23 Nov. 45
Among those present on that day, in February of 1933 in Berlin,
were Gustav Krupp, head of the huge munitions firm Friedrich Krupp,
A.G.; four leading officials of the I.G. Farben, one of the world's
largest chemical concerns; present, I repeat, was also the Defendant
Schacht, and Albert Vögler was also there, the head of the huge
steel trusts, the United Steel Works of Germany, and there were other
leading industrialists there.
In support of the assertion with respect to that meeting at that
time and in that place, I refer Your Honors to the document bearing
the number EC-439, it being an affidavit of George von Schnitzler,
and it reads as follows:
"I George von Schnitzler, a member of the Vorstand of I.G.
Farben, make the following deposition under oath:
"At the end of February 1933 four members of the Vorstand of
I.G. Farben, including Dr. Bosch, the head of the Vorstand, and
myself, were asked by the office of the President of the Reichstag to
attend a meeting in his house, the purpose of which was not given. I
do not remember the two other colleagues of mine who were also
invited. I believe the invitation reached me during one of my
business trips to Berlin. I went to the meeting which was attended by
about twenty persons, who I believe were mostly leading
industrialists from the Ruhr.
"Among those present I remember:
"Dr. Schacht, who at that time was not yet head of the
Reichsbank again and not yet Minister of Economics;
"Krupp van Bohlen, who in the beginning of 1933 presided the
Reichsverband der Deutschen Industrie, which later on was changed in
the semi-official organization 'Reichsgruppe Industrie';
"Dr. Albert Vögler, the leading man of the Vereinigte
Stahlwerke;
"Von Loewenfeld from an industrial work in Essen;
"Dr. Stein, head of the Gewerkschaft Auguste Victoria, a
mine which belongs to the I.G. Dr. Stein was an active member of the
Deutsche Volkspartei.
"I remember that Dr. Schacht acted as a kind of host.
"While I had expected the appearance of Göring, Hitler
entered the room, shook hands with everybody and took a seat at the
table. In a long speech he talked mainly about the danger of
communism over which he pretended that he just had won a decisive
victory.