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terrain was a military deployment area. I heard that and I brought it
up during the discussion with Mr. Brinkmann.
Q. Did you understand that
in the sense of a planned aggressive war against Czechoslovakia?
A. No,
that had nothing whatsoever to do with an aggressive war. One need only read
what the letter goes on to state and one must only imagine oneself into the
position at the time. It was a few weeks after the Munich Agreement and the
Sudeten-German question had been settled peaceably. An army, after all, needs a
deployment area for defensive as well as offensive purposes. My attitude is
illustrated in that letter, which at the time was the same as that of State
Secretary Dr. Brinkmann about the treatment of the Czechoslovakian question.
Economic considerations are mentioned in the letter which would bring about
long range political and military consequences. That can only be interpreted in
one sense, to wit: as a result of the economic cooperation between Germany and
Czechoslovakia, the basis for a future amicable political collaboration had
been created. In order to demonstrate that this had nothing to do with the
military considerations, may I point to my proposal, to choose, instead of
Fuerstenberg, the location in the Sudetenland territory which, after all, is
very close to Czechoslovakia. That shows what I thought at the time, and how I
meant that remark. Since the word Fuerstenberg has been mentioned, let me say
something in supplementation. According to my best recollection, from the time
of the beginning of 1937 until the decision was reached to build a second buna
plant, at Huels, six different locations were considered. Various locations had
been investigated in Germany upon request of the Reich Office for Economic
Development, and Dr. Ambros personally or through his associates investigated
all these locations, but he found out that in most cases not all of the
prerequisites existed which were necessary for the construction of a large
scale buna plant; these are coal, water, proximity to calcium [deposits], cheap
power, etc. We investigated all these various suggestions and we really did not
mind that, because this relieved us of our immediate agreement to the
construction of a plant at Fuerstenberg, and that was really in accordance with
our economic considerations at the time, and as it happened Fuerstenberg was
never constructed. |
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| CROSS-EXAMINATION |
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| * * * * * * * * * * |
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| MR. DUBOIS: Now, you will recall that in your testimony con-
[…cerning] |
1578 |
. 
