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If the defendants, or any of them, are to be held guilty under either
count one or five or both on the ground that they participated in the planning,
preparation, and initiation of wars of aggression or invasions, it must be
shown that they were parties to the plan or conspiracy, or, knowing of the
plan, furthered its purpose and objective by participating in the preparation
for aggressive war. The solution of this problem requires a consideration of
basic facts disclosed by the record. These facts include the positions, if any,
held by the defendants with the state and their authority, responsibility, and
activities thereunder, as well as their positions and activities with or in
behalf of Farben.
In weighing the evidence and in determining the
ultimate facts of guilt or innocence with respect to each defendant, we have
sought to apply these fundamental principles of Anglo-American criminal law:
1. There can be no conviction without proof of personal guilt.
2. Guilt must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt.
3. Each
defendant is presumed to be innocent, and that presumption abides with him
throughout the trial.
4. The burden of proof is, at all times, upon the
prosecution.
5. If from credible evidence two reasonable inferences may
be drawn, one of guilt and the other of innocence, the latter must prevail.
(United States vs. Friedrich Flick, et al, Case 5, American
Military Tribunal IV, Nurnberg, Germany.)
In considering the many
conflicts in the evidence and the multitude of circumstances from which
inferences may be drawn, as disclosed by the voluminous record before us, we
have endeavored to avoid the danger of viewing the conduct of the defendants
wholly in retrospect. On the contrary, we have sought to determine their
knowledge, their state of mind, and their motives from the situation as it
appeared, or should have appeared, to them at the time.
The prosecution
has designated as the number one defendant in this case Carl Krauch, who held
positions of importance with both the government and Farben.
While the
Farben organization, as a corporation, is not charged under the indictment with
committing a crime and is not the subject of prosecution in this case, it is
the theory of the prosecution that the defendants individually and collectively
used the Farben organization as an instrument by and through which they
committed the crimes enumerated in the indictment. All of the members of the
Vorstand or governing body of Farben who were such at the time of the collapse
of Germany were indicted and brought to trial. This Tribunal found that Max
Brueggemann was not in a physical condition to warrant continuing him as a
defendant in the case, and by an appropriate order separated him from this
trial. All of the other Vorstand members are defendants in this case. The
defend- [...ants] |
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