 |
When one looks over the entire course of the prosecution and attempts
to envisage the course of the defense, this question appears to me to be the
nucleus of the matter — Is an industrial enterprise permitted to produce
war material before a war, and is it permitted to continue this production also
during the war, that is to say, within the scope of those regulations and laws
which have been passed by its government? The prosecution seems to have been
under the same impression, else the prosecutor would not have hastened to state
that the armament industry is an honorable one and that the accusations made
against the firm Krupp do not refer to the armament factories in other
countries. In this connection he obviously overlooked the sources from which
his colleagues obtained their information. At the outset of these proceedings
the prosecution submitted a written statement to the Tribunal which was
evidently intended to be endowed with special importance by its title
“Basic Information” The facts in the “Basic Information”
pertaining to the Krupp firm have been largely drawn from Bernhard Menne’s
book Blood and Steel — The Rise of the House of Krupp. If the
prosecution accepts the author as an expert in Krupp matters, it will also have
to acknowledge this expert in matters pertaining to the armament factories of
other countries.
It is of interest, therefore, to hear what Mr. Menne
has to say on this topic in the introduction to his book:¹ |
| |
“It is obvious that the
association of politics and business, steel and the destiny of nations,
revealed in these pages is not to be considered peculiar to the history or the
present condition of Germany. Wherever the name ‘Krupp’ appears, let
the Frenchman substitute ‘Schneider’; the Englishman
‘Vickers’ and any other country, its corresponding firm.”
|
| C. Opening Statement for the Defendant Loeser²
|
| |
DR. BEHLING: Mr. President, Your Honors, I intend to divide my plea
methodically into two categories. On one side are the matters which I have to
deal with administratively within the framework of the joint defense
irrespective of the person of Dr. Ewald Loeser. The second part of my plea will
deal specifically with the personality of Dr. Loeser and with the charges
brought against him.
To the first group belong a number of questions
whose irrelevancy to the outcome of the trial is obvious. Yet I shall have
to |
__________
¹ Menne, Bernhard,
“Blood and Steel. The Rise of the House of Krupp” (Lee-Furman Inc.,
New York, 1938).
² Opening statement is recorded in mimeographed
transcript, 22 March 1948, pp. 4732-4742
144 |
. 
