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Volume VI · Page 226
| V. RELATIONS WITH GOVERNMENT
LEADERS, VARIOUS POLITICAL PARTIES, THE SS, AND THE "CIRCLE OF FRIENDS" OF HIMMLER |
| A. Introduction |
| Count four of the indictment (sec. I, above)
alleged that the defendants Flick and Steinbrinck were connected with plans and
enterprises involving, and were members of organizations or groups connected
with atrocities and various inhumane acts committed by the Nazi Party and its
affiliated organizations, principally the SS. This count further charged that
defendants Flick and Steinbrinck were members of a group of SS and business
leaders known as the "Circle of Friends", the "Friends of Himmler" (the Reich
Leader SS) or the "Keppler Circle", and that through this group these
defendants worked closely with the SS and supported it in various ways. Under
count five the defendant Steinbrinck was charged with membership after 1
September 1939 in the SS, an organization declared criminal by the
International Military Tribunal. The Tribunal, in its judgment (sec. XI) found both Flick and Steinbrinck guilty under count four and Steinbrinck guilty under count five. Some of the political history developed in the case antedated Hitler's rise to power, among other reasons because the "Circle of Friends" was founded before 1933, and because Flick claimed that his contributions to parties other than the Nazi Party before 1933 were far greater than his contributions to the Nazi Party and its organizations, both before and after 1933. The political history of the defendants, particularly of the defendants Flick and Steinbrinck, was also brought into issue as well in connection with counts one, two, and three, dealing respectively with slave labor, spoliation, and Aryanization, where such questions as initiative and duress came to the fore. For example one of the principal general defenses of the defendant Flick was his claim that he constantly acted under duress, and that his actions were basically influenced by the fact that he was considered politically unreliable by Nazi leaders. Thus, the political history of the defendants cuts across all counts and in its beginnings antedates the conduct expressly charged as criminal in counts one, two, and three. Accordingly, evidence bearing on counts four and five, as well as on the general political aspects of the case, have been grouped together in this section. This arrangement partly avoids duplication in later sections. |
