23 Nov. 45
In the document labeled EC-252, a letter written to General Von
Blomberg, dated the 8th day of July 1937, the Defendant Schacht
wrote:
"The direction of the war economy by
the plenipotentiary would in that event nevertake place entirely
independent from the rest of the war mechanism, but would be aimed at
accomplishment of the political war purpose with the assistance of
all economic forces. I am entirely willing, therefore, to participate
in this way in the preparation of the forthcoming order giving effect
to the Defense Act."
In the spring of 1937, the Defendant Schacht participated with
representatives of the three branches of the Armed Forces in war
games in war economy which was something new by way of military
exercises. The war games in war economy were held at Godesberg,
Germany. And I refer to the document bearing the label EC-174. It has
as a heading, or subheading, under the summary: "War economy
trip to Godesberg undertaken by General Staff between the 25th of May
and the 2d of June," and it goes on to outline in some slight
detail that there was a welcome to the General Staff war economy
trip. It tells something in a rather vague and not altogether clear
way of just how a war game in war economy was conducted but it leaves
no doubt in the mind that such a war game in war economy had been
conducted at Godesberg at that time. And on the second page of this
document, the last paragraph is the translation of Part 1 of the
speech welcoming Dr. Schacht. It says:
"Before I start with the discussion
of the war game in war economy, I have to express how grateful we all
are that you, President Dr. Schacht, have gone to the trouble to
personally participate in our final discussion today despite all your
other activities. This proves to us your deep interest in war economy
tasks shown at all times and your presence here is renewed proof that
you are willing to facilitate for us soldiers the difficult
war-economic preparations and to strengthen a harmonious cooperation
with your offices."
I should also like to call the Court's attention
to the next to the last paragraph on the first page. It is a
one-sentence paragraph, and it simply says, "I want to point
out, however, that all material and all information received has to
be kept in strict secrecy," and it refers to the preceding
paragraph concerning the war games in war economy.
It appears that the annexation of Austria was a goal which the
Defendant Schacht had long sought, for in a speech to the employees
of the former Austrian National Bank, as set out in the document