dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
MR. DODD: Yes, that is the paragraph to which I wish to make reference. If Your Honors please, I refer to the second paragraph, or the middle paragraph, which states, in a letter dated June 24, 1935 at Berlin: "The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor has nominated the President of the Directorate of the Reichsbank, Dr. Schacht, to be Plenipotentiary General for the War Economy." I might point out, in addition to the second paragraph, the last paragraph of that letter or the last sentence of the letter, which reads: "I point out the necessity of strictest secrecy once more"- the letter being signed, "Von Blomberg." Through Schacht's financial genius monetary measures were devised to restore German industry to full production; and through the control of imports and exports, which he devised under his plan of 1934, German production was channeled in accordance with the requirements of the German war machine. I shall, with the Court's permission, later discuss the details of documentary proof of this assertion. In 1936, with an eye to the experience in the first World War, the Nazi conspirators embarked on an ambitious plan to make Germany completely self-sufficient in strategic war materials such as rubber, gasoline, and steel, in a period of 4 years, so that the Nazi conspirators would be fully prepared for aggressive war. The responsibility for the execution of this program was entrusted to the office of the Four Year Plan under the Defendant Goering and at this point I should like to refer to the document bearing the number and the lettering EC-408.
MR. DODD: It is dated the 30th day of December 1936, marked "Secret Command Matter", and entitled the "Report Memorandum on the Four Year Plan and Preparation of the War Economy." It sets out that the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor has conferred powers in regard to mobilization preparations in the economic field that need further definition, and in the third paragraph it refers specifically to Minister President, Generaloberst Goering as Commissioner of the Four Year Plan, by authority of the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor granted the 18th day of October 1936. The existence of this program involved the reorganization and control of the whole German economy for war. Again referring to Major General Thomas and specifically to our document marked EC-27-General Thomas, in a lecture on the 28th of February 1939, made at the Staff instructor's course, stated: "The National Socialist State, soon after taking over power, reorganized the German economy in all sections and directed it towards a military viewpoint, which had been requested by the Army for years. Due to the reorganization, agriculture, commerce and professions become those powerful instruments the Fuehrer needs for his extensive plans, and we can say today that Hitler's mobile politics, as well as the powerful efforts of the Army and economy, would not have been possible without the necessary reorganization by the National Socialist Government. We can now say that the economic organization as a whole corresponds with the needs, although slight adjustments will have to be made yet. Those reorganizations made a new system of economics possible which was necessary in view of our internal and foreign political situation as well as our financial problems.
MR. DODD: The directed economy, as we have it today concerning agriculture, commerce, and industry, is not only the expression of the present State principles, but at the same time also the economy of the country's defense." If Your Honors please, this program was not undertaken in a vacuum; it was deliberately designed and executed to provide the necessary instrument of the Nazi conspirators' plans for aggressive war. In September of 1934 the Defendant Schacht frankly acknowledged to the American Ambassador in Berlin that the Hitler Party was absolutely committed to war, and the people too were ready and willing; and that quotation is found in Ambassador Dodd's diary and is document bearing our Number 2832-PS and United States Exhibit Number 29, particularly on page 176 of Ambassador Dodd's diary. At the same time, the Defendant Schacht promulgated his new plan for the control of imports and exports in the interest of rearmament. A year later he was appointed Plenipotentiary for the War Economy by the top-secret decree referred to a few minutes ago. In September 1936 the Defendant Goering announced-at a meeting attended by the Defendant Schacht and others-that Hitler had issued instructions to the Reich War Minister on the basis that the show-down with Russia is inevitable, and added that "all measures have to be taken just as if we were actually in the stage of imminent danger of war." I refer the Court to the document bearing the letters EC-416 and particularly . . . Before I discuss the quotation I might indicate that this document is also marked a secret Reich matter in the minutes of the Cabinet meeting of the 4th of September 1936, at 12 o'clock noon. It tells who was present: the Defendant Goering, Von Blomberg, the Defendant Schacht, and others. And on the second page of that document, in the second paragraph, is found the quotation by the Defendant Goering. It starts from the basic thought that: "The showdown with Russia is inevitable.
