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the indictment before the International Military Tribunal down to a
“Krupp conspiracy,” specially construed by the prosecution in our
case on 16 December 1947. The conspiracy in the sense of the prosecution before
the IMT was, by the judgment of that Tribunal, already limited in such a way,
that hardly more than the mere word remained. The prosecution in our case did
not make use of the international conspiracy alleged at the time. The
conspiracy however, was, by the judgment of the IMT, limited to such an extent
that it appears surprising that the prosecution should still employ this term
with such far reaching intent. Quite rightly the French member of the IMT
— compare this with my note of 15 March 1948 under II 1st thesis —
pointed out that this judgment declined to draw a practical conclusion from
this term of conspiracy. The judgment had also taken from this term its
important content and limited it to the very narrow concept of collaboration in
the carrying out of a clearly defined act of aggression. The other cases
completed meanwhile before the Nuernberg Tribunals have not, so far, deviated
from this line first drawn by the IMT.
No doubt, it was not at all easy
for the prosecution in this case to place their multicolored theses on the
conspiracy at all. It appears to me that the greatest result of their labors is
the above mentioned special “Krupp conspiracy,” which, had it ever
existed, would logically have led to a special “Krupp war.” In view
of this argument of the prosecution I should not like to neglect to point out
here that the word conspiracy, during recent years, seems to have been robbed
of its legal contents, that rather it has now became one of the favorite and
most used words of politics. One found it not only in the vocabulary of the
dictator, Adolf Hitler which was also pointed out by the French member of the
IMT but also now in certain police states, who now are arousing the indignation
of leading personalities in the United States. It can, however, also be found
on the other side as is shown by the speech of Senator Lister Hill of Alabama
published a few days ago. He stated: “* * * the world is being driven
towards a new war by a gigantic conspiracy led by the Soviet Union.” (UP
report from Washington of 11 March 1948.) As opposed to this, it will be our
duty, in considering whether the personal and relevant guilt of one of the
defendants can be legally established, to deal only with dry and sober facts
and hold ourselves at a distance from such discredited terms.
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