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investigate these points of view — particularly and in detail
— depends on the further course of the proceedings.
Since my
client was merely a member of some of the committees of the IG, and these
committees were no real legal entities but were composed arbitrarily as
required, from a criminal point of view his position cannot be treated other
than that of every fellow citizen who lived in Germany. I assert that the
committees of the IG did not have the bad character, at all, that the
prosecution would ascribe to them. I shall produce further, detailed means of
proof of this and of the significance of my client in these committees.
My client was a merchant, he sold dyestuffs; he worked in an office
where there were only commercial employees, not wage laborers. This fact will
circumscribe the presentation of evidence. This view of mine is in accord with
what General Taylor dealt with, point by point, when summing up at the close of
his opening statement. He mentioned my client only in connection with counts
one and two of the indictment. This allusion will be my guide.
Apart
from the allegation that my client placed himself in direct opposition to
Control Council Law No. 10 by his own actions, the prosecution further asserts
that my client, along with the other defendants, participated in a joint plan
or conspiracy aiming at the preparation of the war of aggression. If these men,
about whom the Honorable Tribunal has to decide, had constituted a
conspirators' guild of this kind, then it may be assumed that they knew each
other well and also met frequently to discuss their plans. The objection cannot
be raised that conspirators' guilds did not do this in general because they did
not wish to become known or to fall into the hands of the police. This may have
been the case with historical conspirators because the conspirators were
turning against their own state. It could not have been so if the defendants,
along with their government, with whom they are supposed to have formed an
alliance already before 1933, had conspired against world peace. In their own
country they would have had no police to fear. Therefore they could have done
it.
In addition, I should
like to refer to the fact that my client was 32 years of age and Prokurist of
the IG when the activity of the defendants regarded as criminal by the
prosecution began. At that time there were already hundreds of Prokuristen in
the IG. Further, I should like to remark that my client knew most of the
gentlemen sitting here with him only by name in the first half of the period
from 1933; only with very few was he in close contact. I touch upon these
viewpoints at the moment merely to |
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