Comrade:Literallywho Ingodsname/sandbox

Testimony of ULRICH VON GIENANTH, taken at Nurnberg, Germany, 30 April 1946, by Mr. O. John Rogge, 1430 – 1700. Also present: Dr. R. M. W. Kempner; Mr. Paul Ertzinger; Piilani A. Ahuna, Court Reporter.

INDEX

My work for the German Library of Information in New York.......................1 – 7

My Duties as Attache of the Propaganda Ministry in Washington.....................8 – 14

The Financial Means at my Disposal.............14 – 17

My Position in Washington During the War..........18 – 21

Laura Ingalls........................21 – 23

Testimony of ULRICH VON GIENANTH, taken at Nurnberg, Germany, 30 April 1946, by Mr. O. John Rogge, 1430 – 1700. Also present: Dr. R. M. W. Kempner; Mr. Paul E. Ertzinger; Piilani A. Ahuna, Court Reporter.

(The interrogation was conducted in English.)

MY WORK FOR THE GERMAN LIBRARY OF INFORMATION IN NEW YORK

QUESTION BY MR. ROGGE:

Q: Now, Mr. Gienanth, will you tell us the full story of your activities in the United States during the time you served there as a representative of the German Government?

A: In February or March, 1935, I was engaged by the Propaganda Ministry to start a German library of information in New York in accordance with the proposal of the propaganda attache, Dr. Sallet, in Washington. I was engaged by the chief of the foreign division of the Propaganda Ministry, Mr. Hasenoerl, and Mr. von Feldmann, in charge of the American desk at this division.

I arrived in the States in April and found out upon my arrival that the German embassy in Washington and the Consul General in New York had not been informed about those plans and that they did not agree with — and therefore, did not agree with my plans. For this reason, I used my team at once to reorganize the Junior Year for American Students in Munich which kept me active until the end of July.

As this trouble with the Consulate and the Embassy went on, after a certain time in Washington I took a small apartment in New York somewhere about 85th West Street. The address can be found in the telephone book in New York. I forgot it.

In December, a member of the Propaganda Ministry who had..

Q: This is December 1935?

A: Yes, December 1935, a member of the Propaganda Ministry who had carried out a trip throughout the States for the organization of gramophone record archives had a conversation with the Consulate General and he finally agreed that I should move into the Consulate. Up to that time I had a large collection of books which had arrived from Berlin in my apartment and I had worked out some answers to questions which had come into the Consulate from the American public.

From spring, 1936, I had my own room in the Consulate, was a member of the Consulate, and had my own secretary. My work consisted of answering requests for information which came in from the public, such as questions from magazines like Time and Fortune, from newspapers, for encyclopedias and schools, etc. During that time I had — my correspondence with Germany was very large. Because we had no similar office in Berlin to collect the material for the library there, I had to correspond with all different kinds of Party offices, Government bureaus, private societies, etc. Besides that I still had a large, constant correspondence with the exchange students' service because I still helped the Junior Year along with advice and help.

In the summer of 1936 and 37 I spent some time in Germany and in the summer of 1937 I was appointed attache of the Propaganda Ministry in the Embassy as superior of the above mentioned Dr. Sallet. Until spring, 1938, I still had to direct the work of the library in New York myself besides my job as attache and I mostly spent two or three days in New York to do this work.

In spring, 1938, Mr. Beller who had been engaged by the Propaganda Ministry in Berlin came to New York and took over the library. In the course of his presence in New York, the library enlarged to a certain extent. Two secretaries, female secretaries, who were engaged by the Propaganda Ministry came to New York. Because Mr. Beller, however, did not do the work well enough, I asked Dr. Schmitz from Smith College to come in regular intervals to New York beginning in the winters of 1938 – 1939, to help Mr. Beller in drafting the answers and doing the work.

In May, 1939, the library information put out its first political publication by sending out the speech of Hitler which he gave at the end of April, in the form of pamphlets in the English language. In the spring of 1940, Mr. Beller returned to Germany at his own request. Dr. Schmitz, who was in Germany in the summer of 1939...

Q: This is Matthias Schmitz all the time?

A: Yes.

Q: You met the other Schmitz, didn't you?

A: Yes.

Q: Didn't you mention something about the meetings at his house?

A: No. At his house only once or twice.

Q: Didn't you know something about the money he spent?

A: I never saw his expenditure account.

Q: It was substantial.

A: Yes, I suppose so. He had quite an office and did quite a lot of work.

Q: it wasn't just tourist traffic.

A: What he did besides tourist traffic I don't know.

Q: It was on propaganda because I saw some of the reports which he submitted. I saw them.

