DR. GISEVIUS A WITNESS WHO IS NOT AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80M01009A000700970139-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 1, 2013
• Sequence Number: 139
• Publication Date: May 13, 1946
• Content Type: MISC

Declassified and Approved For Release 2013/11/04: CIA-RDP80M01009A000700970139-4
Dr.Gisev: ta witness who is not afraid to speak Out
NC.
fl
For the first time since Georing's theatrical and arrogant
appearance another man has turned up at the Nuremberg trial
who has been able to attract the attention of the world at
largeor at least of thinking people,to the trial of the war
oriminals.This man was not an acousedlan accuser or a judge,
but simply a witness - Dr.Hans Bern Gisevius.
How is that?
No doubt partly because Gisevius had extremely important
things to divulge,but above all in his person a German appears
as accuser in a deeper sense and thus undertakes the part
which Germans by rights ought to have undertaken from the out-
set Prom the beginning it has been the weak side of the Nur-
emberg trial that judges and accused were enemies but not
Germans.Owing to this the trial had become not only in the
eyes of the world and still more in those of the Germans,
whatever precautions may have been taken to secure every poss-
ibility of protecting and defending the accused,merely a kind
of judgment passed on a defeated enemy.
, There can be no doubt that National Socialism in the years
of its power was guilty of so much cruelty that it has no
right of itself to ask for mildness or even for justice.But
the fact that a triallat least when it is conducted on the
principles of a liberal humanity,is not just a matter concern-
ing the guilty and those awaiting condemnation,but also con-
cerns the judges and adousers.If they deviate from the path
of common equity they can sustain as much damage to their
souls,even more,than the accused for whom, inthis concrete
case,there is no room for pity.
The appearance of Dr.Gisevius as acouser,however,has tag-
ged the Nuremberg trial out of its previous vicious cirole,if
not formallylat least in conception.This was first and most
strongly felt by the accusedlespecially Goering,who resented
this witness immediately more than any foreign one,whom the
proud marshal simply faced proudlylimitating a German martyr.
It seems certain that this is due to the fact,that,as al-
ready stated,Gisevius is himself a German.Tall and heavy,often
loud in his humour,frequently,tooia bit arrogant and self-con-
scious,but always clever and incorruptible,Gisevius has not
remained for nothing a faithful friend and supporter of Past-
tor Niemdller,who started his career as submarine commander
and then,when his conscience called him; entered Christ's ser-
vice as an incorruptible combatant.
As son of a highly-placed administrative officiallGisevi-
us was born in Arisberg,Weetphalia in 1904.He attended school,
in Berlin and then the College of Lichterfeld.He studied law
In Marburg,Munich and Berlinland a few years before Hitler
came to power he became a junior barrister in the service of
Prussia.
In his book "Bis zum bittern Ende"(To the bitter end),the
second edition Of which has just been issued by Fretz 0 Was-
muth,Zurichland which enjoyed in the whole of Switzerland a
success such as hardly any book has had since the publication
of Bausohning's "Talks with Hitler," Gisevius writes of
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himself:In my attempt to embrace an official career I was
immediately caught into the revolutionary storms.They tossed
me into a number of different positions and I nearly perished
in them.I believe that I owe it to my dead friends and to my-
self to pet to paper my most significant experiences and im-
pressions.*
Giseviue has been reproached with the fact that his attit-
ude towards National Socialism has been very late in making
its appearance. A critic of his above mentioned book writes
in the "St.Galler Tagblatt":-"Ctto Strasser wrote his book
about June 30 in the winter of 1934,Konrad Heiden his work on
Hitler in 1935.These small and solitary persons threw down the
glove to the man of power.They opposed in full responsibility
their knowledge - however' bitter the bread of exile might
taste - to the comealmentsIthe anxiously kept secrets,the
smokescreen of camouflagedllying propaganda.And Gisevius,
this clever and sensible man? He only found the courage to
publish his book in 1946.This would have been a great achieve-
ment if it had hppeared ten years earlier."
Nothing could be more wrong than to depieciate the merits
of the books of Heiden and Strasser.Heiden's book is a clever,
far-seeing analysis of the world peril represented at that
time by Hitler and the Nazis.Strasser's *Deutsche Bartholomaua
nacht*(The German St.Bartholmey's Night)-often reveals the
anticipations of a man of genius of what was being brewed in
the third Reich for the destiny of the world at that time.All
the same the comparison of these two books with that of Gis-
evius is out of placelbecause men like Heiden and Strasser
wished to be writers,journalists and pamphleteers in the beat
sense of the word,while Gisevius by his origin and in his be-
ing was a clever policeman,a courageous and clear-sighted
official who was elide to do his best in the given circumstan-
ces;never in the role of an agitator but only In that of an
active adversary and conspirator.
And he played this part bravely.He whoothanks to his pos-
itionowas able to travel abroad,undertook the perialous office
of a liaison officer between the German opposition and the
Allies,especially the Americans.When he returned to Germany
before July 30 his friends in Switzerland sensed that this
man was playing with his life even if they had not the exact
facts.As a matter of fact nothing more was heard of Gisevius
after the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler's life.By a seeming
miracle Gisevius was able dissapear after this failure.Nearly
every night ,hunted by Himmler's myrmidons,he was forced to
change his quarters tilltafter long months,his accomplices
managed to contact with Allied offices .which sent him a for-
ged SS diplomatic passport thanks to which he was able to es-
cape to Switzerland/three months before the end of the war.
The "lion's cub" and subsequently simply the "cub" was the
code-word for the Allied accomplices whenever-they spoke ab-
out Gisevius This word is a pertinent description of the men
and hints at the very least that a big,strong lion may grow
out of a cub.In Nuremberg,in any ease this lion has been
able to roar to such a tune that it sounded. anything but
pleasant in the ears of that hard-boiled war criminal and
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w'rki *we"
_ 3 _
old lion-tamer Goering.
In spite of everythinglhowever,the part played by a man
like Gisevius is certainly not easily comprehensible to the
mere moralist.It must lie in the nature of a man for him to
venture further into evil than others without himself being
gripped by that evil.If we were to award a coat-of-arms to
Gisevius it would have to bear the 'salamander of the alchem-
ists,with the motto "nutriso et extinguo," I feed on the fire
and extinguish it.
By his very nature - and we feel this in his whole book -
Gisevius felt himself at home in danger.He really underwent
perils and evils just as the salamander goes through fire.
This makes him and his book uncanny to many people.And right-
ly so,for the grim humour with which the author writes of all
the horrors that took place around him and the same grim hum-
our with which he also speaks of the dangers lurking near
him has a terrifying effect to a certain degree.But it is
precisely this apparent roughness and this grim humour that
were neceSsary in order to .be able to live in the Germanihell
and to fight against it as far as possible.
Even if Gisevius did not succeed and could not succeed in
emerging victoriously from this battlelit is certainly all
to the good that someone conducted it in this Way and came
outlif not a victor,at least a survivor.For by his now being
able to appear as accuser before the German potentates, of
yesterday,there is at least one German whose accurate know-
ledge of the things that happened enables him to stand up
frankly and openly to'the Nazi criminals and,as a Germansand
even to a certain degree in the name of the German peoplelto
point his accustations at them.For Gisevius is more than simp-
ly-a private person.He is the spokesman of a formerly respect-
- ed official and juridicial oaste,which,indeed,failed in many
was ways under Nazi government,but will have to play its
part in the future if Germany is to recover.
div?
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