Eighth interrogation of Willi Graf

II A/So. Mo [Special Commission / Mohr]
March 4, 1943

The following person, Wilhelm Graf (personal data already known), being led forth from police custody made the following statements upon inquiry:

Question: Do you know someone named Janicek or Janitschek – a student and sergeant (medic) with one of the Student Companies in Munich?

Answer: I belong to the Second Student Company which is housed at the Bergmannschule in Munich. Last summer, I lived at the Bergmannschule for around four to six weeks. I did not know a student or a sergeant (medic) named Janicek or Janitschek. I am unable to say whether a man of that name is a member of my company.

Question: Do you know a Dr. Grimminger from Stuttgart? If so, who introduced you to him, etc.?

Answer: I know this name only through Hans Scholl. I recall that Scholl occasionally spoke about an acquaintance named Grimminger, but even today I do not know in which context that name was mentioned. I also do not know what Scholl’s relationship was to Grimminger.

If I am told that it has been conclusively proven that Dr. Grimminger contributed to the financing of the leaflet operation, I must still maintain that I knew nothing about that. I did not worry about the financial side of the propaganda that we produced. As I have already stated, I only gave Hans Scholl 50 Marks on a single occasion for the purpose of purchasing postage stamps. When I gave him that money, I was hoping that I would get it back one day.

Question: Do you know a writer named Bergengruen and a physicist named Sommerfeld (University of Munich)?

Answer: I know Bergengruen as the publisher [sic] of several books and I know that he lives somewhere in Southern Germany. I never had any personal contact with this man. I only know the physicist Sommerfeld by name as well. I know that he used to give lectures at the University of Munich and that he had earned a good reputation in the field of modern physics. Scholl and I talked about the writer Bergengruen on only one occasion and that was in the context of his books.

If I am now told that Scholl told someone else who was involved in our propaganda operation that Bergengruen and Sommerfeld “belonged to us”, I can only state that Scholl never said such a thing to me. I also do not know that either one of these men had anything to do with our matter. I must expressly state that I did not know the details of Scholl’s circle of friends or who he associated with.

Question: At the conclusion of your interrogation, I direct this question to you: Is there anything else that you would like to state for the record that you have perhaps concealed to date, and that could be of significance regarding the clarification of the facts of the matter?

Answer: The statements that I have repeatedly made and documented in writing are correct. I have nothing to add. At the beginning I contradicted the truth by stating that I had nothing to do with this seditious propaganda, therefore that I was innocent. I did that only to spare my parents this great misfortune. I had no other reasons for so doing.

Today I recognize that I have participated in an undertaking that in the end targeted a change in the current form of government. In conclusion, I would like to emphasize that I was active in this seditious manner not due to my own decision, but because I was sucked into this matter by Hans Scholl’s constant persuasion and his one-sided political view of the facts. I regret my conduct and would welcome nothing more than to do penance for the error I have committed by being transferred to the front. [Note 1]

Recorded by: /Signature: Mohr/, Chief Crim. Secr.

Read, approved, and signed by: /Signature: Wilhelm Graf/

Present: /Signature: Elfriede Maier/

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Note 1: Wittenstein has long – and erroneously – claimed that their summer clinical rotation on the Russian Front in 1942 was a so-called Frontbewährung. This is simply not the case. Frontbewährung referred to exactly what Willi Graf is proposing here, namely, doing penance by proving oneself on the front lines.

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Source: NJ1704 (143 – 144)