 |
G. The Krauch Office. The Karinhall or Krauch Plan
and
its Later Modifications |
|
| I. INTRODUCTION |
| |
The defendant Krauch was the first defendant named in the indictment
and the first defendant discussed in the judgment of the Tribunal (sec. XIII,
vol. VIII, this series) under the charges of crimes against peace. Throughout
the time that Krauch was an official of the Four Year Plan (1936 until
Germany's collapse in 1945), he remained an official of Farben. Until 1940, he
was a member of Farben's Vorstand and thereafter he was chairman of Farben's
Aufsichtsrat. The greater part of the specifications of subdivision C of count
one of the indictment, "Farben Participated in Preparing the Four Year Plan and
in Directing the Economic Mobilization of Germany for War," related to the
defendant Krauch, the development of the Reich Office for Economic Development
(the Krauch Office), Krauch's position as Plenipotentiary General for Special
Questions of Chemical Production (commonly referred to by the abbreviation
"Gebechem"), the formulation and execution of various plans for accelerated
production in chemistry and related fields, and the allegedly preeminent
position of the Krauch Office and Farben in furthering these various plans as
important parts of the Four Year Plan.
Whereas the preceding
subsection, "F. The Four Year Plan," contains evidence dealing with the Four
Year Plan in general, the present subsection deals more particularly with the
relation of the Krauch Office and Farben to the execution of important parts of
the Four Year Plan and to related developments. The evidence included at this
point has been arranged as follows: affidavit and testimony by Prosecution
Witness Ehrmann concerning the Krauch Office (2 below); testimony of defendant
ter Meer concerning Farben's role in the autarchy and rearmament program and
Krauch's position in Farben and the government (3 below); testimony of
Defendant Kuehne concerning appointments to the Krauch Office (4 below); a
large number of contemporaneous documents (5 below); an interrogation of Speer,
former Reich Minister for Armaments and War Productions, concerning Krauch's
position during the war (6 below); and the testimony of the defendants Krauch
and Ambros (7 below). |
856 |
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