PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: With this limitation, it should be briefly given.
A. I believe that the main characteristic of General Felmy was his humane and chivalrous generosity shown both towards his German subordinates and towards the Greek population. That seems to be the main feature.
Q. Was he only a military man?
A. General Felmy realized fully that the dangers in Greece were not only of a military nature and he vary clearly saw the borderline of a purely military force used and he stressed that we had to bear in mind to leave in Greece a good memory of us even after the war.
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: I have no further questions.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: Are there further questions on the part of other defense counsel?
Dr. Laternser?
DR. LATERNSER (Counsel for defendants List and von Weichs): If it please the Tribunal, we had intended to have the witness, Professor Stadtmueller, here as the witness for the whole of the defense. Since the witness, however, can appear only once on this stand and since he is to be in particular a witness for General Felmy, this witness has been heard during the Presentation of evidence for General Felmy. There are only a few question which I want to put to this witness in the interest of several of my colleagues. I shall be as brief as I can.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: Very well, Dr. Laternser; you may proceed.
BY DR. LATERNSER:
Q. Professor, you know Jugoslavian also, do you?
A. I do.
Q. And you speak the language?
A. At the end I was an interpreter with Army Group E in Slavonia for the Serbo-Croat language. I would like to stress that I don't speak the Serbo-Croat language as well as the Greek language.
Q. Were you during the war in Jugoslavia?
A. I was on a march through Jugoslavia from about the 15th of October 1944 until the 3rd of December 1944.
I was mainly in Sarajevo where I stayed for five weeks and then I was for two or three months in Slavonia, f February until April.
Q. During the war did you pay any particular attention to the event in Serbia?
A. Yes, certainly; for scientific reasons and historical interests because the present to me is the continuance of history.
Q. What were the foundations, the historic foundations, of the band movements in Serbia, very briefly, Professor, please?
A. The basic foundation is a tradition of an ethnic fight against the Turkish domination where there is no difference made between those who bear arms and those who are the bulk of the population. Old Serbian and Slavonian history which would lead too far in this connection is full of examples of this sort.
Q. How did it happen, then, according to your experiences, that the band fights in Jugoslavia took place?
A. This came about because of this very special type of a national feeling of honor which is particular and which is according to our own standards exaggerated, . The kind of loyalty towards the occupation power such as the population of Germany at the moment observes under occupation is very far from those people.
Q. Can these band fights, in your opinion; be traced back to the fact that there were Germans on the Balkans or would people like the Serbians oppose any occupier of their country?
A. Yes, they would certainly oppose any occupier of their country. The proof of this can be seen from the events in Greece after the German evacuation.
Q. Professor, concerning the methods of the band fighting, you have made a few statements just before. Is there anything else which you can tell in addition concerning the band fights in Serbia which might be of importance
A. Do you mean in a historical aspect?
Q. Well, quite briefly, a historical aspect and then can you tell in the last year what happened under the German occupation power?
A. There was the burning down of villages and the extermination of individuals and whole families; then this horrible occurrence of Vendetta which is at present still very much alive amongst these people.
I would like to draw attention to the very dangerous part in this sen of the Serbian national poetry which educates the young people in this sense.
Q. How is the human life and life of fellow citizens judged in the Balkans?
A. One can certainly not compare this with the conditions in other states which have a century-old legal tradition. Such a thing does not exist there.
Q. If in the Balkans measures were taken by an occupation power to counter the band fights and if such measures become necessary, how do these measures have to be in order to be effective.
A. Above all, they have to attempt to find the actual perpetrator a if this man cannot actually be seized, the man around, him.
Q. I did not intend to direct my question in this way. I meant the strength and stringency of these measures.
A. Small measures will make no impression at all because they are a daily occurrence.
Q. Since you are very well informed about conditions in the Balkans through your historical background, I want to ask you the following: do you know whether it is correct that during an uprising in 1904 or 1906 in Bisnia to Austrians at that time had ordered a ratio of 1 to 100?
A. I do not remember that particular detail. I do know that in those years there was an uprising on the Bosnian-Dalmatian frontier. What measures were used to suppress it, I do not know.
Q. Do you know anything else about how customary reprisals were?
A. One could point to the stress of the Geneva League of Nations. During the years after the first World War concerning atrocities in connection with the Turkish-Greek forced expulsion of the population a whole volume of documents was published at the time, which I owned formerly but don't have no
Q. Two more brief points, Professor; was the occupation force interested in playing out these ethnic differences against each other?
