His Majesty’s Ambassador is instructed to inform the United States Government
of an approach made to a member of His Majesty’s Legation at Stockholm by
Dahlerus48 regarding Germany, details of which
are set out in the enclosed paraphrases of two telegrams from His Majesty’s
Minister at Stockholm to the Foreign Office dated December 15th and December
20th. The first of these telegrams was sent by bag to London and not by
telegram.
[Enclosure 1]
Paraphrase of telegram from His Majesty’s Minister
at Stockholm to the Foreign Office dated December 15th, 1944
Dahlerus visited Counsellor52 on December 13 to say he had just met a
German friend of his by the name of Stegmann who was on a visit to
Sweden. Stegmann was married to the daughter of the former Swiss
Minister at Berlin and his family was now living in Switzerland. He was
solicitor of a certain Kloth who was part owner of [2 groups
undecipherable] Werke manufacturers of stoves and restaurant equipment
at Hildesheim. Dahlerus had known both Kloth and Stegmann previously and
the former had been aware of his attempts at mediation just before the
outbreak of the war. Dahlerus was convinced neither Kloth nor Stegmann
had any sympathies for National Socialism and that they were both men
whose word could be relied on.
According to Stegmann, Hitler had had a bad shock at the time of the
attempt on his life and had had to have an operation on one of his ears.
Since then he had no capacity for work and he lost interest in any
subject after discussing it for ten minutes or so. Otherwise he appeared
perfectly normal and was able to go about and attend superficially to
business and he was in fact in Berlin on December 11. There was no
question of his life being in danger as a result
[Page 576]
of the effects of the accident but he was
definitely out of the running for the purposes of practical
leadership.
Himmler who was now virtual dictator of Germany had achieved this
position by reaching an agreement with the military with whom he was now
on very close and friendly terms. All the leading military were
anti-Nazi in the sense that they were opposed to party dictatorship and
Himmler had gained their support by gradually abolishing all Nazi plans
and ideals. In opposition to Himmler stood Ribbentrop, Ley53 and the other extremists of the Left but it was
probable Goebbels had joined the Hitler [Himmler?] Camp. Goering was opposed to Himmler but he was now of
no importance whatever except insofar as he was still popular with the
people.
Himmler hoped to produce a German fighting force of five million
military. With these he was confident he could hold the Russian front
and he hoped to hold the western front long enough to cause enough
losses of British and American troops to persuade the Western Powers to
agree to a more reasonable settlement with Germany. Himmler had
initiated no contacts with the Allies but Ribbentrop had done so and
these contacts had been backed by Hitler and the old Nazi regime.
An indication of Himmler’s new policy was that during the last four weeks
wives and families of all those who took part in the attempt on Hitler’s
life including the family of Stauffenberg himself had been released and
pensioned. It was not generally known that the clean up which followed
July 20 also included the arrest and shooting of all those Germans who
were attempting to reach a settlement with Russia. Himmler was a great
opponent of Russia and was determined to exterminate all those with a
contrary view on this question.
Dahlerus then said that he was turning over in his mind the idea of
visiting Germany where he thought he could arrange possibly through his
friends Stegmann and Kloth to be received by Himmler and he would take
this opportunity to try to find out whether Himmler seriously thought
there was any use in continuing the struggle and if not what steps he
proposed to take with a view to suing for peace. Before deciding however
whether to go to Germany Dahlerus asked for an assurance that if he
reported result of his visit to us British Foreign Office would believe
what he said. He added that he knew he had been in our black book and
that there had been a move to blacklist him and he thought that as a
result of this the Foreign Office might not believe a word he said; if
this were the case there would be no point whatever in his carrying out
his plan.
[Page 577]
Counsellor suggested in reply that it was in the circumstances hardly
reasonable to expect the Foreign Office to commit themselves to a
definite answer to this question. The Foreign Office he said had no
intention of encouraging Dahlerus or anyone else to sound Himmler as to
his intentions and if Dahlerus really intended to pursue his plan he
must do so entirely on his own initiative and without any prompting from
us or any assurances from us of any kind. All that Counsellor could say
was that reports of his early conversations with Goering had been
reported in detail to London where they had been read with interest.
Counsellor then said that he thought it was only fair to make it clear
before Dahlerus decided to go to Berlin that whatever proposal Himmler
might make there was no chance whatever of His Majesty’s Government
agreeing to negotiate with him in any circumstances whatever and that
therefore any interest which His Majesty’s Government might have in the
result of Dahlerus’s initiative would be purely of an intelligence
nature. Dahlerus said that while he fully appreciated this he thought it
possible that Himmler might agree to retire altogether with the whole of
the rest of the Nazi gang and leave it to other elements to sue for
peace.
Dahlerus accordingly agreed to withdraw his request and he is now
considering whether to proceed with his plan. He will let Counsellor
know in a few days’ time.
