23 Nov. 45
gun, and artillery factories is at
present larger than that of any other state."
That quotation, I repeat, was from a document bearing the
lettering "EC" and the number after the dash
"28". It is United States of America Exhibit 23.
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 again, he stated:
"History will know only a few
examples of cases where a country has directed, even in peace time,
all its economic forces so deliberately and systematically towards
the requirements of war, as Germany was compelled to do in the period
between the two World Wars."
That quotation from General Thomas will be found
in the document bearing our Number 2353-PS. It is another quotation
from General Thomas, but from another writing of his.
The task of mobilizing the German economy for aggressive war
began promptly after the Nazi conspirators' seizure of power. It was
entrusted principally to the Defendants Schacht, Göring, 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 program was entrusted to the
office of the Four Year Plan under the Defendant Göring.
I should now like to call to Your Honors' attention a 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--Number 2261-PS.
And I continue to say that the world did not know, as well, that
the Defendant Schacht 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 the Document
2261-PS, which I referred to a few minutes ago.
The Defendant Schacht recognized that the preparation for war
came before all else for, in a memorandum concerning the problems 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]: Pardon me, but you referred us to
Document 2261.