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IG or my client had any knowledge of an imminent aggressive war, or
even that the intention was prevalent to promote such a war. The charges that
the IG intentionally tried to weaken the war potential of other countries
through its so-called cartels will be proved to be completely unfounded during
the hearing of evidence, since the purely private economic character of such
agreements has been established. In that connection, I shall go into details
concerning the contractual relations with the Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey,
created with the collaboration of Dr. von Knieriem, which have been treated in
detail by the prosecution. Despite the large number of documents submitted by
the prosecution concerning the cartel question, I shall restrict myself to the
facts essential for the trial, because I am well aware that the fundamental
question of the value or non-value of cartels need not be examined either by
the prosecution or by the defense.
The personal knowledge of my client
about the so-called rearmament measures which have been criticized by the
prosecution, and his attitude to them, will be dealt with in the course of my
statements.
In the course of the discussion of general questions
concerning all defendants, I shall submit facts pertaining to the joint
responsibility of the Vorstand and the responsibility of the individual members
of the Vorstand, and I intend to show in what manner the code of business
procedure, submitted by the prosecution, and drawn up at the time by Dr. von
Knieriem, was handled in practice. |
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| I. Opening Statement for Defendant Ter Meer* |
| |
| DR. ERICH BERNDT (counsel for the defendant ter Meer) Mr. President,
Your Honors: In his introductory speech, General Taylor lodged the most serious
charges against the defendants. He accused them of responsibility "for the most
devastating and catastrophic war in human history, of wholesale plunder and
spoliation, of mass enslavement and mass murders." These are the gravest
charges which, in any period of history, were ever leveled against
industrialists, as members of a vanquished nation, against economists and
scientists who never held offices as Ministers or Party leaders responsible for
policies of state. What abysmal depravity is imputed by the prosecution to
these individuals; the same men, who, until the outbreak of the war,
|
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* Tr. pages 4781-4788, 18
December 1947.
257 |
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