 |
success. Beyond this, an industrialist is always much influenced by
economic trends, and by 1937 in Germany economic conditions were very good,
unemployment was practically non-existent, everyone was satisfied, especially
the workmen. Then, for technical men like me, the probable outcome of large new
chemical achievements, like buna, impressed us greatly. Between 1936 and 1939,
I talked these things over, both in Germany and abroad, with a number of
foreign industrialists, particularly Americans. In 1938 or 1939, Mr. Milliken,
an American, asked me how a leading man in German industry could feel content,
under the Nazi regime, and I said: “Well, never mind the purely political
aspects of the matter. I am a businessman and I must say that so far I have not
been under such specific pressure in specific cases” (referring to
business conduct) “that I feel it has become impossible for me to continue
my work.” Moreover, we German industrialists were greatly influenced by
the favorable impression of the German economic position expressed by visiting
American industrialists.
4. Between 1933 and 1939, I, and I believe
most of my colleagues in I.G. Farben, did not believe much of the Nazi
propaganda concerning foreign countries. For my own part, I had traveled many
times abroad and learned of the strong feelings against Nazi Germany, read
foreign newspapers while abroad, et cetera. I knew particularly from my travels
in America in 1938 the strong resentment in America against the atrocities
against the Jews and the burning of Jewish synagogues and places of business in
November 1938. However, quite apart from the Nazi propaganda and the Nazi
claims, I had the feeling that great revisions had to be made in Europe which
would undo many of the injustices of the Versailles Treaty.
The
Occupation of Austria and the Anschluss
5. Specifically with
respect to Austria, I can say that I was at the time not opposed to the
military occupation of Austria by German troops, even though I recognized that
a forceful military solution was made by German troops marching into another
sovereign nation. Most Germans at that time, including me, looked less at the
methods used in Austria than the results in our dream of a German reunion with
Austria. Most Germans felt that the Treaty of Versailles was wrong and unjust
in preventing Austria and Germany from uniting. Since it did not come to war,
not a single shot being fired, and since we heard the reports about the
enthusiastic reception of our troops by the Austrians, I did not feel
apprehensive about future peace because of this military occupation.
|
1526 |
. 
