 |
(The Reichstag fire of 28
February 1933) “was used by Hitler and his Cabinet as a pretext for * *
*suspending the constitutional guarantees of
freedom.”¹ |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
“* * * a series of laws and
decrees were passed which reduced the powers of regional and local governments
throughout Germany, transforming them into subordinate divisions of the
Government of the Reich.”² |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
“ * * * the judiciary was
subjected to control * * * Persons were arrested by the SS for political
reasons, and detained in prisons and concentration camps * * * the judges were
without power to intervene in any
way.”³ |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
“Independent judgment, based
on freedom of thought, was * * * quite impossible.”4 |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
“Germany had accepted the
dictatorship with all its methods of terror, and its cynical and open denial of
the rule of law.”5 |
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
“Hostile criticism, indeed
criticism of any kind, was forbidden, and the severest penalties were imposed
on those who indulged in it.”6
|
| * * * * * * * * * * |
| |
“The opportunity was taken
to murder a large number of people who at one time or another had opposed
Hitler.”7 |
| In view of these indisputable facts, established by the highest
authority, this Tribunal is not prepared to say that these defendants did not
speak the truth when they asserted that in conforming to the slave-labor
program they had no other choice than to comply with the mandates of the Hitler
government. There can be but little doubt that the defiant refusal of a Farben
executive to carry out the Reich production schedule or to use slave labor to
achieve that end would have been treated as treasonous sabotage and would have
resulted in prompt and drastic retaliation. Indeed, there was credible evidence
that Hitler would have welcomed the opportunity to make an example of a Farben
leader. |
__________
¹ Ibid., page
178
²
Id.
³ Ibid., page
179
4 Ibid., page
182
5 Ibid., page
181
6 Ibid., page
182
7 Ibid., page
181
1175 |
. 