A. These contrasts were bound to turn out against us. Therefore, we were interested in mitigating contrasts and differences but we had no intention of inciting them against each other.
Q. What was the attitude of the Italians in this connection?
A. The Italians in our corps area, which is the only one about which I can give an opinion, tried in a very small tactics to incite one against the other, even in the case of Papadongonas. When I and General Felmy in August 1943 came to Kalamata we were told in the Italian offices by the regimental commander, Colonel Pagoni, triumphantly, as a proof for his cleverness, that he had immediately passed on the plans of Colonel Papadongon to the ELAM and ELAS movements in a distorted way in order to thus increase the differences which existed.
Q. And one last question, Professor: what attitude was shown by the German soldier towards the civilian population on the Balkans?
A. The German soldiers as an individual is well disciplined, forgetting for the moment all those exceptions, of course, which exist in any army. All Greeks agreed on one point and praised the German soldiers: there no excesses against women. There was no difference of opinion amongst the Greek about this at all. It just didn't occur.
DR. LATERNSER: Thank you. I have no further questions.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: This will conclude the forenoon session. We will resume at one-thirty.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will be in recess until one-thirty.
(The Tribunal recessed until 1330 hours).
AFTERNOON SESSION (The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours, 10 December 1947)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: Any further questions on the part of defense counsel 2 Apparently not, Mr. Fenstermacher, you may proceed with the cross examination.
GEORGE STADTMUELLER - Resumed CROSS EXAMINATION BY MR. FENSTERMACHER:
Q. Professor Stadtmueller, did you see all of the orders which came into General Felmy's headquarters from higher headquarters, as well as all the orders which went out from the Corps to subordinate units?
A. I have already answered this questioning direct examination. All orders were available to me. I did not read them all but I could read them. I did not read them all because I had a lot of other official business to do.
Q. Were all of the reports which came into the Corps headquarters from subordinate units and all the reports which went out from the Corps to higher headquarters also available to you?
A. All the correspondence was available to me including secret matters.
Q. Did you ever hear of a dispute between the Italian and German occupation authorities in Greece because the Italians wanted to release certain hostages and the German authorities wanted to execute them?
A. No.
Q. Can you recall what orders were outstanding in the Corps area at the time you were there regarding the execution of hostages?
A. On the part of the Corps, no execution of hostages was ordered directly. Hostage shootings and other reprisal measures were carried out by the subordinate offices, especially by the two independent divisions.
Q. Were there orders for the execution of hostages at fixed ratios of 10 to 1 or 50 to 1 outstanding in the Corps area at the time you were there?
A. In the Corps area there was no standard regulation about this because there was no Corps order about it as far as I remember.
Q. Do you recall whether hostages were executed within the Corps area at the ratios of 10 to 1 or even higher in some cases?
A. I remember the case of Kalavrita; at that time for the murder of about 70 German prisoners, approximately the 10-fold number of hostages was shot, approximately 10-fold.
Q. Is that the only incident you recall in which hostages were executed at the ratio of 10 to 1?
A. I don't know anything about the ratio because the reports came to us from the divisions. They went through us to superior offices and then, for instance, it looked like this: on one day it would be reported that during an attack or during a blasting operation so and so many soldiers were killed, and two or five or ten days later there came a second report where it stated, for instance, as reprisal for that attack so and so many hostages have been executed. I cannot remember and it probably was not the case -- it is probably not the rule that in these reports a ratio was mentioned.
Q. Except for the Kalavrita incident, according to your recollection, there were no other hostage executions at which a ratio of about 10 to 1 was applied?
A. I know about numerous hostage executions having actually taken place and it is possible that ratios of 10 to 1, or even other ratios were applied but I can't say in detail where and when these ratios were used.
Q. Now, as a historian you are probably able to make generalizations; would you be able to generalize regarding the number of hostages that were executed within the Corps area while you were down there?
A. It depends on what you mean by executions. If you include Distomon and Klissura, which were rather turbulent affairs, then the figure is very high, or it is rather high, and I remember the following figures Kalavrita , about 600 or 700; Distomon, perhaps just as many , or less the Distomon case is rather different and cannot be regarded as hostage shooting, in the usual sense ; and for the rest I remember a number of hostage shootings for which in each case 50 or 100 were mentioned or, perhaps, even a smaller figure, perhaps 20.
