Why Grimminger gave them money

Scholl’s second visit occurred shortly before Christmas. I recall this because he told me he wanted to use [Christmas] vacation to take a trip. He then immediately told me that several good friends [Note 1] of his had gotten entangled in a bad situation. These were economists, officers, and partly persons in high places who were trying to bring about peace talks with Russia.

I asked Scholl if he were involved with the matter in any manner. He firmly denied it. But good friends were involved, and he would like to go to Cologne, Berlin, and (if I recall correctly) Breslau to learn more about it. I assumed his wish to learn more had to do with the indictment against his friends.

He asked me to give him several hundred Marks, since he did not have any money. I then gave Scholl the money for this trip and only for that purpose. When I gave it to him, I said, “You stay away from such things. Think about your family, so that you don’t bring misfortune upon all of them.”

Why I gave Scholl the money in the first place:

1) I was firmly convinced that after Scholl talked to these friends [Note 2], to those men who were entangled in this affair, he would be cured of his ideas.

2) Out of boundless good-heartedness, which has already cost me many sorrows in my private life, and because I felt morally obligated to the Scholl family, because when I lost my job, Scholl Senior took me in.

3) Because Scholl was a soldier and probably did not have enough money to undertake the trip.

Of course it is only in hindsight that the entire matter takes on such serious overtones, more than I thought at the time. At that time, I did not think that I was committing a crime.

==========

Note 1: Bekannte, not Freunden. Same in following paragraph. The reference is to Arvid and Mildred Harnack.

Note 2: Here: Bekannten und Freunden.

==========

Source: Eugen Grimminger’s supplementary statement dated March 16, 1943