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the government in the preparation of mobilization plans for Farben's
plants. These plans set forth the production programs which each factory could
undertake in the event of war. They were discussed in the Vorstand, and
instructions were issued to every Farben plant to prepare and deliver
production plans to the Vermittlungsstelle W, which submitted them to the
Ministries of War and Economics. Farben's preparations for economic
mobilization were so well developed that the military authorities used them as
a basis for general war mobilization plans.
23. September 1939, and the
invasion of Poland, found Farben long since converted to a wartime footing. The
fact that Germany had formally gone to war required no more than a telegram
from Vermittlungsstelle W, dated 3 September 1939: "At the order of the Reich
Economics Ministry, Dr. Ungewitter just ordered all IG plants to switch at once
to the production outlined in the mobilization program. The minimum production
recently fixed for Ludwigshafen and Oppau also goes into effect immediately
with small changes. So far as the reserves of workers presenting themselves at
Ludwigshafen and Oppau cannot be utilized effectively in the plant, they are to
remain in readiness for employment elsewhere within IG. Our plants have been
notified by telegram."
24. All of the aforegoing activities constituted
vital planning and preparation for aggressive war. The defendant von Schnitzler
has stated: "***with the increased tempo after 1936, the Wehrmacht became the
prominent factor in the whole picture. Since 1934, a strong movement for
investments in our plants for commodities of decisive military importance
became more and more pronounced with the main objective of increasing the
military potential of Germany. At first, autarchic principles to make Germany
independent of importation from abroad was one of the leading objectives. Since
1936, the movement took an entirely military character and military reasons
stood in the foreground. Hand in hand with this, the relations between IG and
the Wehrmacht became more and more intimate and a continuous union between IG
officials on the one side and the Wehrmacht representatives on the other side
was the consequence of it." |
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C. Farben Participated in Preparing the Four Year Plan and in
Directing the Economic Mobilization of Germany for War
|
| |
| 25. Rearmament and reconstitution of the Wehrmacht were
indispensable to Hitler's plans for conquest. In April 1936, just after German
troops entered the demilitarized zone of the Rhineland, Hitler appointed
Goering as Coordinator for Raw Materials and Foreign Exchange and empowered him
to supervise all State |
21 |
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