In the second place -- in the second place, daily lists of documents which the prosecution proposes -- secondly, a list of documents was filed in the Defense Information Center on November 1st. I am not sure as to whether all of those or a part of them were included. Secondly, that each attorney presenting each segment of the case sends down to the Defense Information Center a list of the documents which he proposes to offer in evidence upon his preparation. Thirdly, I wonder if the Tribunal and Defense Counsel realize the physical problems that are inposed? I am informed that copies of these documents in English as well as copies of the briefs, were delivered either last night or this morning in Defendants' Information Center. Lastly, other presentations that follow, we wall abide by the Tribunal's request - namely, that, prior to the presentation the court will be furnished with these document books, with these briefs, and defense counsel will also be furnished with them in advance. The weekend will permit us to do that.
(here follows Bill Weigel's transcript).
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal thinks that the trial must now continue without any adjournment, but that in the future as soon as possible the defendants' counsel will be furnished with copies of the documents which are to be put in evidence.
DR. SERVATIUS (Defense Counsel): I should like to present the following: The documents are presented to the Court also in an English translation. An examination of these translations should be made available to the Defense. I point out particularly that the translation of technical terms could possibly lead to misunderstandings. Moreover, the documents are provided with an introductory remark and a table of contents. The Defense should also have opportunity to read through this table of contents and to examine it. preliminary remarks be made available to the Defense.
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I understood from you that you proposed to make available to the Defense the trial briefs which contain certain observations upon the documents put in.
COLONEL STOREY: That is right, sir. They have been, are now, and will be completed during the week-end, and, as I understood, Defense Counsel were willing for the briefs to be furnished in English, and if they want a translation, there will be German speaking officers in Defendants' Information Center at their service. I understood that was agreeable yesterday. apprehension, for the benefit of Defense Counsel, when we refer to document numbers as, say, 1850 PS, in many instances that is a document which is a copy of a citation or a decree in the Reichsgesetzblatt, and, therefore, is not a separate document of ours. We have placed in the Defendants' Information Center ample copies of the Reichsgesetzblatt, and I dare say that one-half of the documents referred to in Major Wallis' presentation will be found in the Reichsgesetzblatt. I assure your Honor that over the weekend we will do the utmost to explain to Defense Counsel and to make available to them all information that we have and will do so in the future in advance.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. The Tribunal will now adjourn for ten minutes.
(The Tribunal then took a ten minute recess, after which proceedings continued as follows:)
COLONEL STOREY: If your Honors please, the next subject to be presented is the economic preparation for aggressive war, by Mr. Dodd.
MR. THOMAS J. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, Mr. President, and Members of the Tribunal: In view of the discussions which took place just before the recess period, I believe it proper for me to inform the Tribunal that the documents to which I shall make reference or a list of those documents has been lodged in the Defendants' Information Center, and, as well, photostatic copies of the originals have been placed there this morning. United States of America to present the proof with reference to the allegations of the indictment under Section IV E, on Page 6 of the English version of the indictment, and particularly beginning with the second paragraph under E, which is entitled, "The Acquiring of Totalitarian Control in Germany: Economic: And the Economic Planning and Mobilization for Aggressive War." The second paragraph:
"2. They used organizations of German business as instruments of economic mobilization for war.
"3. They directed Germany's economy towards preparation and equipment of the military machine. To this end they directed finance, capital investment, and foreign trade.
"4. The Nazi conspirators, and in particular the industrialists among them, embarked upon a huge re-armament programme, and set out to produce and develop huge quantities of materials of war and to create a powerful military potential." in so far as my responsibility goes this morning, is that which reads:
"With the object of carrying through the preparation for war the Nazi conspirators set up a series of administrative agencies and authorities.