BY MR. FENSTERMACHER:
Q. How many would you say altogether were executed?
A. In the Corps area?
Q. Yes.
A. Without those who were executed by the SS in Athens or with them?
Q. You might give us both figures, first without including the SS units, and then including the SS executions.
A. I don't know about the number executed by the SS. I don't know at all. If I take the Corps area without Distomon and Klissura, -- then I don't think that it was more than 1500 to 2000 at the most.
Q. That includes about 700 at Kalavrita.
A. Yes.
Q. Now did you ever hear of the execution of hostages in retaliation for the murder of General Krech and three of his companies?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you happen to recall how many hostages were executed in reprisal for that attack?
A. So far as I remember that was at the end of April or the beginning of May, 1944. At that time large numbers of hostages were executed in Athens. As far as I can recall; I cannot tell you the number. Apart from that in Tripolis an additional number of -- I think -- 100 were executed by the Greek Volunteer Battalion.
Q. Do you happen to know the number of German losses there were in that attack?
A. Which attack?
Q. The attack upon General Krech.
A. There was one Division Commander and a few men of his escort.
Q. You don't recall the number of hostages that were executed in retaliation for that attack?
A. As I said; not in detail. There were a rather large number in Athens, and about 100 who independently of the German Wehrmacht, were shot on the Peloponnesus by the Greek Volunteers.
Q. You don't know whether any particular ratio was used in the course of that retaliation measure?
A. No.
Q. Do you think it might have been mere than 10 to 1?
A. I don't know.
Q. Professor, did you hear anything about deportations of the civilian population for forced labor in Germany, from the Corps area of the 68th Corps?
A. No -
DR. MUELLER- TORGOW: I object to this question. It was not the subject of direct examination.
PRESIDING JUSTICE BURKE: We covered a great many things in the direct examination.
The objection will be overruled.
A. I can say the following about that. First of all, through offices of the Corps, no deportation of civilians to Germany was carried out, or ordered. Secondly, I myself know of only one single transport. This was a so-called combing out of a communist quarter in Athens, about two months or three months before the German evacuation. This was carried out by the SS independently from the Corps. Thirdly, in Athens, there was a large recruiting Bureau for Greek workers, which recruited volunteer workers, and some transports of volunteer workers went to Germany, but that hasn't anything to do with the question.
Q. You never heard of a Corps order providing for the deportation of bandit suspects and hostages from the Corps area to Germany for forced labor?
A. I cannot remember about that with certainty.
Q. Now you spoke at some length about the partisan situation in Greece, Professor. Is it true that the partisans had large areas in the Peloponnesus in their hands during 1943 and 1944?
A. Not in 1943, -- not in 1943. It only started in the beginning of October, 1943.
That is only for the last three months did this enter into the picture at all. The answer is that these partisan groups only dominated the mountainous country and occupied it, which had no towns and no traffic centers, no reads and railways, while all of the traffic centers and all of the roads and all of the railways and all of the Ports , were firmly and undisputedly in German hands.
Q. You heard, did you not, about orders which came from the Allied Middle East Command to the various partisan units in Greece , and reports which the bands sent on to headquarters of the British Middle East Command?
A. The Corps had only highly contradictory reports about this. We knew that in a Achaia there were British liaison officers who tried to unite the Communists and the Nationalists, but these attempts were unsuccessful, i.e. the British lost control of the partisan movement and the Communist partisans went their own ways.
Q. Professor, you aid that you knew of no negotiations between the Germans, and I believe you mentioned, the Elas units. Did I understand you correctly?
A. Yes, in the Corps area.
Q. Were there ever any negotiations for the exchange of prisoners?
A. There may have been negotiations outside with local Commanders, but one has to take into account that until October 1943, we made not yet able to distinguish between Edes and Elas. It was only in October 1943, that this situation was finally cleared up.
Q. And then you did negotiate for the exchange of prisoners?
A. I don't know anything about that from the Corps.
Q. Now you talked about capturing certain prisoners. How were those prisoners dressed? Did they wear a Soviet Star?
A. I myself saw only a very few prisoners. That was after the band operation "Amsel" in January, 1944 in the Taygetos Mountains. They wore civilian clothes. One or the other had an Italian or a British or a German equipment of some kind on.
