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who were not only to recruit followers of the resistance movement and
to undermine the regime, but who also had to prepare for the event of a victory
of the resistance the possibility to take over leading positions in the new
state and economy. What could be more obvious to him than to select a man whom
he had come to value and to know as reliable with all his knowledge and ability
as his deputy in Leipzig and who could free himself for this work to join one
of the most important industrial enterprises which appeared to be safe from
arbitrary Gestapo interference, in order to have in him a true pillar of the
movement? In this respect I shall offer proof by the presentation of documents
and by calling of a witness. If in addition financial reasons are claimed to
have played their part for Dr. Loeser, this may be true. They were, however,
not decisive. On the strength of the evidence to be presented by me the High
Tribunal will come to the conclusion that Dr. Loeser had been picked out from
the very beginning by Dr. Goerdeler as an exponent of the resistance movement.
This duty assumed ever greater importance after Dr. Goerdeler started to really
organize the resistance movement, i. e., the conspiracy against Hitler. This
happened in 1938 subsequent to the above-mentioned journey of Dr. Goerdeler to
America. At that time a circle was formed which one may properly describe as a
conspiratorial center of the resistance movement. In this circle Dr. Loeser
played an outstanding part.
The outbreak of war and the constantly
growing influence of the Party and the State following its development into
“total war” on industry, as well as the constantly increasing
pressure of the governmental and Party offices on industrial enterprises,
caused Dr. Loeser to have qualms of conscience in an ever-increasing degree. If
he did not want to render himself liable to persecution by the Nazi authorities
as saboteur, he was forced to comply with the wishes of the Government under
the pressure of draconical laws. If he objected to this, he would have had to
take the consequences and to give up his position. Thereby, however, the
resistance movement would lose this important observation post. In order to
avoid even worse he put on the brake wherever he could. That in doing so he
confined himself within the firm of Krupp to the limits of his department and
supported himself on financial considerations rather than on political
reflections is obvious. The constellation in Germany at the time demanded that
he keep in the background as far as possible. I shall give the Court a drastic
example demonstrating the necessity for such reserve out of my own practice as
defense counsel before the People’s Court, namely the case of the mining
director, Ricken, who for a so-called defeatist remark in the Vorstand of a
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