 |
| MR. SPRECHER: Yes, Mr. President |
| |
| [Further cross-examination concerned other charges of the indictment.
The next testimony of defendant ter Meer concerning the Francolor case took
place more than two months later in the trial. This testimony is reproduced in
6 below.] |
| |
| |
| 4. TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANT AMBROS |
| |
EXTRACTS FROM THE TESTIMONY OF
DEFENDANT
AMBROS* |
| |
| DIRECT EXAMINATION |
| |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
DR. HOFFMANN (counsel for defendant Ambros) : Mr. Ambros, I should
now like to go into the Francolor question with you. My first question is, when
was the first time that you had anything to do with Francolor?
DEFENDANT AMBROS: The first time I had anything to do with Francolor
was in the summer of 1941. I went to Paris, and that was the first time after
the outbreak of war that I met our French friends.
Q. You said, your
“French friends.” Did you personally have connections with these
Francolor gentlemen earlier?
A. Francolor is part of the Kuhlmann
concern, and I. G. Farben for many years had friendly relations with Kuhlmann.
In 1937, I personally was sent to Paris for the first time on an official
matter, and that was in connection with license negotiations in all possible
fields, which we worked on until shortly before the war. We were planning an
ethylene plant, a polystyrene plant, and, as for your question, this brought me
into business contact with the leading men of Kuhlmann, and from this there
developed personal friendships which even extended to the families on both
sides; I believe that I therefore have the right to speak of friends I had
known from the time from before the war.
Q. Mr. Ambros, when, in May or
in the summer of 1941, you came to France, was the work or the contract for a
participation by Farben in Francolor already finished, or what was the
situation?
A. The negotiations, in broad outline, were already
concluded. The contract itself, as far as I recall, was signed in November 1941
— but in the summer the picture of the negotiations was already becoming
clear, and that was, no doubt, the reason why I was appointed to participate in
the work with Francolor at that time.
Q. You say participate “in
the work” of Francolor. What do you mean by that?
A. Dr. ter Meer
appointed me to enter the administration body of Francolor as sort of a member
of the administrative council with the |
__________
* Further extracts are
reproduced below in subsection E 4 and section IX F 4, and earlier in sections
V B 4, VII G 7b and K 6, In volume VII, this series.
164 |
. 
