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present anything pertaining to Dr. Janssen which is of any criminal
relevance. A few statements by persons directly affected is all that is
available. Regarding the procurement of these statements in prison and a long
time prior to indictment the defense will have a word to say on presentation of
its evidence. The parties who furnished such declarations could realize only
subsequently that they were to be a means to play them off, one against the
other.
The scarcity of concrete evidence discernible even at this
juncture already invites any unbiased observer to infer that in our case the
prosecution is not so much concerned with proving the personal guilt of each
one of the defendants in detail as to attack a “system.” In the
Nuernberg industrial trials the prosecution levels charges against German
private individuals, namely, officials of the firms of Flick, I. G. Farben, and
Krupp, in a most generalized and highly defamatory manner. The attacks are of a
kind which, evidently, are meant to hit the entire German industry as a whole
and, in fact, the attacks are carried out with a definitely anticapitalistic
tendency. The discrepancy between mere assertions and actual proof is amazing
to the unbiased observer.
As a matter of fact, the charges bear a
painful resemblance to other charges made before the United Nations just a few
months ago, namely on 18 September 1947, by the Foreign Affairs Deputy
Commissioner of the Soviet Union in his capacity as Soviet delegate. The speech
of Andrei Vishinsky caused great consternation. Mr. Vishinsky did not assail
the German concerns of Flick, I. G. Farben, or Krupp, but the American, and I
quote, “capitalist monopolistic combines” such as du Pont, Chemical
Trust, the Standard Oil, the General Electric, etc.; Mr. Vishinsky charged them
with preparing for a new war. He said literally, I quote: |
| |
“In this war propaganda,
representatives of the American monopolistic combines of capitalism,
representatives of the largest concerns and of the leading American industry,
as well as representatives of the banking and stock exchange elements are
playing the most active part. They are the elements who during the Second World
War reaped the biggest profits, piling up huge fortunes, analogous to what
happened during the First World War.” |
| Mr. Vishinsky classifies as “other warmongers” American
politicians, statesmen, and owners of newspapers who are working hand in glove
with the American industrialists. Again, an embarrassing analogy to the charges
raised in Nuernberg. Nevertheless one must give Mr. Vishinsky credit for his
accusations in that |
166 |
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