Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression [Page 349]
It is well known that the Nazi conspirators rearmed Germany
on a vast scale. The purpose of that rearmament is revealed
in the secret records of the plans and deliberations of the
inner councils of the Nazis. These records show that the
reorganization of the German government, the financial
wizardry of Hjalmar Schacht, and the total mobilization of
the German economy largely under Hjalmar Schacht, Hermann
Goering, and Walter Funk, were directed at a single goal:
aggressive war.
I. ECONOMIC MOBILIZATION FOR WAR
The significance of the economic measures adopted and
applied by the conspirators can be properly appraised only
if they are placed in the larger social and political
context of Nazi Germany. These economic measures were
adopted while the conspirators were 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
these conspirators were threatening to use force and were
planning to use force to achieve their material and
political objects. In short, 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.
In 1939 and 1940, after the Nazi aggression upon Poland,
Holland, Belgium, and France, it became 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, twenty-one
squadrons, consisting of two hundred forty echelons, and
thirty-three Anti-Aircraft Batteries. (EC-28)
[Page 350]
General Thomas further reported, in a lecture delivered on
24 May 1939 in the Nazi Foreign Office, that out of the few
factories permitted by the Versailles Treaty there had
arisen *******
"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 them. Germany's crude steel production is
today the largest in the world after the Americans. The
aluminum production exceeds 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-28)
These results about which General Thomas spoke in his book
entitled Basic Facts for a History of German War and
Armaments Economy were achieved only by making preparation
for war the dominating objective of German economy. As
General Thomas stated on page 479 of his book:
"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." (2353-PS)
The task of mobilizing the German economy for aggressive war
began promptly after the Nazi conspirators' seizure of
power. It was entrusted principally to Schacht, Goering, and
Funk.
Schacht was appointed President of the Reichsbank in March
1933, and Minister of Economics in August 1934. The world
did not know, however, that the responsibility for the
execution of this program was entrusted to the office of the
Four Year Plan under Goering (EC-408). Nor did the world
know that Schacht was designated Plenipotentiary for the War
Economy on 21 May 1935, with complete control over the
German civilian economy for war production in the Reich
Defense Council, established by a top secret Hitler decree.
A letter dated 24 June 1935, at Berlin, and signed by von
Blomberg, reads in part:
" ***The Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor has nominated
the President of the directorate of the Reichsbank, Dr.
Schacht, to be Plenipotentiary-General for War Economy.
"***I point out the necessity of strictest secrecy
once more ***." (2261-PS)
Through Schacht's financial genius monetary measures were
devised to restore German industry to full production; and
through
[Page 351]
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.
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 Germany 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 Goering. A "memorandum on the Four Year Plan and
Preparation of the War Economy," dated 30 December 1936, and
marked "Secret Command Matter", sets out that the Fuehrer
and Reich Chancellor has conferred powers in regard to
mobilization preparations in the economic field that need
further definition. The third paragraph refers specifically
to Minister-President, Generaloberst Goering as Commissioner
of the Four Year Plan, by authority of the Fuehrer and Reich
Chancellor granted 18 October 1936. The existence of this
program involved the reorganization and control of the whole
German economy for war. (EC-408)
The military objectives of the German economy were clearly
stated by General Thomas in a lecture on 28 February 1939,
delivered at the Staff Instructor's course. He 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 became 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." (EC-27)
This program was not undertaken in a vacuum; it was
deliberately designed and executed to provide the necessary
instrument
[Page 352]
of the Nazi conspirators' plans for aggressive war. In
September 1934 Schacht admitted to the American Ambassador
in Berlin that the Hitler Party was absolutely committed to
war, and that the people too were ready and willing. (EC-
461). At the same time 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 War Economy by top secret decree (2261-PS)
On 4 September 1936 Goering announced, at a Cabinet meeting
attended by von Blomberg, 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." (EC-416)
In the same month the office of the Four Year Plan was
created with the mission of making Germany self-sufficient
for war in four years. Goering regarded it as his task,
within four years, to put the entire economy in a state of
readiness for war. (EC-08)
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Volume
I Chapter VIII
The Economic Aspects of the Conspiracy
(Part 1 of 5)