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name I had only known through social contacts — Colonel Loeb,
who asked me to meet him during my first visit in Berlin as he wished to
discuss a question of interest to me.
Q. What was the name of that man
again?
A. It was a Colonel Loeb, whose functions J did not know up to
that time. I met him in Berlin and he acquainted me with a plan which he had
previously discussed with Goering.
Q. In order to make this matter as
easily understood as possible, will you please explain what had happened
between Goering, Darré, and Schacht during the time from 1935 to 1936?
In that connection, in order that the Tribunal may understand the context, will
you also explain who Darré was, et cetera?
A. Darré was,
at that time, the Reich Food Minister. Schacht was Minister of Economics and
president of the Reichsbank, and Goering was the second man after Hitler.
Controversies had arisen between the Reich Food Minister and Schacht with
regard to the distribution of foreign exchange.* As a consequence of the bad
harvest of the preceding years, a food shortage had come about in Germany.
According to the opinion of the Reich Ministry of Food, it was of urgent
necessity that more food should be imported into the country. Schacht refused
to put foreign exchange at his disposal for that purpose, for the simple reason
that he had no more foreign exchange available. In view of the emergency
situation thus existing, Hitler had ordered Goering to mediate between these
two agencies.
Q. How did Goering decide this matter?
A. Goering
decided in favor of Darré. Very soon Goering, of course, noticed that
the foreign exchange which was made available to import food was not sufficient
for that purpose. There were two means to overcome this difficulty. One of them
was to increase the production of food in Germany; the other was to increase
exports which, of course, led to a third way — that was that imports,
which up to that time had been necessary for certain raw materials in Germany,
of an industrial nature, were to be stopped, and these products which had
hitherto been imported, were to be produced in Germany itself from its own raw
materials.
Q. Well why did they approach you?
A. Goering
founded a so-called Raw Materials and Foreign Exchange Staff, which, as the
name already shows, dealt with foreign exchange and endeavored to procure
foreign exchange abroad which was perhaps available abroad for industry, and
to |
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* See also Document
2353-PS, Prosecution Exhibit 413. extracts from
the manuscript of General Thomas. reproduced in part above in subsection F 2.
989 |
. 
