. NMT06-T0172
Volume VI · Page 172
| inhumane exploitation, as well as of the
prisoners of war in the Flick works — an exploitation which in many cases
is alleged to have led to death through hunger and illness. The defendant Dr. Terberger was a member of the Vorstand of the foundry Esenwerk Gesellschaft Maximillianshuette in Sulzbach-Rosenberg — thus of one single factory out of the great number of Flick enterprises. I assert and shall prove that in these works the foreign workers and the prisoners of war were treated humanely. I uphold the legal viewpoint that, taking into consideration the system of government labor allocation and the system of police and Party terrorism, a private person, even a member of the Vorstand of a company whose production was essential to the war effort, is not punishable only because of the employment of foreign workers; even if in the course of time he suspected or learned that some of the workers had come to Germany by psychological coercion, i.e., due to so-called drafts or labor conscriptions. I assert and shall prove that the prisoners of war were not employed in the production or transportation of arms and ammunition in these plants, i.e., not in direct armament production. In addition, it will be necessary to prove legally that the so-called "IMI's" (Italian Military Internees) were not prisoners of war in the meaning of the Geneva Convention and that — since the Soviet Union is not a signatory of the Geneva Convention — the unwritten rules of international law are not to be applied to its prisoners of war in consideration of the lack of mutuality, at least not so far as assignment to armament production is concerned. Finally, in connection with the responsibility for the prisoners of war, the decisive influence of German military agencies, the military management of the prisoner-of-war camps (Stalags) and the assignment, supervision, and approval of the employment of the prisoners of war by these agencies will have to be shown. The description of the actual working and living conditions of the foreign workers in the various factories of the Maxhuette will follow, in particular from a correct evaluation of the so-called incriminating documents, the number of which is small in comparison to the total number of the documents submitted. By an intelligent interpretation of the complete text or its commentary made by competent persons, some of these documents will make the situation of the foreign workers appear not less favorable than the only witness for the prosecution, Kratochvil, stated in his interrogation on 9 May. Your Honors, I am not reading the remainder of this Paragraph as conditions have changed and the witnesses Dr. von Hoven |
