. ©MAZAL LIBRARY

NMT07-T1581


. NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL
Volume VII · Page 1581
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Table of Contents - Volume 7
PRESIDING JUDGE SHAKE: Are you asking a question?

Q. I asked him how he reconciles the statement in his direct examination with the two statements I just showed him?

A. In the fall of 1938 there was doubtless the danger of war. There's no question of that.  
 
* * * * * * * * * *  
 
 
b. Testimony of Defendant Haefliger 
 
EXTRACTS FROM THE TESTIMONY OF
DEFENDANT HAEFLIGER* 
 
DIRECT EXAMINATION 
 
* * * * * * * * * 
 
DR. VON METZLER (counsel for defendant Haefliger) : Mr. Haefliger, you described the acquisition of German citizenship in 1941, a little while ago. I want to ask you something about that. Would you please tell the Tribunal briefly the reasons that led you to undertake this step?

DEFENDANT HAEFLIGER: It was obvious, of course, that during the war foreigners, and especially those foreigners who held any positions in German economy such as I did, would be exposed to an ever increasing pressure and to being spied upon by the National Socialist agencies. For that reason, my position as a member of the Vorstand of Farben in the course of the war, in view of my Swiss citizenship, became more and more difficult to maintain, and untenable at the end. As proof for that, I refer to the objection brought against me by the Gauleitung of the NSDAP in Hesse in 1941. At that time I also became a certain danger to my associates within the scope of activity of the Sales Combines Chemicals, who became more reticent in informing me about their activities; and on their part they were exposed to denunciations of malevolent people who claimed that they perhaps violated the regulations regarding observation of secrecy since, during the war, an intensified obligation of maintaining secrecy was imposed upon even matters of minor importance. On the other hand, however, the firm did not expect anything from me that I could not reconcile with my conscience as a businessman, or with my professional ethics. After long consideration, therefore, I decided finally, after having lived in Germany for more than 30 years, to accept German citizenship in 1941, in order not to lose my position and the fruits of a life's work.

Q. Very well. From 1941 on, you had dual citizenship, then. Were there many such cases of Swiss people in Germany?
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* Further extracts from the testimony of Defendant Haefliger are reproduced above in subsections C 5, I 74. and N 5.
 
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