MR. DODD: What Russia has done in the field of reconstruction we too can do." On the third page of that document, in the second paragraph, the Defendant Goering stated: "All measures have to be taken just as if we were actually in the stage of imminent danger of war." In the same month the office of the Four Year Plan was created with the mission of making Germany self-sufficient for war in 4 years. I refer back, at this point, to the Document Number EC-408, and particularly refer Your Honors to the third paragraph, again, of that document, where the statement is made as regards the war economy: "Minister President Generaloberst Goering sees it as his task, within 4 years, to put the entire economy in a state of readiness for war." The Nazi Government officials provided the leadership in preparing Germany for war. They received, however, the enthusiastic cooperation of the German industrialists, and the role played by industrialists in converting Germany to a war economy is an important one, and I turn briefly to that aspect of the economic picture. On the invitation of the Defendant Goering, approximately 25 of the leading industrialists of Germany, and the Defendant Schacht, attended a meeting in Berlin on the 20th day of February, 1933. This was shortly before the election of March 5, 1933 in Germany. At this meeting Hitler announced the conspirators' aim to seize totalitarian control over Germany, to destroy the parliamentary system, to crush all opposition by force, and to restore the power of the Wehrmacht. Among those present on that day, in February of 1933 in Berlin, were Gustav Krupp, head of the huge munitions firm Friedrich Krupp, A.G.; four leading officials of the I.G. Farben, one of the world's largest chemical concerns; present, I repeat, was also the Defendant Schacht, and Albert Vogler was also there, the head of the huge steel trusts, the United Steel Works of Germany, and there were other leading industrialists there.
MR. DODD: In support of the assertion with respect to that meeting at that time and in that place, I refer Your Honors to the document bearing the number EC-439, it being an affidavit of George von Schnitzler, and it reads as follows: "I George von Schnitzler, a member of the Vorstand of I.G. Farben, make the following deposition under oath: "At the end of February 1933 four members of the Vorstand of I.G. Farben, including Dr. Bosch, the head of the Vorstand, and myself, were asked by the office of the President of the Reichstag to attend a meeting in his house, the purpose of which was not given. I do not remember the two other, colleagues of mine who were also invited. I believe the invitation reached me during one of my business trips to Berlin. I went to the meeting which was attended by about twenty persons, who I believe were mostly leading industrialists from the Ruhr. "Among those present I remember: "Dr. Schacht, who at that time was not yet head of the Reichsbank again and not yet Minister of Economics; "Krupp von Bohlen, who in the beginning of 1933 presided the Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie, which later on was changed in the semi-official organization 'Reichsgruppe Industrie'; "Dr. Albert Vögler, the leading man of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke; "Von Loewenfeld from an industrial work in Essen; "Dr. Stein, head of the Gewerkschaft Auguste Victoria, a mine which belongs to the I.G. Dr. Stein was an active member of the Deutsche Volkspartei. "I remember that Dr. Schacht acted as a kind of host. "While I had expected the appearance of Goering, Hitler entered the room, shook hands with everybody and took a seat at the table. In a long speech he talked mainly about the danger of communism over which he pretended that he just had won a decisive victory. "He then talked about the Buendnis (alliance) into which his party and the Deutschnationale Volkspartei had entered. This latter party, in the meantime, had been reorganized by Herr Von Papen. At the end he came to the point which seemed to me the purpose of the meeting.
MR. DODD: Hitler stressed the importance that the two aforementioned parties should gain the majority in the coming Reichstag election. Krupp von Bohlen thanked Hitler for his speech. After Hitler had left the room, Dr. Schacht proposed to the meeting the raising of an election fund of, as far as I remember, RM 3 million. The fund should be distributed between the two 'allies' according to their relative strength at the time being. Dr. Stein suggested that the Deutsche Volkspartei should be included . . ." THE PRESIDENT [Interposing]: Mr. Dodd, it seems to me that really all that that document shows is that there was a meeting at which Mr. Schacht was present, and at which it was determined to subscribe an election fund in 1933. Mr. DODD: That is quite so, Your Honor. I will not labor the Court by reading all of it. There were some other references, but not of major importance, in the last paragraph, to a division of the election fund. I just call Your Honors' attention to it in passing. I should like, at this point, to call Your Honors' attention to the document bearing the Number D-203. It is three-page document: D-203.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. DODD: I wish to read only excerpts from it very briefly. It is the speech delivered to the industrialists by Hitler, and I refer particularly to the second paragraph of that document: "Private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy . . ." THE PRESIDENT [Interposing]: What is the date of that?