A: If you mean those mimeographed reports, I saw those also, yes.

Q: No, I don't mean those. He wrote reports back copies of which are in the foreign office in the United States so I know he was engaged in propaganda activities and it seems to me that one engaged in the propaganda ministry should have known about that. How could he engage on propaganda in such a large scale and the embassy not know about it?

A: He was very secretive. He wanted to impress Berlin always as a very important man.

Q: You would call him an egotist?

A: yes.. He is the kind of a man who likes to boast about the things he did.

Q: He certainly did that with his written documents. If he did the things which he said he did his activities would reach such a scale I don't know how you did not learn about them. Well, go on with your story.

A: ...returned to New York in October and was made the second man in charge of the library. He was with Smith College by that time. After Mr. Beller had left, Dr. Schmitz became director of the library.

During the course of the war the library increased to a staff of about 30 employees. Should I tell you the names as far as I can remember them? They are on record on New York...

Q: I think for the time being we can leave them out. I think we have most of them.

A: Frankly, I couldn't give more than 5 or 6 altogether.

Q: That's all right, we can leave that for the time being.

A: This was a proof to me about how many names I have forgotten. The library information, during the war, worked one part for the foreign office and on the other part for the propaganda ministry. In this way the library was also financed and Dr. Schmitz personally had contact with the propaganda ministry before leaving Germany.

In the beginning, when he arrived, a new order had been issued by Hitler that all political propaganda in foreign countries was subject to the foreign office and not to the Propaganda Ministry. Therefore, all things in this line carried out by the library of information had to be financed and were financed by the foreign office. So far as I remember, by the Cultural Division in the foreign office, at the time under Mr. Altenburg.

Those subjects included first: Facts in Review; Second, all white books; third, Information on Political Problems, Salaries for people who worked for it, etc.; Fourth, cutting of records of the speeches of the German shortwave transmitters which sometimes were used as material for facts in review.

The cultural section of the library information was financed by money from the Propaganda Ministry. First, publication of bulletins on this subject, for instance, German forests; salaries connected with it, for instance, foreign scientists who had come from Japan — I don't know his name although he worked in the library for quite a while. Second, Kaspar David Frederick's book on this painter. Third, the section with films and gramophone records to be laid out.

Dr. Schmitz personally, as I mentioned, had a contact with the Propaganda Ministry. According to the order from Berlin concerning political propaganda, the Consulate General, upon order of the foreign office, made a contact with Schmitz on a higher salary but despite that Schmitz got his old salary from the Propaganda Ministry. The two secretaries who had been engaged during the time of Dr. Beller remained at the Consulate. Both of them returned during the war so far as I remember. They returned during the war before the end of diplomatic relations.

The additional amount which the library information got from the Propaganda Ministry came, so far as I guess, directly from Berlin upon proposal of Dr. Schmitz directly to Berlin. I don't know those details anymore. It's too far back. Dr. Schmitz certainly would know all the details about it.

Q: One of the things in which I am interested is the amount of money the German library of information got from Germany. It must have exceeded $50,000 in cash.

A: Altogether during the war?

Q: During the years 1940 and 1941.

A: I couldn't give you an answer on that as to whether that's correct, but I did not go into all the expenses of facts in review and for all of these other activities. If one goes into the expenses of these activities one should get quite a complete record on it. The Facts in Review was printed in New York and Schmitz must have known about it. I didn't hand the money over, it was handed over by Mr. von Strempel.

Q: He did. How did you know that?

A: I know because if I had to get some money personally I always had to tell von Strempel. That's what I remember. Maybe it came from Berlin directly too, I don't know.

Q: The money from the Embassy, the $60,000 I am talking about, Strempel carried to New York from time to time.

A: That's beyond my knowledge.

Q: That amazes me, but nevertheless, go ahead.

A: The accounting of the money which the library information spent for the propaganda ministry was countersigned by myself.

Q: Then how come you couldn't remember about this money that was sent by the Embassy?

A: I only know of the money from the propaganda ministry.

Q: You only countersigned for the money of the propaganda ministry?

A: Yes.

Q: Go ahead.

A: The amount of this money I do not remember in particular anymore. But, concerning the money spent in the first half year of 1941, I left in the safe in the Embassy in Washington, with my signature underneath, but with the name "Library Information" cut out with a scissors. I did that — I kept that statement there because we were not allowed to take any reports along to Germany. Neither did Schmitz when he returned, nor myself, and I wanted to be able to state, after the war, clearly how much money the Consulate had handed out to the library for the propaganda ministry, or vice versa, how much money the library of information had given back to the Consulate.