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Transcription: [00:00:03]
{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
-- of Rees. He was quite a bit involved in all these political decisions.

[00:00:09]
He was von Braun's deputy and he was -- normally kept very well informed about what von Braun, even in a separate meeting where Rees was not present -- but he passed on this kind of information very well.

[00:00:21]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
OK, I just want to identify. This is Tape 2 Side 2. Interview with Konrad Dannenberg.

[00:00:28]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Um, do you remember the uh, the Zanssen affair? At all? Where Zanssen was --

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
What specifically do you -- mean ?

[00:00:38]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Ah, Zanssen was removed as commander, base commander at Peenemünde in May '43.

[00:00:46]
And the SS was behind that.

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
I see, no I hadn't even heard about that. That's new to me.

[00:00:53]
I knew that Zanssen had to go, but I don't know the details there. Again, that was a political decision, that was way over my level.

[00:01:02]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Yeah, the accusation was that Zanssen was connected to some oppositional Catholic priests and some other charges. It seems basically like a frame-up.

[00:01:12]
And one of the, the -- did you ever know Lieutenant Colonel Stegmaier?

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Ja.

[00:01:21]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
By the way, do you know what his first name is? Because I haven't seen it anywhere on the record.

[00:01:25]
{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
I think it's Heinz, but I'm not really sure. Again, Rees would be a good source and he has a fantastic memory.

[00:01:36]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Uh, do you remember anything about him?

[00:01:39]
{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Well, of course he was in charge of the Peenemünde operations, while Dornberger was very often away.

[00:01:45]
I had a number of meetings with him because, well it again was involving getting the V-2 ready to go; getting the drawings out.

[00:01:55]
And I always thought very highly of him. He was not the kind of person as von Braun or [[Doc ??]] Dornberger was. So he was a good administrator. But he was in that sense not a leader.

[00:02:07]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Can you describe him?

[00:02:10]
-- physically and uh, personality-wise? Say more about Stegmaier?

[00:02:16]
-- 'cause I don't even have a good picture of what he was - who he was - what he looked like.

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
He was an average person. Uh, I might even have a picture of him. Shall I look?

[00:02:28]
{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Uh, yeah maybe after --

{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
At the end of the tape?

{SPEAKER name="MICHAEL NEUFELD"}
Yeah, the end of the interview.

[00:02:33]
{SPEAKER name="KONRAD DANNENBERG"}
Ja, I might have a picture of him. He was really in a way an average person. He was wearing glasses --