2.£ä£I^ENTI_AL Ref No PWB/SAIC/12 1 June 45 T>WB - OPT

2.£ä£I^ENTI_AL
Ref No PWB/SAIC/12
1 June 45
T>WB
- OPT - HQ, 7th Army
German I n t e l l i g e n c e Section
Special I n t e r r o g a t i o n Series No 12.
(This R e p o r t ' i s published in cooperation with
Seventh Army I n t e r r o g a t i o n Center)
Arthur G r e i s e r , one-time President of the Senate .of Danzig, Reichss t a t t h a l t e r and Gauleiter of Wartheland.
Greiser claims that a f t e r his discharge from the German Navy
in 1919 he found himself in d i r e f i n a n c i a l needs and earned h i s .
l i v i n g through very hard l a b o r . The program of the NSDAP a t t r a c t e d
him because of the s o c i a l promises i t contained, and in 1930 he
joined the P a r t y . Being not u n i n t e l l i g e n t he claims t o have r a p i d ly r i s e n t o a leading p o s i t i o n . The huge successes enjoyed by the
National S o c i a l i s t s in the e l e c t i o n s brought him a p o s i t i o n in the
Danzig Senate where, a f t e r the r e s i g n a t i o n of Dr. Rauschning, he
was appointed P r e s i d e n t .
The Conflict between Danzig and Poland; As every German, he
had taken the s t a n d p o i n t , he a s s e r t s , t h a t Danzig was German and
would one day have t o r e t u r n t o the Reich. Similarly he claims to
have supported the campaign for the r e t u r n of the ceded p a r t s of
West Prussia and Upper S i l e s i a . He never believed, however, that
these problems had to be solved by f o r c e , but thought t h a t t h i s had
t o bo done through negotiations with Poland and the League of Nations in the course of many y e a r s . He s t a t e s that he held the same
views on t h i s subject as did' his predecessor Rauschning who, l i k e wise, followed a course of moderation. Gauleiter F ö r s t e r on the
other hand, supported by the Party Roichsleitung., followed strongarm p o l i t i c a . Because of his d i s s e n t i n g opinion on.the Poland-Danzig problem, he s a y s , he got i n t o d i f f i c u l t i e s with the Gauleiter
and found himself being increasingly ignored in Danzig p o l i t i c a l c i r c l e s . He r e l a t e s t h a t , already in 1938, he had relayed his proposals for the solution of the Danzig question to Baron von Neurath
who was the Foreign Minister' at the time. His, suggestion was t h a t
Poland receive a free zone in the harbors of Danzig, Memel and L i bau, while the e n t i r e Danzig port be declared a free p o r t . Moreover, the autobahn was to be' extended, through the P o l i s h Corridor
t o Danzig. He claims t h a t although Neurath personally approved of
these p r o p o s a l s , nothing was ever done about them o f f i c i a l l y .
In
1939 he returned from naval maneuvers and was shocked to discover
"how far matters had already gone." At a mass meeting of the Danzig
Home Guard (Heimwehr), which was a Party s u b s i d i a r y , he a s s e r t s
t o have expressed his anxiety t o the Wehrkreiskommandeur General
Wodrich, but his words f e l l on deaf e a r s . He r e l a t e s f u r t h e r t h a t
in August 1939 the Party deprived him of a l l h i s posts so t h a t once
more he found himself p r a c t i c a l l y unemployed. Thereupon he offered
his services as reserve officer of the Navy in order t o take over
the command of a f l e e t of mine-sweepers. On the way to Wilhelmshafen he was called to Berlin by a radiogram which i n s t r u c t e d him
to r e p o r t t o Dr. F r i c k . Frick charged him with the c i v i l administ r a t i o n of Poznan. This p o s i t i o n was l a t e r turned i n t o t h a t of
R e i c h s s t a t t h a l t e r and Gauleiter for Wartheland.
Relations t o Rauschning: P r e i s e r describes Rauschning as a
friend with whom he had stood in agreement on many p o l i t i c a l i s s u e s .
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•
.
"Even when he l e f t the Party and went abroad, my good opinion of
him did not change. I never-considered him a t r a i t o r . I was p r e sent a t one or two of h-lis discussions with Hitler, and whatever I
read in the newspapers about; Rauschning's book, c e r t a i n l y coincides
with what they talked about; in these conversations,"
'.
: ?
<••''
Relations to H i t l e r : Greiser explains t h a t as consequence of
h i s stand for mediation 1 in the Danzig' question and his s t r a i n e d r e l a t i o n s with Gauleiter F ö r s t e r , ' . h e ' f ü l l i n t o the bad graces of H i t l e r . After the Catyn feCfa'itf' l e t t e r s ;r.eached him from a l l walks of
the Polish population, iri which ^Polish c i t i z e n s requested .permission
to e n l i s t in the f i g h t a g a i n s t - R u s s i a . Greiser s t a t e s that he sent
a memorandum on t h i s - q u e s t i o n t o the Fuehrer ; and .suggested the
establishment of a Legion of Polish Volunteers, ~. He believed to be
able to amass some 100,000 P o l e s . i n t h i s u n i t . -He declares t h a t
H i t l e r r e t o r t e d c u r t l y : ••"Since you have approximately 100,'QO.Q
men a t your d i s p o s a l , I have a'dvis.ed the Reich Minister of Labor
t o take the necessary äteps for the e x p l o i t a t i o n of t h i s manpower."