Q. They did not wear any arm bands or Soviet Stars?
A. I myself saw no Soviet arm bands or Soviet stars amongst the prisoners.
Q. How were those prisoners treated ? Were they shot?
A. These prisoners were transported away to Kalamata, or to Sparta. That is as much as I know about their fate. I assume they were treated as all of the partisan prisoners were.
Q. Do you think the whole approach of the Germans to the pacification of Greece and Yugoslavia, by resorting to reprisal measures was a mistake or not? I mean taking into account what you have described as the uniqueness of the Balkan peoples?
A. This question cannot be answered generally, with a Yes or No. The fact is that during the course of history, all governments down there were forced to take similar measures, and the facts on which an objective judgment must be based cannot be disputed. Firstly, actions contrary to International Law were not started by the German troops, but by the civilian population, and, secondly, the German troops only very hesitantly , after much consideration, and many warnings, did take more severe measures.
I have shown this for the Corps area quoting the Dara incident. The first attack took place without resulting in reprisal measures.
Q. Professor, in the course of your historical studies, did you ever come across an order for the execution of hostages at a ratio of 100 to 1 in Serbia on or about the 27th of April , 1941?
A. In direct examination I have already testified about this, -about the fact that I knew that an order of this kind -- I don't know whether the ratio was 1 to 50 or 1 to 100, -- that such an order existed, that it was supposed to be of a very early date -- and it was never carried out in the Corps area.
Q. Do you know who issued that order?
A. I assume if it was dated the 27th of April, 1941, then it could possibly only have been issued by Hitler personally, or by the Commander -in-Chief in the Southeastern territory.
I don't know, if this order actually did exist.
Q. You never came across an order bearing Field Marshal Weichs' name, and the 100 to 1 quota about the 27th of April, 1941?
A. No, the old orders were not in the files which were available to me.
Q. Isn't it true that reprisal measures which the Germans took actually forced the Greeks and the Yugoslavs to go into the hands of the bands, when you burned down the villages they had no place to go; if you executed their relatives or their friends in the course of reprisal measures, they were bound to have hate and wish to fight the German occupation troops?
A. That is a psychological consideration. One could oppose this with examples from British colonial history. The British at least used as a method, the burning down of villages in the colonies, as a method of pacification.
Q. Would you limit yourself to a consideration of the German occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia in this regard?
A The question of whether these methods are sensible or not, and whether they promise any success, depends on the individual case, and can only be decided on the spot. The fact that these measures had a good military effect, has been confirmed by the American Military McNeil in his well known book, "The "Crock Dilemma".
Q I am afraid that you have not quite given me your opinion yet, Professor?
A I have stated my own opinion very clearly. I said that if I were a responsible troop commander, in an isolated countryside, and could see all of the details there, that I would be in a position to decide then what measures were to be taken. From the point of view of moral justification as well as from the point of view of military necessity. One cannot generalize about this, seated at a writing table.
Q From your perspective as a historian, are you not able to comment as to whether or not the German theory of reprisals was a practical and wise one for the pacification of Greece and Yugoslavia?
A In this war, because I have thought about this question quite a lot, I think that at the very beginning, an attempt could have been made to take another course. Whether this attempt would have been successful, is very questionable, and these attempts would have meant to employ the bandleaders, according to the British example, for the purposes of the occupation authorities.
Q You mentioned, Professor, that the German soldier in the Balkans was always very well disciplined.
A I said that the individual German soldier was above average in discipline, and this has been confirmed to me repeatedly by the Greeks, especially as regard the attitude of the German soldiers towards women. The Greek women were never molested by German soldiers.
Q Do you consider the German soldiers at Distomon, at Kissura, at Kalavrita, at Kraljevo, at Kragujevac and at Topola to have been well disciplined?
A I can only judge here the events in the Corps area, and here I must say first of ail that I was not an eye and ear witness to this, I did not see these things, and furthermore. I would like to point out that Distomon and Klissura, so far as I know, fell down on the reckoning of the SS, and that I was the first to learn from the Greek side about the excesses in Distomon and Klissura, and I reported to General Felmy about them. Of course, I was also myself indignant about them.
Q Do you consider the SS, German soldiers?
A I have previously used the term, "German soldiers". I could have perhaps been more precise, and should have said, "soldiers of the German Army".
Q Now as an export, Professor, with full knowledge of Balkan history and customs. I may ask you this hypothetical question. Would you have been a partisan if you had been a Greek or a Yugoslav, and your country had been invaded?