MR. DODD: It is the speech made at the meeting on the 20th of February 1933 at Berlin.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MR. DODD: "Private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of democracy; it is conceivable only if the people have a sound idea of authority and personality." I refer to Page 2 of the document, and I should like to read an excerpt from that first paragraph on Page 2, about 13 sentences down, beginning with the words: "I recognized even while in the hospital that one had to search for new ideas conducive to reconstruction. I found them in Nationalism, in the value of . . . strength and power of individual personality." And, a little further down, the next to the last and the last sentence of that same paragraph, Hitler said: "If one rejects pacifism, one must put a new idea in its place immediately. Everything must be pushed aside, must be replaced by something better." And, in the third paragraph, the last sentence beginning: "We must not forget that all the benefits of culture must be introduced more or less with an iron fist, just as once upon a time the farmers were forced to plant potatoes." Then finally, on that page, in the fourth paragraph-nearly at the end of it: "With the very same courage with which we go to work to make up for what had been sinned during the last 14 years, we have withstood all attempts to move us off the right way." Then, on the top of the next page, the second paragraph, these words: "Now we stand before the last election. Regardless of the outcome there will be no retreat, even if the coming election does not bring about a decision."
THE PRESIDENT: Why did you not read the last line on Page 2?
MR. DODD: Beginning with the words "while still gaining power"?
THE PRESIDENT: The sentence before: "We must first gain complete power if we want to crush the other side completely. While still gaining power, one should not start the struggle against the opponent. Only when one knows that one has reached the pinnacle of power, that there is no further possible development, shall one strike."
MR. DODD: I was going to refer to that, if Your Honor pleases, in a minute. However, I think it is quite proper to have it inserted here. Before starting to read this last paragraph, I suggest that it is nearly the accustomed recess time, as I understand it, and it is a rather lengthy paragraph... THE PRESIDENT [interposing]: Yes, we will adjourn until 2 o'clock. [The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours.] 23 Nov.45 Afternoon Session
MR. DODD: If Your Honor pleases, if I may go back for just a very little bit to take up the train of thought where I left off at the noon recess. We were discussing the document, bearing the number D-203, and I had referred particularly to the third page of that document, and even more particularly to the second paragraph on that page; and I wish to read from a sentence approximately 8 or 10 lines down in that second paragraph, which reads as follows: "The question of restoration of the Wehrmacht will not be decided at Geneva but in Germany, when we have gained internal strength through internal peace." I wish to refer again to the same page of the same document, and to the last paragraph and the last sentence, with reference to the Defendant Goering, who was present at that same meeting to which this document refers, the meeting of February 20, 1933 in Berlin. Goering said that the sacrifices asked for surely would be so much easier for industry to bear if it realized that the election of March 5th will surely be the last one for the next 10 years, probably even for the next 100 years. In a memorandum dated the 22d day of February 1933, and for the information of the Court, in the document book bearing the number D-204, Gustav Krupp described this meeting briefly, and in the memorandum wrote that he had expressed to Hitler the gratitude of the 25 industrialists present at the meeting on February 20, 1933. There are other expressions in that memorandum, which we do not deem to be particularly pertinent to the allegations of the Indictment with which we are now concerned. It is also to establish the corroboration of the affidavit of Pohl that the meeting was held. I might point out to the Court that this memorandum, together with the report of the speech of Hitler, were found by the British and the United States armies in the personal files of the Defendant Krupp.
MR. DODD: I am aware, if Your Honors please, that the method I am pursuing here is a little tedious, because I am trying to refer specifically to the documents, and particularly to the excerpts referred to in my remarks, and therefore this presentation differs very considerably from that which has gone before. I trust, however, that you will bear with me, because this part of the case requires some rather careful and detailed explanations. In April of 1933, after Hitler had entrenched himself in power, Gustav Krupp, as chairman of the Reich Association of German Industry, which was the largest association of German industrialists, submitted to Hitler the plan of that Association for the reorganization of German industry, and in connection therewith, undertook to bring the Association into line with the aims of the conspirators, and to make it an effective instrument for the execution of their policies. In a letter of transmittal, Krupp stated that the plan of reorganization which he submitted on behalf of the Association of industrialists, was characterized by the desire to coordinate economic measures and political necessity, adopting the Fuehrer conception of the new German State. A copy of that letter of transmittal is set out in the document book under the Number D-157. In the plan of reorganization itself, Krupp stated; "The turn of political events is in line with the wishes which I myself and the board of directors have cherished for a long time .... In reorganizing the Reich Association of German Industry, I shall be guided by the idea of bringing the new organization into agreement with the political aims of the Reich Government." The ideas expressed by Krupp on behalf of the members of the Reich Association of German Industry for introducing the Leadership Principle into industry, were subsequently adopted. I respectfully refer the Court to the Reichsgesetzblatt of 1934, Part I, Page 1194, Sections 11, 12, and 16.
