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| K. Opening Statement for Defendant Ambros* |
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DR. HOFFMANN (counsel for defendant Ambros): May it please the
Tribunal. My opening statement for Otto Ambros cannot consist merely of the
announcement of exonerating evidence to be submitted to disprove the assertions
advanced by the prosecution.
My knowledge of Otto Ambros compels me to
give you, Your Honors, in this opening statement, an idea of the significance
of this man's work.
Otto Ambros looks upon his profession of chemist as
a vocation, and is passionately devoted to it. The enormous development of a
vital part of modern organic chemistry is inseparably connected with his work
as a chemist.
In this connection, I refer to the construction of the
first plants for the manufacture of synthetic rubber; the development of the
many new plastic substances; the solvents and resins; and the intermediates for
the manufacture of synthetic dyestuffs, pharmaceuticals, and hundreds of other
chemicals.
This list may, perhaps, give only the expert a precise idea
of the actual scope of Otto Ambros' work. To describe the actual significance
of his work in its effects on daily life would, however, go beyond the scope of
this opening statement.
Otto Ambros, who started his industrial career
with Farben in 1927 (following his period of apprenticeship with Richard
Willstaetter), regarded I.G. Farben as a chemical enterprise exclusively.
It may be true that the merchant and the financier could offer him the
outer framework, but that was all; the substance, for Otto Ambros, was
chemistry.
At the age of 36, after he had worked for only about 10
years in the IG, Otto Ambros was appointed a member of the Vorstand.
At
that time he was not a Party member, nor was the appointment due to any other
connections.
In view of the field of work which Otto Ambros represented
in the Vorstand, it was inevitable that he should, in his capacity of one of
the leading chemists in organic chemistry, continue to restrict his activities
to scientific and technical matters.
He personally directed a number of
important boards of experts within IG. Farben. There was no time left for
official activities outside his firm.
The evidence will show that Dr.
Otto Ambros drew a very definite line between himself and the totalitarian
organization of the |
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* Tr. pages 4791-4813. 18
December 1947. The final statement, of the defendant Ambros to the Tribunal
appears in section XII B 5, volume VIII, this series.
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