A t t i t u d e towards the P a r t y ; Greiser m a i n t a i n s , even today,
t h a t the o r i g i n a l platform of.'the. Party was. good. In p r a c t i c e ,
however, these o r i g i n a l p r i n c i p l e s were greatly, d i s t o r t Qe d and for
s e v e r a l years already he claims to* have been near' ciosp r.ation. Out
of a feeling of "German l o y a l t y ' ' , however, he stuck' to h i s . p o s t ,
He claims often to have discussed these, matters with his wife (the
only person with whom, ho could speak freely) and that both had come
to the conclusion that"'they" must remain a.t t h e i r post u n t i l the
war tiad been l o s t . They-planned .to buy, at the-end of h o s t i l i t i e s ,
a l i t t l e country home'and to r e t i r e from p o l i t i c s . What the Party
and i t s system had a c t u a l l y brought about he only r e a l i z e d when
faced with the magnitude of the collapse and with the t e r r i b l e
things t h a t have now been brought to l i g h t . " I t was as though one
saw l i g h t for the f i r s t time. The Fuehrer had, during a l l these
y e a r s , preached pure' l i e s for he must have known what a c t u a l l y went
on and how matters s t o o d . "
.
,,.•.-,
On the Jewish Question; Greiser claims t o have been in complete
disagreement with the Nazis' persecution of the Jews, He i n t e r preted the o r i g i n a l Party program as intending to break the hold
of the Jews on German economy and c u l t u r a l l i f e . He never i n t e r preted i t as meaning the physical e x t i n c t i o n of the Jews, He
s t a t e s t h a t his own s i s t e r had married a Jew who emigrated to New
York and t h a t his s i s t e r ' s fate had made a deep personal impression
on him and had caused him to do.a l o t of t h i n k i n g . Of the Ghettos
in Poland he claims to have known and t o have had the impression
t h a t the Jews there lived f a i r l y comfortable; but he maintains t h a t
he had no knowledge of the existence of the s o - c a l l e d extermination
camps and t h a t he had-only l e a r n t of what, went on in the concent r a t i o n camps on his c a p t u r e . In summer 1943 he.heard a l e c t u r e
by Himmler on the subject of concentration camps in which Himmler
d e c l a r e d , in front of a number of g e n e r a l s , that the concentration
camps were nothing more than.huge armament works in which there
was no t h r e a t of sabotage, """ .
"
The F l i g h t from -the .War the land: .Greiser claims to have had
knowledge of the Russian plans for an offensive on the Weichsel as
e a r l y as December 1944, This caused him considerable worry about
the evacuation of the Wartheland. Ho got in touch with Goebbels,
Bormann, Himmler and the Army Group Commander General Harpe in an
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Ref No PWB/SAIC/12
1 June 45
e f f o r t to discover something about the i n t e n t i o n s and plans of the
German High Command. He was unable, however, to get any information from any source. F i n a l l y , on January 12, Dr. Naumann appeared
and addressed the responsible TI
men in the Wartheland with the
following words: "The German igh Command was aware of everything
t h a t went on and was prepared lor any e v e n t u a l i t y . The Russian a t tack would not be d i r e c t e d against the Wartheland but would be
carried out in a southerly and n o r t h e r l y d i r e c t i o n . Enough Gorman
forces were held in readiness to f r u s t r a t e any attempt a t breaking
through." Two days l a t e r the Russian offensive began. Greiser went
to the front in order to g e t a b e t t e r p i c t u r e of the a c t u a l s i t u a t i o n . He s a y s , "confusion and chaos reigned a t the f r o n t . The
German troops fled like r a b b i t s toward the west; the d i s a s t e r could
no longer be held off."
Greiser ordered an evacuation which was
c a r r i e d out in three s t e p s . Many Poles joined the columns of German refugees. He claims to have succeeded in evacuating roughly
one million persons from the Gau but a great portion of them, l a t e r ,
were unable t o get across the Oder. He himself, a c t i n g on orders
of the Reich's Chancellery, l e f t h i s post on January 20. In Berlin
he was rebuked sharply by Bormann who c r i t i c i z e d Greiser for having
rescued so many people but only s l i g h t q u a n t i t i e s of l i v e s t o c k and
m a t e r i a l s . In the course of his conversations in Berlin he was
granted leave t o Bavaria where he was t o undergo medical t r e a t m e n t .
His E s t a t e : Greiser says t h a t his present property amounts
t o some 400,000 marks. About 200,000 marks were paid him by an
insurance company following a hunting accident which r e s u l t e d in
the loss of one of his e y e s . His monthly s a l a r y as R e i c h s s t a t t h a l t e r amounted to 3,000 marks plus 2,000 marks for expenditures. His
post of Gauleiter had been an honorary one.
"1—HANS WALLENBERG
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