A No, because at that moment when an occupation power occupies a country according to my limited knowledge of International Law, it receives the right to maintain order, and because I, as a civilian, do not have the right to act upon my own initiative and to fight, I would never have become a partisan.
Q If you would have been a Greek or a Yugoslav with the unique characteristics which you attribute to those two peoples, and your country and your friends and your relatives had been subjected to reprisal measures on the part of the German occupation authorities, would you then have become a partisan?
A I would have thought it my duty to trace the problem down to its roots and to fight against those things through which the reprisal measures were provocated, against the disloyalty of the civilian population which was contrary to International Law.
Q When you say that you would have traced the problem back to its roots, you mean that you would have traced it back prior to the invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia?
A By then the problem did not exist, because there was no occupation power there.
Q You wouldn't have considered the German occupation authorities in your country unlawfully?
A That is a question. I do not know whether Internation Law recognizes a difference between legal and illegal occupation.
Q Professor, I am not asking for your comments upon International law, but I am asking you to consider yourself a Greek and a Yugoslav with the various characteristics which you said a Greek and a Yugoslav possesses, and I am then asking you whether you would have considered the question of the German occupation authorities being in your country, unlawful?
A If I am a Greek Nationalist, full of intellect, and conscious of my responsibility, then I must regard every occupation that stands for law and order in the country as legal.
Q Would you name very briefly a few of the cultural contributions of these peoples who have the unique characteristics which you have attributed to them? That is, you are an expert on Balkan history, not only from the standpoint of politics and economics and their psychology and their vendettas, and their cruelty to each other, but I assume that you are also an expert regarding cultural, literature, music, and art in the Balkans. Will you highlight, in a few sentences, the contribution of the Balkans in that respect?
AAmong the Balkan peoples there is only a single one that gave great culture to the World, and that was the Greek people of ancient times and in the middle ages before the Turks came: As to Serbian, Bulgarian or Albanian contributions to world culture, there is nothing at all of this kind. They are quite nice people, they have quite nice peoples' music, which is not of a very high standard, at least in my opinion.
As regards a contribution to European culture I can only name the Greeks of ancient times, 2000 years ago.
Q Otherwise the Balkan's contribution to culture is rather negligible in your opinion?
A In a cultural respect it could not do that.
Q You mentioned, Professor, that you considered the present a continuation of the past. Do I understand you correctly?
A Yes, of course that applies to every Nation and to the present.
Q Then you consider the present day Greeks, the heirs of Aristotle and Plato and Aristophanes, and Euripedes, and Perikles and Herodot, the historian?
A We tried to respect the present day Greeks as the inheritors of these great men, but then we saw that they could not be very much distinguished from their ancestors in the mountains.
Q Do you know of the nation which gave birth to the political concept of Democracy?
A Of course, the Greeks.
Q Have you made the same study of German characteristics and German culture that you have made of Balkan peoples.
A Of course I have studied the Balkans more intensely than Germany because I was born here in Germany and grew up here.
Q Do you consider Germans to have peculiar and unique characteristics, as well as the Balkans, -- perhaps of a different nature, but still unique?
A Yes. I am of this opinion and I have thought a lot about it.
Q Do you remember Bismarks' phrase, "The whole Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier".
A Yes, I know it very well, and I know the circumstances from which this sentence arose.
Q And when he used the term"Pomerainian Grenadier," he meant the "German Soldier" didn't he?
A Yes, he meant the good type of a German soldier.
Q Do you also recall Bismarck's "Drang nach Osten"theory? If Your Honors Please, I'm told that it means "drive towards the East."
A I personally don't know about any Bismarck theory of a "drive towards the East" as Bismarck made it the guiding principle of the German foreign policy not to drive towards the East but to work together, i.e, to collaborate with Russia.
Q It had nothing to do with the drive from Berlin to Constantinopel via the Balkans?
A In Bismarck's time, about which we are now speaking, such a drive, if it later on, could not be determined then.
Q Now, when you talk about the uniqueness of the Balkan peoples, you're not suggesting, are you, that the life of a Greek or a Yugoslav is less valuable than the life of a German or a Frenchman are you?
A In no case--in no way.
Q They should be evaluated equally?
A Yes, of course, from the human point of view and from the point of view of natural law and Christian moral feeling, yes.
AAre you familiar with the historical works of the Nazi historian Rosenberg?
A Yes, I read them very thoroughly.
Q Were you sympathetic with his theory of superiority and inferiority of races?