For example, in 1936 they established for this purpose the office of the Four Year plan with the defendant Goering as Plenipotentiary, vesting it with overriding control over Germany's economy. Furthermore, on 28th August, 1939, immediately before launching their aggression against Poland, they appointed the defendant Funk Plenipotentiary for Economics; and on 30th August 1939, they set up the Ministerial Council for the Defence of the Reich to act as a War Cabinet." world already knows, that the Nazi conspirators rearmed Germany on a vast scale. I propose to place in evidence the secret records of the plans and deliberations of the inner councils of the Nazis, which prove that the reorganization of the German government, the financial wizardry of the Defendant Schacht, and the total mobilization of the German economy largely under the Defendant Schacht, Goering, and Funk, were directed at a single goal:
Aggressive war. book, which contains the English translation of the original German document. I do not make an offer at this time of these documents in evidence, but hand them to the Court for the purpose of easing the task of the Court in following the discussion concerning these documents. I might say at this point also that I should like to submit at a little later date a brief for the assistance of the Court after I have concluded my remarks before it this morning. conspirators can, of course, be properly appraised only if they are placed in the larger social and political context of Nazi Germany. The economic measures were adopted while the conspirators were, as has already been shown, directing their vast propaganda apparatus to the glorification of war. They were adopted while the conspirators were perverting physical training into training for war. They were adopted while, as my colleagues will show, these conspirators were threatening to use force and were planning to use force to achieve their material and political objects. In short, if your Honors please, these measures constitute in the field of economics and government administration the same preparation for aggressive war which dominated every aspect of the Nazi state. Belgium, and France it became perfectly clear to the world that the Nazi conspirators had created probably the greatest instrument of aggression in history. That machine was built up almost in its entirety in a period of less than one decade. In May of 1939 Major General George Thomas, former Chief of the Military-Economic Staff in the Reich War Ministry, reported that the German Army had grown from seven Infantry divisions in 1933 to thirty-nine Infantry divisions, among them four fully motorized and three mountain divisions; eighteen Corps Headquarters; five Panzer divisions; twenty two machine gun battalions.
Moreover, General Thomas stated that the German Navy had greatly expanded by the launching, among other vessels, of two battleships of thirty-five thousand tons, four heavy cruisers of ten thousand tons, and other warships; further, that the Luftwaffe had grown to a point where it had a strength of two hundred-sixty thousand men, twentyone squadrons, consisting of two hundred-forty echelons, and thirty-three Anti-Aircraft Batteries. Versailles Treaty there had arisen, and I now quote him, quoting from the document bearing our number EC 28, which consists of a lecture delivered by Major General Thomas on the 24th of May 1939 in the Nazi Foreign Office -out of the few factories permitted by the Versailles Treaty there had arisen, and I now quote him, "The mightiest armament industry now existing in the world. It has attained the performances which in part equal the German wartime performances and in part even surpasses than. Germany's crude steel production is today the largest in the world after the Americans. The aluminum production excees that of America and of the other countries of the world very considerably. The output of our rifle, machine gun, and artillery factories is at present Larger than that of any other state." "EC" and the number after the dash "28". It is United States of America exhibit 23. lecture in May of 1939--were achieved only by making preparation for war the dominating objective of German economy. And, to quote General Thomas from that same speech, he stated: "History will know only a few examples of cases where a country has directed, even in peace time, all its economic forces deliberately and systematically towards the requirements of war, as Germany was compelled to do in the period between the two World Wars." ing our number 2353-
THE PRESIDENT (interposing): Mr. Dodd, it would help me personally if I knew where, in the document, you were reading from.
MR. DODD: Very well, sir. Would you like me to refer back to number EC-28?
THE PRESIDENT: I have it before me, but I haven't the particular passage in the document which you were reading.
MR. DODD: That document--the one from which I have just been reading, your Honor--is in document number 2353-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: It is not in EC-28?
MR. DODD: No. It is a quotation from General Thomas, but from another writing of his.
THE PRESIDENT: 2353?
MR. DODD. The document is 2353-PS. It will be found on the third page of that document 2353-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: I seem to have only two pages of that document 2353-PS.
MR. DODD: I am sorry; there should be a third page.
THE PRESIDENT: There is a page in between?
MR. DODD: There should be a third page. There may be one page missing.
THE PRESIDENT: Oh yes; I have it now.
MR. DODD: The task of mobilizing the German economy for aggressive war began promptly after the Nazi conspirator's seizure of power. It was entrusted principally to the defendants Schacht, Goering, and Funk. Reichsbank in March of 1933 and Minister of Economics in August of 1934. The world did not know, however, that the responsiblity for the execution of this program was entrusted to the office of the Four Year Plan under the defendant Goering.
I should now like to call to your Honors' attention document bearing the number EC-408, and I should also like to refer at this time to another document for your Honors' attention while I discuss the material, which is number 2261-PS. was designated Plenipotentiary for the War Economy on May 21, 1935, with complete control over the German civilian economy for war production in the Reich Defense Council, established by a top secret Hitler decree.
I invite your Honors' attention to document 2261-PS, which I referred to a few minutes ago. before all else for, in a memorandum concerning the problem of financing rearmament written on the 3rd of May, 1935, he stated that his comments were based on the assumption that the accomplishment of the armament program -
THE PRESIDENT (Interposing): Parden me, but you referred us to document 2261.
