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00:02:41
00:06:59
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Transcription: [00:02:41]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
I even think [[kremas ??]] you know the one without the bows? That you just-

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
Stick on your the end of your-

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Stick on your nose.

[00:02:41]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
I think, I'm not too sure about that. Maybe the picture will show it.

[00:02:51]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
He was a pretty nice and pleasant fellow. He was not as tough as [[Zansen. Zansen ??]] was a pretty tough - he really showed you he was a commander when he was up in Peenemunde.

[00:03:02]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
And many people were mad at him, and maybe that's another reason that they finally removed him.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
So you - so there were a lot of people who were unhappy with [[Zansen ??]]

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Ja.

[00:03:12]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
He was a typical military commander, ja? He made up his mind - he didn't necessarily talk to all the people before he made his decision.

[00:03:20]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
He made the decision on the basis of his information, and boy you better follow it up with whatever he ordered.

[00:03:28]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
So for that reason he was not too popular. I personally have nothing against him. In fact I visited him once, or I met him once after the war

[00:03:39]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
in - in the Bremen area. He lives in the Bremen area right now.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
Well he actually died some years ago. I -

[00:03:45]
[[Cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
He died some-

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
Well it's sure a coincidence by - I - by rather much of an accident when I was in Hamburg in August. I was introduced to his daughters.

[00:03:55]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
I see.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
I had, I was at - and I spent an evening with the daughters - the two daughters of [[Zansen ??]] and their husbands and had a long discussion about these issues and that's still an issue to them

[00:04:05]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Ja, well they were of the opinion that he was booted out by the S.S.?

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
Well, I have documents which show, in fact the S.S.,

[00:04:15]
{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
the Gestapo sort of framed him up. And I also have a documents that show Stigmeir was the man behind a lot of it.

[00:04:26]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Ja? Really?

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
He, he - Stigmeir had the highest contacts with the S.S. leadership. Through - through [[Gottloberger ??]]

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Maybe that was the reasons was put in charge there.

[00:04:39]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Due to his S.S. contacts.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
But you have no knowledge of that whatsoever?

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
No, I - neither of the [[Zansen ??]] affair nor that Stigmeir was involved in this area.

[00:04:50]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
As I said, I always thought - well not as a big leader, but as otherwise-

[[Cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
As a competent-

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
but maybe a highly of him.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
So most people liked Stigmeir, in terms of -

[00:05:02]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
I think most people did, ja. More than Zansen.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
'Cause that's interesting, Rudolph said that he had terrible disagreements with Stigmeir.

[00:05:11]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Ja.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
But that was over [[Fuzookserianwerk ??]] . That he didn't get along with him. So I have no reading, you know I'm only getting a few opinions so far.

[00:05:21]
{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
Obviously you just get along with some people and don't get along with other people, and it's often just quite coincidental.

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
How did Rudolph feel about [[Zansan ??]]? Did you talk to him about-

[00:05:31]
{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
I think he was - I think he was friendly with [[Zansen ??]], but I don't remember real well what he said about it.

[00:05:38]
{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
But uh, but he didn't get along with Stigmeir.

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
Well I'm a bit surprised. Stigmeir was normally fairly easy to get along with.

[00:05:47]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
But of course there may have been some very basic differences in the Nachtfall question. And maybe Stigmeir even had his orders, and he had to pass us all us on to Rudolph,

[00:06:00]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
and Rudolph didn't like the orders. So I can see that these things can develop.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
Right, I mean of course the whole problem going into production was a real, real controversial

[00:06:10]
{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
- real controversial situation. So, as far as S.S. was concerned, all you knew about it was that there was something going on. [[Kamler ??]] of course came into the picture in,

[00:06:24]
{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
after the air raid as the man responsible for building the Mittelwerk and using the prisoners.

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
An again, he was so high up in the hierarchy I had no contact with him at all.

[00:06:38]
{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
I knew about him of course, ja, but I never talked to him. I don't recall a single meeting I had with him. And, so I really have no personal judgement.

[00:06:51]
{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
So as - so he was not somebody that you met at meetings, or any-

[[Cross talk]]

{SPEAKER name="Konrad Dannenberg"}
No, no.

{SPEAKER name="Michael Neufeld"}
-later on.


Transcription Notes:
Unable to use special characters (Chromebook does not have CTRL+ option), please fix "Peenemunde" at [00:02:51]