a consequence he saved that entire group against measures by Himmler?
A. Yes. The following thing happened. One day Sievers approached me and said that he had just heard Himmler ridicule in a close circle an attempt on the part of Popitz. He said that Minister Popitz with the mediation of the lawyer Lampe had approached Himmler and tried to persuade him to bring about a change of the National Socialist system, perhaps by removing Hitler. He said Himmler thought it was very funny that these men had so little sense as to think of him in that connection. Thank God one could enter negotiations with them because certainly nobody in the country was behind these people, but it did seem that these gentlemen had many foreign political relationships and it would be advisable to find out what in effect was behind it all and to enter into negotiations with them. We were quite surprised about the naive attitude shown by Himmler, and I sent Deutelmoser to Reichwein whom I knew had connections with Popitz. In that way Popitz was warned. Reichwein was so surprised and hardly wanted to believe the situation.
I was asked to participate in a conference, and Reichwein after having convinced himself that all of this was true promised to warn all of the gentlemen concerned in Berlin and then asked Deutelmoser, who was to go to Norway shortly thereafter to notify Reichwein’s friend, Stelzer, the present Minister President of Schleswig-Holstein, in order to see that he, too, took the necessary precautionary measures. In this way we hoped that a number of these people had actually been saved. Popitz, however, himself was careless and was captured.
Q. This conspiracy could not have been carried out unless you had the necessary financial means at your disposal. How did you get these means?
A. Everyone of our people, be it man or woman, had agreed to give up ten percent of their monthly income for that illegal work. Many gave a substantially larger sum.
Q. How about Sievers?
A. Sievers gave more than he had to.
Q. Do you know the case of the three hundred Norwegian students who on the basis of Sievers’ intervention were released from the concentration camp Buchenwald?
A. Yes. Terboven, or some other official in Norway, disliked some demonstration which occurred there, and as a result arrested three hundred students. Through some dark channels they were brought into the concentration camp at Buchenwald. Sievers found out about that, and if I remember correctly, he was in a position to see to it that these students were released from the concentration camp, making use of Himmler’s Nordic ideas to this end.
Q. In that case you think that Sievers’ activity was substantially important for your resistance movement?