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is on page 15 of the English. This is an excerpt of the minutes of
the 77th meeting of the Chemical Committee held in Frankfurt on Main on 11
November 1940. Of interest there is the fact that Dr. Ambros gives information
about the anticipated completion of the individual production stages in the
buna plants at Schkopau and Huels and that he reported about the erection of a
third buna plant in Ludwigshafen and of an additional plant in the East as
ordered by the Reich.
Q. Did you receive only oral instructions or did
you also receive written orders to construct buna Plant #3?
A. We
received an absolutely clear order by the Reich Ministry of Economics. This
order has been submitted by the prosecution in book 72 as Document
NI-11781, their
Exhibit 1408,* on page 1 of both books. Mr. Hanneken reports to Mr. ter Meer
that the extension is to be undertaken in two different plants. In Ludwigshafen
with 25,000 tons and in the plant in the East to be newly constructed in
Silesia also with a capacity of 25,000 tons. The question of the construction
site has to be clarified immediately since, at the latest, in January the final
start must be ordered for this.
Q. Mr. Ambros, did this new regulation
affect your work? To what extent were you occupied and what had you been doing?
A. Around that time in November 1940 I personally had to take the
responsibility for the technical extension of Schkopau and Huels, the
construction of the buna plant at Ludwigshafen, the building of the Montan
plants at Gendorf and Dyhernfurth, the planning for the buna plants at Terni
and Ferrara in Italy and, besides that, a number of other chemical
developments. Altogether a value of nine hundred million marks. This demand
meant a great blow to me with the scarcity of manpower and with all my other
work that I had to do.
Q. Mr. Ambros, you have only spoken of yourself
up to now. I should now like to know, did you bear the responsibility alone to
begin construction or did you have to report to other people as well that a
regulation had been issued to build a third buna plant?
A. Due to the
magnitude of such a buna plant of over 100 million marks, of course, I had to
inform the Vorstand — Mr. Schmitz, Mr. Krauch, who was still in the
Vorstand at the time, for, as a young Vorstand member, I could not dispose of
hundreds of millions.
Q. Did you do it then?
A. Yes.
Q.
Why didn't you go back to Rattwitz where you had already started and where you
had already put in so many millions?
A. The construction site of
Rattwitz had been leveled off in the meantime. There were no more preparations
for this buna plant avail- [...able] |
__________
* Ibid.
733 |
. 
