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and the management of the concern, and the agency which, in fact, did
make policy, and which, in fact, did manage the concern. The Vorstand was
composed of individuals who saw, heard, planned, and acted. Although as a
matter of administrative operation, individual members were delegated broad
authority in designated fields, they were required by the bylaws to submit all
important matters coming within their own spheres to the entire Vorstand for
decision. The evidence clearly establishes that this practice was followed as a
matter of course, and although there was an area of discretion which authorized
an individual Vorstand member to act on his own responsibility where urgency
required, that member nevertheless was required to report at the next session
of the full Vorstand about the matter in which he took independent action.
Knowledge of the many details involved in the execution of all matters
of general Farben policy was certainly not known to every, or in fact, to any
individual Vorstand member. The field of play was far too vast. But the matters
we have set forth as the principal strands in this network of crime were known
to the defendants of the Vorstand, either because they participated in policy
making, in planning, in execution, or because they approved and ratified, upon
learning of the acts of other Vorstand members or of other Farben officials.
Moreover, even where a defendant may claim lack of actual knowledge of
certain details, there can be do doubt that he could have found out had he, in
the words of Military Tribunal No. 1 made "the slightest investigation." Each
of the defendants, with the possible exception of the four who were not
Vorstand members, was in such a position that he either knew what Farben was
doing at Leuna, Bitterfeld, Berlin, Auschwitz, and elsewhere, or, if he had no
actual knowledge of some particular activity, again in the words of Military
Tribunal No. 1, "occupying the position that he did, the duty rested upon him
to make some adequate investigation." One can not accept the prerogatives of
authority without shouldering responsibility.
The four defendants who
were not Vorstand members were named in the indictment because they played a
particularly crucial role in the crimes charged in the indictment. The
defendant Duerrfeld, as director and construction manager of the Auschwitz
plant, is heavily implicated in the use and abuse of slave labor; in spoliation
activities in Poland; and consequently in the waging of aggressive war. The
defendant Gattineau was, among other things, the conduit through which other
Farben officials were placed in appropriate contact with important Reich and
Nazi Party leaders to facilitate the execution of the criminal |
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