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Volume V · Page 808
| were merely formal and very dry
talks of the balance which had been established already, and only figures were
submitted. But apart from that, at that time, I had the impression that as a
consequence of the emergency existing among the German people it was necessary
to use every labor and to use it to its fullest extent. The most important at
that time was that work was done, that the production was being stepped up,
because after all this was not a normal war any more, but a total war, and a
total war which used the people to the last man and to the last woman. The
money at that time was not very important any more. The only important thing
was the raw materials and the labor. The finances was a second rate question.
PRESIDING JUDGE TOMS: Witness, do you think that total war involves using the last man and the last woman of other countries? DEPENDANT GEORG LOERNER: No, your Honor. I don't think so. Q. I suppose a nation can decide for itself whether to use the last man and the last woman and the last pfennig in waging war, that is its own business. The accusation here is that the men and women and money of other countries were used to wage total war for Germany. Do you see the difference? A. Yes, your Honor, I do see it. Q. Do I understand you to mean that it is all right, or that it is justifiable for a nation to take anything from another country in order to wage war itself. You don't mean that? A. Your Honor, I did not mean to say that; but what I meant to say was that only at that time it was presented to us as extreme necessity in war, to use the means of the other countries for the aims of warfare, too. Q. You mean that the situation was desperate, and any means for conducting the war was justified? A. Well, that was the way it was explained to us at that time. |
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