From the night of the fire to this day, I have been convinced that the Reichstag was set on fire neither by the communists nor Herman Goering, but that the fire was the piece de resistance of Dr. Goebbels's election campaign, and that it was started by an handful of Storm Troopers all of whom were shot afterwards by SS commandoes in the vicinity of Berlin. There was talk of ten men, and of the Gestapo investigating the crime. This was reported to me on the one hand by Ernst, the Chief of the Berlin Stormtroopers, who was filled with poisonous hatred of Goebbels, and also by the police chief Dr. Diels who gave me exact details about the crime and the identification of the 10 victims.

Martin Sommerfeldt was the Minister of the Interior's press officer at the time of the Reichstag Fire. He wrote this account in 1956.