Dear Allen [Dulles]:You may wish to include in the chapter "Flirt
with Himmler" the story of how Langbehn
originally got in touch with Himmler,
which Langbehn told me himself during his visit
to Switzerland in 1943.
One day Langbehn's small girl returned from
school and said that one of her girl friends had
invited her for a two-weeks' stay at her
family's country place in Bavaria, during the
forthcoming vacation. When she said this to her
father she only mentioned the first name of the
girl [Gudrun]. Her father then suggested
that she should inquire as to the girl friend's
family name and background.
The next day the little girl returned home
and said that the family name was Himmler and
that the father had "something to do with the
S.S." Of course, Langbehn now knew all that he
wanted to about the family background of his
daughter's girl friend.
As he didn't want to accept any favors from
the second man in the Nazi hierarchy, he said
that he would only consent to his daughter's
visit if later on young Miss Himmler would
return the visit and stay at his house.
When Langbehn took his daughter to the house
of her host he met Himmler, who asked him to
have tea with him. Langbehn decided to stay and
the tea party developed into a serious political
talk, during which Langbehn had the courage to
express himself very freely on the deteriorating
political situation in Germany, as well as on
the Gestapo terror methods.
Himmler said that he was the kind of man he
wanted to talk to, one who had enough courage to
tell him the truth and to have an opinion of his
own. When Langbehn departed Himmler gave him a
Berlin telephone number, suggesting that he
should contact him on his next visit to Berlin
and at the same time stating that he could be
reached under this number without having to go
through the chain of his subordinates.
Gero [von S Gaevernitz]
write
to David Irving