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collaborated on a basis of friendship with the industrialists and
businessmen of America and the rest of the world in a spirit of sincere mutual
confidence for their common profit and prosperity? Is it really intended to
make this Court and the world believe that all of this was merely a farce, and
that these industrialists had secretly plotted raids, lootings, enslavement,
and wholesale murder, and that they were capable of such fiendishness?
Through industrious labor, the prosecution has endeavored for more than
two years to formulate a theory by which it hoped, candidly speaking, to build
the steps to the gallows for the defendants.
The prosecution has tried
to prove [its case] with a wealth of documents culled from mountains of Farben
files, most of which were torn from their natural business contexts, linked
together by an apparent systematic design and mixed with excerpts from Hitler's
"Mein Kampf" — that much-circulated but little-read book — basing the
guilt on the theory of alleged common knowledge. Thus has the prosecution tried
to prove that these defendants were guilty, for instance, of Hitler's crimes,
or wars of aggression; indeed, even of the gassings in Auschwitz.
The
gravity of the terrible accusations with which the defendants are charged
imposes on the defense the duty to set forth the true connections and facts
with the greatest accuracy and most painstaking care, in order to help the
Court to find the truth and to reach a just verdict. The fulfillment of this
duty requires considerable time, which must absolutely be conceded to the
defense.
Your Honors! In this place, with your permission, Dr. Fritz
ter Meer stood as first of the defendants in order to cross-examine an expert.
You will surely have gained the impression that he is a man who knows his
business; indeed, has mastered it to such a degree that he was completely
absorbed in his work and cared for nothing else — least of all, as I shall
prove, about politics. You have read several of his important affidavits; for
instance, the one about the structure and development of I.G. Farben.
Dr. ter Meer expressed himself in these affidavits about many important
happenings. Even though he might have erred in one or the other small detail
(being in custody, he had to write without records about events which took
place years ago), under no circumstances will it be possible to prove that he
deliberately made an untrue statement. It is not necessary for him to give
false testimony. Even if hardpressed, he will not resort to lies. His is not
the character to do this. What he did was not wrong — and still less a
crime. My client therefore, stands up for everything he has done. Since he is a
good witness, I can use him to a large extent for my proof. |
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