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in both instances it was to my own personal disadvantage. The first
tine it cost me my position when, for reasons of fellowship, I defended the
Social Democratic sentiments of one of my workers; and on the second occasion I
succumbed to the same illusion, that millions of other people succumbed to, but
this time it was a tragic destiny, not only for me personally but for my whole
country and people because we could have no idea what course of development
that one man would take whom we thought to be the savior of Germany from
political and economic chaos.
Your honors, with the best will in the
world it is impossible for you to appreciate the sentiment of my people that it
necessarily had before 1933. Your honors live in a rich country fall of
prospects and development. You are not surrounded by neighbors who envy you for
your industrial and political expansion and are suspicious of it. What the
German people felt and why Hitler came to power was best expressed by the great
German poet, Ricarda Huch. She herself was a militant opponent of Hitler, and
she wrote: |
| |
“Hitler would not have been
able to hold such a numerous and such an enthusiastic and passionate following
if it wasn’t for the fact that the German people, downtrodden in the mud
by its enemies, hoped to be able to find a resurrection through this man. For
many years it had felt degraded and helpless and had borne the contempt of its
opponents; and now all of a sudden in its own midst it heard a proud and
strong, even provocative voice. The degraded people took a breath of relief.
The liberator, the savior, had come. The movement that now began to follow and
surround Hitler seemed to most people as though its objective was to regain for
Germany the esteem that it had formerly held.” |
| May it please Your Honors, it was neither the German people nor its
industry that, after the awful and atrocious experiences made in World War I,
desired a new war and, least of all, IG who, in the last war, had lost its
great export business. This has been justifiably emphasized often. In the New
York Herald Tribune of 4 October 1947, it reads, as an excerpt from a speech
held by the Secretary of Defense, Forrestal, as follows: |
| |
“Mr. Forrestal denied that
there was any historical validity for the Marxist theory according to which
industrialists desired war for the sake of material gains. Mr. Forrestal said
that there was no group anywhere that was more in favor of peace than the
industrialists.” |
| The American industry at the present time is undergoing to a much
greater degree the same development that we underwent at the time of
rearmament: that is to say, demands concerning air-raid protection,
mobilization plans in the event of war, counterintelligence, and
|
1073 |
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