. NMT06-T0855
Volume VI · Page 855
| to secure for itself
sources of supply and outlets for the export of its products. Its chief
participations were in the Société des Ciments Portland de Rombas
at Rombach (Moselle) ; Société des Constructions
Métalliques de la Vallée de l'Orne, at Maizièresles-Metz
(Moselle) ; Charbonnages de Faulquemont (Moselle), at present nationalized,
Société des Mines d'Anderny-Chevillon, (Meurthe-et-Moselle), etc.
During the occupation these companies suffered the same fate as the Société Lorraine des Aciéries de Rombas. By order of the French military authorities, the iron and steel plants of Lorraine were evacuated on 14 June 1940 before the advance of the German armies. In order to prevent their exploitation by the Germans, the most important parts of the principal machines of Rombach were transported to Saint-Chamond (Loire). I returned to Rombach in July 1940 to see what had happened to the plants. I found my office occupied by German soldiers and I was kept a prisoner for some time until the material which had been evacuated to Saint-Chamond was brought back to Rombach. I left Lorraine, and I only went back there for a few brief visits until I was expelled once and for all at the beginning of 1942. During the occupation, the condition of the establishments of the company was as follows: With respect to the iron mines, at the beginning of July 1940, the German Government designated Mr. Raabe as Plenipotentiary General for the Mining of Iron and Ore [Generalbeauftragter fuer Eisen-und Erzgewinnung].¹ Actually Mr. Raabe had under his jurisdiction all the iron mines of the Moselle, and in particular the mines of Rombach. This organization did not experience any further change until the liberation. With respect to the plants, at the beginning of July 1940, Mr. Hermann Roechling was designated by the German Government as Plenipotentiary General for Iron and Steel [Generalbeauftrager fuer Eisen and Stahl] and he administered the Rombach plants in the capacity of appointed administrator [kommissarischer Verwalter].² At the head of the plant he placed a deputy commissioner who directed it. From 1 March 1941 on, the management of the plants was withdrawn from Mr. Hermann Roechling by the German Government, and was given to Friedrich Flick, 12 Bellevue Strasse, Ber- […lin] |
¹ Karl Raabe was chairman of the managing board of Flick's Maxhuette, and a member of the managing board of Flick's Mittelstahl firm.
² Roechling was tried as a war criminal before the General Tribunal of the Military Government for the French Zone of Occupation in Germany. The indictment, judgment, and judgment on appeal are reproduced as appendix R, Volume XIV, this series.
