23 Nov. 45
that need further definition, and in the third paragraph it
refers specifically to Minister President, Generaloberst Göring
as Commissioner of the Four Year Plan, by authority of the
Führer 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.
Again referring to Major General Thomas--and specifically to our
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 power, 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 Führer 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."
If Your Honors please, this program 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.
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 were ready and
willing; and that quotation is found in Ambassador Dodd's diary and
is document bearing our Number 2832-PS and United States Exhibit
Number 29, particularly on page 176 of Ambassador Dodd's diary.
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.