MR. DODD: Yes, your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: But you haven't read anything from it.
MR. DODD: I did not; I merely referred the Court to it since it -
THE PRESIDENT (Interposing): It would help us, I think, if, when you refer to a document, you refer to some particular passage in it.
MR. DODD Very well.
THE PRESIDENT: I think it must be the middle paragraph in the document: The Fuehrer has nominated the President of the Directorate of the Reichsbank, Dr. Schacht.
MR. DODD: Yes, that is the paragraph to which I wish to make reference. paragraph, which states, in a letter dated June 24, 1935, at Berlin:
"The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor has nominated the President of the Plenipotentiary General for the War Economy." paragraph or the last sentence of that letter, which reads: "I point out the necessity of strictest secrecy once more"; the letter being signed, "von Blomberg".
Through Schascht'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 new 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 dicuss 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 four 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. It is dated the 30th day of December 1936, marked "Secret Command Matter", and entitled, "Report, Memorandum on the Four Year Plan and Preparation of the War Economy." has conferred powers in regard to mobilization preparations in the economic field that need further definition. 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. 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 the power, has 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.
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." it was deliberately designed and executed to provide the necessary instrument of the Nazi conspirators' plans for aggressive war. to the American Ambassador in Berlin that the Hitler Party was absolutely committed to war, and the people too were ready and willing.
That quotation is found in Ambassador Dodd's diary and is document bearing our number 2832-PS, United States Exhibit number 29; in particular, on page 176 of Ambassador Dodd's diary. 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. 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 was inevitable, and added that "all measures have to be taken just as if we were actually in the stage of imminent danger of war". 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 were present:
The defendant Goering, von Blomberg, the defendant Schacht, and others.
found the quotation by the defendant Goering. It starts from the basic thought that: "The show-down with Russia is inevitable. What Russia has done in the field of reconstruction we too can do." defendant Goering states: "All measures have to be taken just as if we were actually in the stage of imminent danger of war." with the mission of making Germany self-sufficient for war in four years. I refer back, at this point, to document EC-408, and I 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 four years, to preparing Germany for war. They received, however, the enthusiastic cooperation of the German industrialists. 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. 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 resore the power of the Wehrmacht.
were Gustav Krupp, head of the huge munitions firm, Alfried Krupp, A.G.; four leading officials of the I.G. Farben Works, one of the world's largest chemical concerns; and, I repeat, also present was the defendant Schacht. 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.
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, which 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 20 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 Vogler, the leading man of the Vereinigte Stahlwerke.
"Von Lowenfeld from an industrial work in Essen.
"Dr. STein, head of the Geworkschaft 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 top of 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 Bundnis - alliance - into which his party and the Deutsch Nationale 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. 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 3,000,000. The fund should be distributed between the two 'allies' according to their relative strength at the time being. Dr. Stein suggested that the Deutsch Volkspartei should be included" -
THE PRESIDENT (interposing): Mr. Dodd, it seems to me that really all 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 it 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, which is a three-page document.
THE PRESIDENT: What is the number?
MR. DODD: D-203. I wish to read one excerpt 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." excerpt from the 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". tence 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."
Then, in the third paragraph, the last sentence: "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." 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." 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: "While still gaining power, one should not start the struggle against the opponent"?
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 please, in a minute. However, I think it is quite proper to have it inserted here. is now 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.
(Whereupon at 1230 hours the Tribunal adjourned, to reconvene at 1400 hours of the same date).
Tribunal, in the matter of: The United States of
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. 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 gained internal strength through internal peace."
document, and to the last paragraph and the last sentence, which refers 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 hundred years."
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.
which we do not deem to be particularly pertinent to the allegations of the indictment with which we are now concerned. 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. 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. 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. 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 have cherished for a long time.
In reorganizing the Reich Government."
members of the Reich Association of German Industry for introducing the leadership principle into industry, were subsequently adopted.
I, 1194, Sections 11, 12 and 16. 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 created by the leader, who was obligated to lead his group in accordance with the principles of the National Socialist State. 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.. war program is very vividly described in a speech prepared by Gustav Krupp 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. document, but I should like to quote from it without wrenching any of the material from its true context. first large paragraph on the first page:
"War material is life-saving 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 justifi disarmed";and further on:
"It is the one great merit of the entire German war economy that it could not be brought to light for obvious reasons.
Through years of hour without loss of time or experience."