MR. DODD: Under the decree introducing the Leadership Principle into industry, each group of industry was required to have a leader who was to serve without compensation. The leaders were to be appointed and could be removed at the discretion of the Minister of Economics. The charter of each group was to be decreed by the leader, who was obligated to lead his group in accordance with the principles of the National Socialist State. I think it is fair to argue that the introduction of the Leadership Principle into the organizations of business permitted the centralization of authority, and guaranteed the efficient execution of orders, which the Government issued to business, in the interest of a promotion of a war economy. And the overwhelming support given by German industrialists to the Nazi war program is very vividly described in a speech prepared by Gustav Dupe in January of 1944, for delivery at the University of Berlin; and I must again respectfully refer Your Honors to the document in your book bearing the identification Number D-317. I shall not, of course, bore this court with a reading of that whole document, but I should like to quote from it without wrenching any of the material from its true context. And this statement is found beginning in the third and the fourth paragraphs, being the first large paragraph on the first page: "War material is lifesaving for one's own people, and whoever works and performs in those spheres can be proud of it. Here, enterprise as a whole finds its highest justification of existence. This justification, I may inject this here, crystallized especially during the time of interregnum between 1919 and 1933, when Germany was lying down disarmed ...." And further on: "It is the one great merit of the entire German war economy that it did not remain idle during those bad years, even though its activity could not be brought to light for obvious reasons.
MR. DODD: Through years of secret work, scientific and basic groundwork was laid in order to be ready again to work for the German Armed Forces at the appointed hour without loss of time or experience." And further quoting from that same speech, and the last paragraph, particularly on the first page: "Only through this secret activity of German enterprise, together with the experience gained meanwhile through production of peacetime goods, was it possible, after 1933, to fall into step with the new tasks arrived at, restoring Germany's military power. Only through all that could the entirely new and various problems, brought up by the Fuehrer's Four Year Plan for German enterprise, be mastered. It was necessary to exploit new raw materials, to explore and experiment, to invest capital in order to make German economy independent and strong-in short, to make it war-worthy." Quoting even further from this same speech: "I think I may state here that the German enterprises followed the new ways enthusiastically, that they made the great intentions of the Fuehrer their own, by fair competition and conscious gratitude, and became his faithful followers. How else could the tasks between 1933 and 1939, and especially those after 1939, have been overcome?" It must be emphasized that this secret rearmament program was launched immediately upon the seizure of power by the Nazi conspirators. On April 4, 1933 the Reich Cabinet passed a resolution establishing a Reich Defense Council. The function of this Council was secretly to mobilize for war; and at the second meeting of the working committee of the Councillors for Reich Defense, which was, by the way, the predecessor of the Reich Defense Council,-at that second meeting which was held on May 22nd of 1933, the chairman was the Defendant Keitel, then Colonel Keitel; and he stated that the Reich Defense Council would immediately undertake to prepare for war emergency.
MR. DODD: He stressed the urgency of the task of organizing a war economy, and announced that the Council stood ready to brush aside all of their obstacles. Fully aware of the fact that their action was in flagrant violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the Defendant Keitel emphasized the extreme importance of absolute secrecy when he said, and I quote from the document bearing the number EC-177, on Page 5 of that document. Colonel Keitel is speaking, and he said: "No document ought to be lost, since otherwise it may fall into the hands of the enemies' intelligence service. Orally transmitted matters are not provable; they can be denied by us in Geneva." The singleness of purpose with which the Nazi conspirators geared the German economy to the forging of a war machine is even further shown by the secret minutes of the sixth meeting of the working committee of the so-called Reich Defense Council, held on the 7th of February 1934, as shown in the document bearing the number EC-404, marked "Secret Command Matter", and dated the 7th of February 1934. At this meeting, Lieutenant General Beck pointed out that: "The actual state of preparation is the purpose of this session." Parenthetically, I might say that on the first page of that document it appears that besides Lieutenant General Beck, the Defendant Jodl was present, then Lieutenant Colonel Jodl. There was a Captain Schmundt; and there was a Colonel Guderian there; and there was a Major General Van Reichenau; there was a Major Warlimont; and these are names that Your Honors will hear more of in the course of the presentation of this case. Detailed measures of financing a future war were discussed and it was pointed out that the financial aspects of the war economy would be regulated by the Reich Finance Ministry and the Reichsbank, which was headed by the Defendant Schacht.