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| X. Opening Statement for Defendant von der
Heyde* |
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DR. HOFFMANN (counsel for defendant von der Heyde) : Your Honors, my
comparatively frequent appearances in this courtroom for the defendant Erich
von der Heyde were not due to the number of documents or affidavits submitted
by the prosecution against the defendant Erich von der Heyde.
My coming
was motivated by the desire to assist in the search for the truth, since I had
come to the conclusion that neither the position nor the field of activities of
the defendant von der Heyde gave him any possibility of exercising any
influence on the matters which are presented here for trial.
The
reasons for this conviction I found in the following: The defendant von der
Heyde was not a member of the Vorstand of the I.G. Farben. He was not a member
of the Central Committee of this Vorstand. He was neither a plant leader
(Betriebsfuehrer) nor a department chief (Abteilungsleiter), neither Direktor
nor Prokurist of the I.G. Farben. From 1926 until the spring of 1939, i.e., for
12 years, he was a simple employee of I.G. Farben. Only in spring 1939 was he
promoted from among the ranks of employees by being made
Handlungsbevollmaechtigter.
This, however, did not take him out of the
ranks of simple employees of I.G. Farben; he remained one of them. According to
the conceptions prevailing in German industry, the description "employee
exercising authority" is only used for employees from Prokurist upwards.
The defendant von der Heyde, however, never was this kind of employee.
It is, therefore, only correct and in accordance with the actual
conditions in the German industry, if the position of the defendant von der
Heyde as Handlungsbevollmaechtigter is translated "head clerk" and not "power
of attorney" as designated by the prosecution.
The defendant von der
Heyde held this last position for a relatively short time, for as early as 1940
he was called up for service in the Wehrmacht, where he remained until the end
of the war.
Farben did not consider it necessary to have him exempted
from service in the Wehrmacht.
These are proven facts, although the
prosecution time and again speaks of a trial of 23 "leading directors of I.G.
Farben."
After the prosecution has produced its evidence, I am still
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* Tr. pp. 4927-4982. 19
December 1947. The final statement of defendant von der Heyde appears in
section XII 14, VIII, this series.
365 |
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