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reached a decision that for the time being we should take no measures
in the commercial field in the eastern territories, but that we should, in the
former territories of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which now are part of the
Soviet Union, set up a Farben sales agency, the so-called I. G. Ostland-Kontor,
G. m. b. H. in Riga. The task of this organization was to supply these areas
with Farben products.
Q. You were speaking of the report of de Haas and
that you channeled this report to the members of your Vorstand, your
colleagues. The prosecution sees something suspicious in that.
A. Well,
all I can say with regard to that is that after I read this report of de Haas,
I was of the opinion that it was necessary to inform my colleagues about this
report. There is no personal view expressed by Farben in the report with the
exception that there is a statement that the situation is not yet transparent
enough, and therefore, no decisions can as yet be taken. It was the task of the
Eastern Committee to use its connections with the Ministries in order to get
information of the situation of commercial reasons.
Q. Now, were
business transactions actually carried out?
A. Well, the so-called I.
G. Ostland G. m. b. H. at Riga did have a turnover of quite considerable
volume. They sold to firms in those areas which had been quickly reorganized in
the sense of private enterprise; however, for the real old Russian territories
no commercial transactions could be carried out because a decision by the
German Government agencies concerning the form and the ways in which future
commercial transactions could be carried out in those territories had not as
yet been made.
Q. Now what did this company sell?
A. Dyestuffs,
chemicals, photographic material, and practically all the products of the I. G.
Farben except pharmaceuticals, because there existed a Reich organization for
that purpose and, therefore, these products went through other channels.
Q. Did this company also take production which was in the East and
bring it into Germany from the East?
A. No; the company had nothing to
do with production. It was a pure sales organization for sales in the Eastern
Territories.
Q. Did you otherwise have any connection with any company
domiciled in the East?
A. No.
Q. Wasn't there a certain
connection with one institute which was set up by the Behring Werke?
A.
In the Eastern Territories a certain number of serum institutes were taken over
by the Wehrmacht as they advanced, and employees of Behring Werke were drafted
by the Armed Forces and given the assignment to reactivate those institutes in
order to produce sera and vaccines there for supplying the civilian population,
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