Evening star., 1947-08-14
Il Farben Directors
Plead Not Guilty 10
War Grimes Charges
BY the Asseeioted Press

BY the Associated Pres.
NUREMBERG, Germany, Aug.
14.-Twenty-one directors of the
on-dollar I. G.. Farben chem
ical trust pleaded not guilty be-
fore an American War Crimes
Court today to charges that they
had conspired to plunge the
world into war for profit.
Without Farben, Brig. Gen. Tel
ford Taylor, the Chief prosecutor.
charged in a scorching 20,000-word
indictment, Adolf Hitler would have
been powerless to start the war in
1889 and powerless to wage it so
successfully for so long.
Three other defendants were
absent and it was announced they
would be tried later. Max Bruegge-
mann and Karl Wurster were in hos
pitals and Carl Lautenschlaeger was
excused at the last moment because
his son died last night.
The defendants entered their pleas
after the tribunal overruled argu-
ments by defense attorneys that they
would need from three to six months
to prepare their cases. The judges
ordered the actual trial to start on
August 27.
Defense Attorneys Protest.
The Farben directorate, which In
cludes some of the biggest and yet
least known men of Central Europe,
Is charged with waging aggressive
war, with plundering subjugated
countries, with experimenting on
concentration camp victims and
with exploiting slave laoor.
The 81 defendants barked out
their mot guilty" pleas in the same
courtroom where Hermann Goering
and other Hitler henchmen were
tried.
The defense attorneys protested
that a trial of such international
scope was impossible" to defend
under the circumstances and they
cited what they called inadequate
facilities, inability to contact nee
essary witnesses in other countries,
and inability to get hold OF Farben
files captured by American troops.
Gen. Taylor, heading up the pro-
secution, retorted to the Commute
defense plea in four minutes, saying
that the defense had been given SUI
ficient time to prepare its case and
that he had made available TOO doc
uments for the attorneys perusal.
Gen. Taylor, in his Indictment OF
the Farben directors, accused the
Owe and chemical trust-world-Wlde
in scope-of being the industrial
heart of the Nazi effort. He bor-
rowed the Germans own expression
for I. G. Farben-"A state within
state'-because the company was
given such peculiarly independent
status by personal orders from
Hitler.
Aid in War Plans Charged.
He accused the vast concern OF
helping to plan the war by synchro-
nizing its activities with the military
high command and of stockpiling
war materials during the peace
years.
Without Farben. said Gen. Tay-
lor, Germany would have been
powerless to start a war, let alone
fight as long as she did.
Defendants included Carl Krauch
chairman of the Farben Super
visory Board of Directors; Herman
Schmitz, chairman of the manag-
ing Beard of Directors, and George
Won Schnitzler, chief of all foreign
and domestic sales divisions.
Others were Fritz Gajewski, Helm
rich Herlein, August Won Knierienl,
Fritz Ter Nicer, Christian SCHNEIDER
Otto Amborg, Ernst Buergin, Helm
rich Buetefisch, Paul Harfliger, Max
Ilener, Friedrich Jaehne, Hans
Kuehne. Wilhelm Mann, Heinrich
Oster, Walter Duerfld, Heinrich
Gattineau, Erich Won der Heyge
end Hans Kuggler.
The American judges were Curtis
G. Shake of Vincennes, Ind; Paul
NJ Herbert of Baton Rouge, La,
and James Morris of Bismarck, N.
Oak
Included 400 German Firms.
Gen. Taylor said Farben-its off,
cial German name Is I. G. Farbenin-
dustrie Observation-Disclosures
of 400 German firms and partic1-
pated in more than 500 firms abroad,
throughout Europe and elsewhere.
1t owned its own railroads and
mines, he said, and possessed power
plants and coke ovens.
1t was so well organized for war,
Gen. Taylor declared, that only a
telegram was needed from the mill
tary after Poland was invaded to put
the trust in high gear.