 |
in Amsterdam. In both cases, Dr. Krauch successfully opposed, with
all his might, measures of which he disapproved and which might have been
designated as robbery and spoliation.
In the course of my further
presentation of evidence, I shall deal with the question of employment of
foreign labor and concentration camp inmates, and I shall show that Dr. Krauch
had no criminal responsibility whatever. I have already stated that an
essential point of my presentation of evidence will consist in putting the
competence and authority of Dr. Krauch back on their proper level as against
the assertions of the prosecution, to wit: that he was a scientific expert of
the government for special questions of chemical production under the Four Year
Plan, but his activities as Plenipotentiary General for Special Questions of
Chemical Production never entailed any powers or authority in respect to the
recruitment, allocation, or assignment of workers.
It will be the aim
of my presentation of evidence to clarify Dr. Krauch's activities in this
connection. In this field, too, it was his job to submit his expert opinion on
the numbers and quotas of workers which had been requested by other offices as
necessary for certain building projects; he had to give his opinion on the
assignment of workers — but never to assign them himself — in
accordance with the various grades of priority fixed by authorities superior to
him, in exactly the same way as he had to give his opinion on which materials,
what kind of materials, what sort of construction, etc., were necessary and
appropriate. The question of the allocation of labor itself was the concern of
the labor allocation authorities. If, in addition, as evidence will show, he
instituted social care for the workers employed in the large building projects
for which he acted as adviser, then he did so, as I shall prove in my
presentation of evidence, for humanitarian and humane reasons, for, under the
pressure of the steadily increasing economic difficulties of the war years, he
was consulted about manifold problems; in particular, regarding the housing,
feeding, and clothing of the workers employed on the building projects approved
by him. Dr. Krauch regarded it as his duty to intervene and to organize an
exchange of experience; [and I shall show] that he did this for economic
reasons as well, but, above all, for purely humane reasons. This welfare
organization will, therefore, constitute a further point of my presentation of
evidence.
The enforced employment of workers also plays a great part in
the presentation of evidence by the prosecution. I shall show that Krauch
clearly recognized this problem. His whole mentality was opposed to such
employment under coercion, since for him, |
214 |
. 
