. NMT05-T0156
Volume V · Page 156
| defined and specified by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, and he is, therefore, guilty under count three of the indictment. |
| KONRAD MEYER-HETLING |
| Konrad Meyer-Hetling was chief of the
planning office within the Staff Main Office. During his entire period of
service in this position he was a part time worker only, still retaining a
professorship at the University of Berlin. Meyer-Hetling is a scientist of
considerable world renown — an agricultural expert. The prosecution's case rests principally upon the "General Plan East", a survey and proposed plan for the "reconstruction of the East", prepared by Meyer-Hetling at Himmler's request and submitted to Himmler on 28 May 1942. It is the contention of the prosecution that this plan formed the basis for the measures taken in the incorporated Eastern territories and other occupied territories. A consideration of General Plan East, as well as correspondence dealing with this plan, reveals nothing of an incriminatory nature. This plan, as contended by the defendant, envisaged the orderly reconstruction of the East — and particularly village and country after the war. The plan plainly states, "According to plan, the achievement of the work of reconstruction will be spread over five periods of 5 years each, totalling 25 years." There is nothing in the plan concerning evacuations and other drastic measures which were actually adopted and carried out in the Germanization program. As a matter of fact, it is made quite plain by the evidence, as the defendant contended, that this General Plan East was never adopted and no effort was made to carry out its proposals. Actually, Himmler, instead of an orderly reconstruction, decided upon and pursued a drastic plan which in all its cruel aspects sought the reconversion of the East into a Germanic stronghold practically overnight. Of course, Meyer-Hetling is not responsible for these measures which he did not suggest. Simply by virtue of his position as chief of planning, the prosecution would have the Tribunal assume that Meyer-Hetling was the person responsible for all planning and, consequently, the drastic actions taken must have had their origin in his planning. The difficulty with such an assumption is that there is no proof to support it. He is charged, for instance, with such criminal activities as kidnaping alien children, abortions on Eastern workers, and hampering the reproduction of enemy nationals. Yet in thousands of pages of documentary and oral evidence, there is not a single syllable of evidence even remotely connecting him with any of these activities. |
