Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 1, p. 344
		19 February 1935), which in the long run helped realize the broad program of the financing of armaments, developed by him, and with the aid of which, as he testified, he "had found the way to finance the rearmament program." In his speech in Leipzig on 4 March 1935, Schacht, while summing up his preceding economic and financial activities, announced " . . . . everything that I say and do has the Führer's full agreement and I shall not do or say anything which is not approved by the Führer" (Transcript, Afternoon Session, 3 May 1946). Having become the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy, Schacht unified under himself the leadership of the entire German economy and through his efforts the establishment of the Hitlerite war machine was accomplished. a) The secret law of 21 May 1935, which appointed Schacht the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy, states as follows: "The task of the Plenipotentiary General for War Economy is to place all the economic resources in the service of warfare The Plenipotentiary General for War Economy within the framework of his functions is given the right to issue legal orders, deviating from the existing laws. He is the responsible head for financing wars through the Reich Ministry and the Reichsbank" (PS-2261, USA-24). b) Schacht financed German armaments through the Mefo system of promissory notes, which was a swindling venture on a national scale that has no precedent, and the success of which was dependent upon the realization of the aggressive plans of the Hitlerites. It was because of this that Schacht set 1942 as the date when the Mefo notes were to mature, and he pointed out in his speech of 29 November 1938 the relation between "the daring credit policy" of the Reichsbank and the aims of the Hitlerite foreign policy (EC-611, USA-622). c) Having made full use of his plenary powers, Schacht carefully developed and carried out a broad program of economic mobilization which allowed the Hitlerite leaders to wage war at any time considered most favorable. In particular, from the report of Schacht's deputy, Wohltat, "the preparation for mobilization carried out by the Plenipotentiary for War Economy" shows that Schacht provided to the last detail for the system of exploitation of the German economy in war time, all the way from the utilization of industrial enterprises, of raw material resources and manpower down to the distribution of 80,000,000 ration cards (EC-258, USA-625). It is significant that this report was drawn up a month after Hitler's statement at the conference of 5 November 1937, at which Hitler set forth this concrete plan of aggression (PS-386, USA-25). 344
		Text: English     International Military Tribunal "Blue Series," Vol. 1, p. 344     Last modified: June 3, 2000 Technical/administrative contact: webmaster@holocaust-history.org