A This theory was absolutely silly and could only have been represented by a man with too much imagination and no knowledge of real facts.
Q Were you a member of the Nazi Party?
A In 1937 I joined the Party.
Q Did you accept the Party's theory on races?
A It seemed to me, if I may put it like this, a rather infantile, premature sickness which every political movement experiences. I hoped that a certain purge would eliminate these things.
Q Did I understand you to say that you considered history a science, Professor?
A In that sense in which one can talk about science at all, apart from natural science, history is, of course, a science.
Q Except that you can't control the various factors in a laboratory like you can in other sciences?
A Yes.
Q I have one final question for you, Professor. As a student of the Balkans and a historian did you consider the German invasion of Greece and Yugoslavia to have been a blessing for those countries?
A This question is perhaps, if I may put it like this, rather difficultly put. I think it is unavoidable that every military occupation brings the troubles of wartime over the occupied people and this also applies to the German occupation.
Q You mean that it was not a blessing?
A In this general sense, not as I pointed out with respect to every occupations however one must keep in mind that every occupation can attribute something fruitful in order to give the occupied people more information and a new orientation towards things.
Q I don't quite understand. Did you consider the German invasion and occupation of those countries to have been a blessing for those countries?
A I have already given you the answer to this-that no occupation can be a blessing--not even the German occupation.
Q Not even the German?
PRESIDING JUDGE BURKE: You may continue, Dr. Mueller-Torgow.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION BY DR. MUELLER-TORGOW:
Q Professor, you mentioned, during the discussion about reprisal measures in cross-examination, the so-called "Klissura" Operation.
You mentioned it together with "Kalavrita" and "Distomon." Was Kilissura in the Corps area of the LXVIIth Corps?
A I can't give any exact statement about Klissura because this incident took place while I was on leave--from about the 13th of March until about the 20th of April 1944 I was on leave.
Q Do you know a place "Klissura" in Greece?
A Yes, in Greece I once looked it up. There are about seven or eight places called "Klissura." It is a very frequent place-name.
Q You then said that the members of the SS were soldiers of the German Army.
A No, no, that must have been a misunderstanding. I made that statement about the discipline of the German soldiers so that it should apply to the soldiers of the German Army, so as to make a gradual difference between the soldiers of the German Army and the SS troops.
Q Professor, did General Felmy, after the murder of General Krech, order the reprisal measures which were carried out in Athens?
AAs far as I remember, General Felmy, as I have said, in no single case, ordered reprisal measures by himself on his own initiative, and that applies also to this case.
Q Professor, do you consider the fighting of the bands in Greece a German success? What would have happened if one had not defended oneself against the bands?
A Greece, the territory of Greece as well as the capital of Athens would as of late autumn 1943, have become a Soviet State.
Q We talked about the supply of the bands through the British. Was there a general political influence on the bands from outside Greece?
A I have already indicated that British liaison officers were stationed with various band groups, and that they tried to unite the Communist and the Nationalist groups in order to fight against the Germans. I have already said that this attempt was unsuccessful and that the DAM and ELAS groups made their own politics and their own warring independently of the directives of the Allied Headquarters Middle East, so that finally there came the armed clash between the EAM and the ELAS against the British occupation troops, after the German retreat.
Q Professor, you were asked about the cultural contributions of Greece, and you said in cross-examination that the ancient Hellas had made excellent cultural contributions.
A I am convinced that from all the European peoples the Greek has done the most for European culture. That is antique Hellenism.
Q I would now like to ask you what was General Felmy's attitude towards this ancient culture of Greece?
A General Felmy was amazed at it, and on his inspection trips we made little excursions by the way to the places of culture etc. where I had to give him historical explanations about them. In Athens my task was, when guests came to the Staff from the Army Group or from the OKW, to take these gentlemen up to tho Akropolis or into the Olympic temple, and to point out and explain to them the archaeological features.
Q Did the Corps staff, under the protection of General Felmy, publish a book?
AAt General Felmy's instigation some scientific experts of the Corps staff jointly published a book about the Peloponnes. This book was published in 1944, in Athens, and it is the only joint work about geology, history, and archaeology of the Peloponees. It is amazing that there is nothing of this kind in modern Greek.
Q Has it been translated?
AA learned Greek after our evacuation I don't know.
Q How was this book judged by the Greeks?
A Of course it had a rather happy reception because it contained no propaganda.
Q I have no further questions.