. NMT06-T0176
Volume VI · Page 176
| IV. DEVELOPMENT AND
ORGANIZATION OF THE FLICK CONCERN THE POSITION OF THE DEFENDANTS |
| A. Introduction |
| Both before and during the Third Reich there
were substantial and frequent changes in Flick's control of industrial
participations and the manner in which the Flick Concern maintained itself as a
working and legal entity in relation to numerous operating companies. This
complication is enhanced because contemporaneous documents of the same period
often refer to the Concern or branches thereof by different names and by
various abbreviations. The material included in this section deals briefly with the organization and development of the Flick Concern, the distribution of functions as among the defendants and others within the Concern, and the various positions held by the defendants both within and without the Concern. How the prosecution and defense related the functions and positions of the defendants to the issues in the case is indicated in a general way in the opening statements (sec. III). Two charts on the organization of the Flick Concern were discussed in the opening statement for the prosecution (sec. III A) and have been reproduced along with the text of this opening statement. These two charts were frequently displayed in the courtroom during the trial as visual aids in connection with argument and the proffer of evidence. Basically the evidence and stipulation comprising this section have been arranged to afford a general introduction both to the Flick Concern and to the various positions and functions of the individual defendants. However, the arrangement of the material is also calculated to give a source for subsequent reference when a fuller understanding of evidence reproduced in later sections of the volume may make it essential to refer back to materials on the general status of a particular defendant at a particular time. Accordingly, a number of contemporaneous documents mainly treating the development of the Flick Concern (sec. B below), are followed by six separate sections (C through H below), each of which deals more specifically with the broad outlines of the personal history of one defendant. Each of these last six sections, of course, often goes beyond the role of the Particular defendant in question and likewise treats of the history of the Concern and of the functions of various other persons. |
