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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).
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