A calculation is made which relates the physical properties of a junction diode to the troublesome spike current arising from hole storage in the germanium. This spike current results when the diode is suddenly switched from the conducting to the nonconducting state. For small germanium pellets, this current decay is exponential with a decay considerably shorter than that indicated by the hole lifetime in the material. For larger pellets the decay is a sum of exponentials giving a considerably longer decay time, still shorter, however, than the hole lifetime.