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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. |
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* * * * * * * * * * |
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b. Testimony of Defendant Haefliger |
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EXTRACTS FROM THE TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANT
HAEFLIGER* |
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DIRECT EXAMINATION |
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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? |
__________ * Further extracts from the
testimony of Defendant Haefliger are reproduced above in subsections C 5, I 74.
and N 5.
1581 |