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case under discussion. This count of the indictment raises legal
issues derived both from international law and Control Council Law No. 10, the
application of which eliminates a guilt of the defendants also for legal
reasons. It will be the object of the final plea to discuss this.
Finally, the prosecution believes it can establish the guilt of the
entire Vorstand of the IG under count three, which the prosecution chooses to
entitle "Enslavement and mass murder." My client was a member of the Vorstand.
He had nothing whatever to do with foreign workers or with inmates of
concentration camps within the scope of his work. No responsibility can be
placed on Dr. Max Ilgner under this count. The prosecution endeavors to build
up a personal guilt with far-fetched arguments. But neither the actual facts
nor the tenets concerning the forms of participation in a crime, as understood
by the criminal codes of all civilized nations, and as they must be interpreted
also on the basis of the Control Council Law No. 10, offer a possibility to
place any responsibility upon my client.
If, in conclusion, I mention
the fact that there was never a question of a common plan or conspiracy of the
defendants, in which Dr. Ilgner is said to have taken part (cf. count five of
indictment), it is done for the sake of completeness. Here, too, the
prosecution has failed to furnish proof for its very generally worded
assertions. In my argumentation, I shall come back also to this point as far as
necessary.
I hope to be able to demonstrate to the Court in my
argumentation that Dr. Max Ilgner is not guilty within the meaning of the
indictment. |
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S. Opening Statement for Defendant Lautenschlaeger*
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DR. PRIBILLA (counsel for defendant Lautenschlaeger) : Mr.
President, Your Honors: When there is an outbreak of cholera in Egypt, even the
layman can read in all the papers that cholera vaccines are being sent to Egypt
by plane from Hoechst. The names of the "Hoechst Farbwerke" and the
"Behringwerke" are referred to with respect by medical men throughout the world
because they know that, for decades, men have been at work there producing
innumerable efficacious medicines for the benefit of sick and suffering
humanity. The chief manager of these plants, Professor Lautenschlaeger, is
sitting on the defendants bench. In |
__________ * Tr. pages 4877-4883, 19
December 1947.
327 |