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that the prisoners of war were inadequately billeted and fed, that
the installations for air-raid protection in the camps and in the plants were
insufficient, and that individual prisoners were manhandled.
The
defense will have to contest in detail the entire evidence introduced by the
prosecution. This much, however, can be said even at this early date In any
case, the prosecution did not succeed in bringing proof for its assertion that
there existed at Krupp‘s a slave system, indeed it did not even explain
clearly in what way the 12 defendants are to have been connected with the
individual incidents, in particular that they knew of them or at least should
have known of them, let alone that they tolerated or even sanctioned them.
This indecision on the part of the prosecution, to which the defense
referred repeatedly in the course of this trial, brings the defense face to
face with the extremely difficult task of objecting on behalf of its clients to
charges, whose connection to its clients is not explained, let alone proved. On
the other hand, this fact forces the defense to deal with the question of
prisoners of war from the very bottom, in as much as it pertains to the
assignment of prisoners of war in the German industry, and in particular in the
firm of Krupp, so as to all dangers which might arise for the defendants as a
result of the unobjective generalization on the part of the prosecution.
I have taken it upon myself to treat the fundamental aspect of the
subject, “prisoners of war” within the framework of the general case
of the defense. I shall throw light on the questions of international law in
this field and I shall treat all basic questions concerning the procurement,
billeting, food, hygiene, and medical care, questions of cultural welfare and
protection against air raids, of wages, supervision and discipline and of the
assignment to the plants. I shall deal at length with the special position into
which Russian and French prisoners of war and Italian military internees are
placed by virtue of the international law and I shall finally define in detail
the limits of competency and responsibility concerning all matters pertaining
to the assignment of prisoners of war.
The same principle is being
dealt with by Mr. Kranzbuehler with reference to the civilian foreign workers
and by Mr. Wandschneider with reference to the concentration camp inmates.
Individual questions concerning the local assignments of prisoners of
war to plants I shall treat only inasmuch as they concern the plants of the
Essen Gusstahlfabrik (cast steel works). In view of the external connections
with similar questions concerning the assignment of prisoners of war I shall,
for reasons of |
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