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March 1930, Hitler entered Prague, the final record of the
German-British industrial discussions was being edited in Duesseldorf in which
I had assisted. The English industrialists were just as surprised and shocked
as we were. I felt completely deceived by my own government. This step was
bound to shake the international confidence in German policy completely.
Already at that time I saw the danger which might follow such an action. I
recognized that a war would destroy the work of my life and I looked to the
future with fear and distrust. Here is the origin of all my apprehensions of
1939: I did not believe in war — as is proven by my actions in the private
and business sphere — but I feared war. I had no connections at all with
persons who knew Hitler’s aggressive plans.
I did not use the war
to take away something from other persons unlawfully or to procure something
for my firm without being convinced that it was right. Nobody was harmed by the
transactions in which I participated. It could not be my interest to endanger
Farben’s reputation and my own, by measures which might have been doubtful
or even criminal from a moral or business viewpoint. All enterprises in which
Farben, through my participation, acquired interests in the course of this war,
benefited through the association with Farben, and all these enterprises, with
regard to which the prosecution accuses me of plunder and spoliation, were only
able to keep up their production and sales because Farben supported them by its
capital, its technical experience and its knowledge. Many a worker and
employee, whether Frenchman or Pole, will perhaps still remember today, that it
was due to Farben that he did not lose his job during the hard wartimes. I
think that in the occupied territories I never forgot the responsibility which
we owed to the economy and population of the country concerned. Our personal
relations, especially with the French, were undisturbed all through the war. It
was impossible to assume in 1941 that Marshal Petain whom President Roosevelt
had distinguished by sending him a special ambassador and who, as defender of
Verdun, was world-famous, later on would be considered as traitor by the
French. In my opinion, a law signed by him could never violate the interests or
the honor of France.
The collapse in 1945 caused my complete psychic
breakdown. Only a person who personally experienced the last months of the war
in Germany, the complete disorder and the endless terror of the air raids, and
who was responsible for several thousand staff members in inadequate air raid
shelters, who was permanently endangered by the terror of the Party authorities
during the last stages of the war, only he is able to understand the psychic
emotion caused by these events. These emotions were just like a physical
injury. It caused weakness and inferiority complexes, above all, however,
despair and resignation. In |
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