Fourth Day:
Friday, 23rd November, 1945
COLONEL STOREY: That is right, sir. They have been, are now,
and will be completed during the week-end, and, as I
understand defence 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
Centre at their service. I understood that was agreeable
yesterday.
Sir, while I am on my feet, and in order to obviate some
misapprehension, for the benefit of defence 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 Centre ample copies and sets of the
Reichsgesetzblatt, and I dare say that one-half of the
documents referred to in Major Walllis's presentation will
be found in the Reichsgesetzblatt. I assure your Honour that
over the week-end we will do the utmost to explain to
defence 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 Honour pleases, 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 a
list of the documents to which I shall make reference, has
been lodged in the Defendants' Information Centre, and
photostatic copies of the originals have also been placed
there this morning.
It is my responsibility on behalf of the Chief Prosecutor
for the United States of America to present the proof with
reference to the allegations of the indictment under Section
XV 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
Mobilisation for Aggressive War." The second paragraph:-
[Page 127]
I should like to hand to the Court at this point the so-
called document 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.
The significance of the economic measures adopted and
applied by the 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 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 Honour pleases, 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 perfectly clear to
the world that the Nazi conspirators had created probably
the greatest instrument of aggression in history. That
machine was built up 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 motorised 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 35,000 tons, four heavy cruisers of
10,000 tons, and other warships; further, that the Luftwaffe
had grown to a point where it had a strength of 260,000 men,
twenty-one squadrons, consisting Of 240 echelons, and thirty-
three anti-aircraft batteries.
He likewise reported that out of the few factories permitted
by the Versailles Treaty there had arisen - and I now quote
him from the document EC 28, which consists of a lecture
which he delivered on the 24th May, 1939 - in the Nazi
Foreign Office: "The mightiest armament industry"; or rather
he reported that out of the few factories permitted by the
Treaty of Versailles 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 to-day the largest in the world
after the Americans. The aluminium production exceeds that
of America and of 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."
That quotation, I repeat, was from a document hearing the
lettering "EC" and the number after the dash "28."
These results - the results which General Thomas spoke about
in his 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
[Page 128]
[*NB. This quotation is not taken from the lecture given by
General Thomas in may 1939, but from his manuscript entitled
"Basic Facts for a History of German War Armaments Economy"
(1944).]
That quotation from General Thomas will be found in the
document 2353-PS.
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 which I have just been
reading, your Honour - is document 2353-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: It is not in EC-28?
MR. DODD: No. It is another quotation from General Thomas,
but from another writing of his.
THE PRESIDENT: 2353?
MR. DODD: The document is 2353-PS. The passage will be found
on the third page of that document.
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 mobilising the German economy for
aggressive war began promptly after the Nazi conspirators'
seizure of power. It was entrusted principally to the
defendants, Goering and Funk.
The defendant Schacht, as is well known, was appointed
President of the Reichsbank in March of 1933 and Minister of
Economics in August of 1934. The world did not know,
however, that the responsibility for the execution of this
programme was entrusted to the office of the Four Year Plan
under the defendant Goering.
I should now like to call to your Honour's attention
document EC-408, and I should also like to refer at this
time to another document for your Honour's attention while I
discuss the material, which is number 2261-PS. To continue.
Nor did the world know that the defendant Schacht was
designated Plenipotentiary for the War Economy on 21St May,
1935, with complete control over the German civilian economy
for war production in the Reich Defence Council, established
by a top secret Hitler decree.
I invite your Honour's attention to document 2261-PS, which
I referred to a few minutes ago.
The defendant Schacht recognised that the preparation for
war came before all else for, in a memorandum concerning the
problem of financing rearmament written on 3rd May, 1935, he
stated that his comments were based on the assumption that
the accomplishment of the armament programme--
THE PRESIDENT (interposing): Pardon me, but you referred us
to document 2261.
MR. DODD: Yes, your Honour.
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."
[Page 129]
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 channelled 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 four years, so that the Nazi conspirators would be fully
prepared for aggressive war. The responsibility for the
execution of this programme 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."
This document sets out that the Fuehrer and Reich Chancellor
has conferred powers in regard to mobilisation 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 programme involved the reorganisation and
control of the whole German economy for war.
Again referring to Major General Thomas - and specifically
to our document EC-27 - General Thomas, in a lecture on the
28th of January, 1939, made at the Staff Instructor's
Course, stated:
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 ready and willing.
[page 130]
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 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 document EC-416. 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 4th September, 1936, at 12 o'clock noon. It tells who was
present: the defendant Goering, von Blomberg, the defendant
Schacht, and others.
On the second page of that document, in the second
paragraph, is found the quotation by 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."
On the third page of that document, in the second paragraph,
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 four years. I refer back, at this point, to
document EC-408, and I particularly refer your Honour 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 put the entire economy in a state of
readiness for war.
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(Part 3 of 7)
THE PRESIDENT: Colonel Storey, I understood from you that
you proposed to make available to the defendants the trial
briefs which contain certain observations upon the documents
put in.
" 2. They used organisations of German business as
instruments of economic mobilisation for war.
The fifth paragraph under that same heading A, and the final
one in so far as my responsibility goes this morning, is
that which reads
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
rearmament programme, and set out to produce and develop
huge quantities of materials of war and to create a
powerful military potential."
"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 26th 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."
"The Fuehrer and Reichs Chancellor has nominated the
President of the Directorate, Dr. Schacht, to be
Plenipotentiary General for the War Economy."
I might point out, in addition to the second paragraph, the
last 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."
"The National Socialist State, soon after taking over
power, reorganised the German economy in all sections
and directed it towards a military view-point, which had
been requested by the Army for years. Due to the
reorganisation, agriculture, commerce and professions
become those powerful instruments the Fuehrer needs for
his extensive plans, and we can say to-day that Hitler's
mobile politics, as well as the powerful efforts of the
Army and economy, would not have been possible without
the necessary reorganisation by the National Socialist
Government. We can now say that the economic
organisation as a whole corresponds with the needs,
although slight adjustments will have to be made yet.
These reorganisations 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 to-day
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
defence."
If your Honour pleases, this programme 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.