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| [prepa…] rations for war was so vast that no one in the Krupp
Vorstand nor their immediate assistants could have remained unaware of the
firm’s involvement in preparations for war.* |
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* So Korschan has stated :“Already in 1936 it was clear to
me and to every intelligent person that the armament sector in German
production was expanding. Armament works like Krupp naturally benefited from
this development.
“In the case of Krupp this became particularly
apparent in the fact that already existing workshops for the production of
guns, naval armor, armored turrets, were enlarged or new ones set up. The
production of cast steel for armored cupolas for the West Wall also clearly
showed a constant increase.” [Doc. NIK-9517, Pros. Ex. 359.]
|
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Because of their personal knowledge of the scale of German
rearmament, the defendants could assess more correctly than the ordinary man in
Germany the significance of the political and diplomatic maneuvering of the
German Government. They knew that it would not hesitate to break treaties to
achieve its ends. The Krupp firm itself had shared in Germany’s violations
of the provisions of the Versailles Treaty, including the armament provisions
and the ban on the remilitarization of the Rhineland.
Immediately prior
to the actual invasion of Poland, several signs indicated that action against
that country was being planned. On 12 May, all exports of armaments to that
country were banned; on 22 August 1939, all exports of any character were
prohibited with instructions that the contracts should not be cancelled but
that excuses should be found for failing to deliver. On 29 July 1939, a meeting
was held to put the West Wall into the best possible state of preparation by 25
August.
The defendants’ participation in the waging of the war,
once it started, was with knowledge of its criminal character. However
ill-advised the defendants might have considered the war, they could have had
no doubt as to why and by whom it had been precipitated. Moreover, they knew
that in its inception Germany had violated international treaties including the
Versailles Treaty, the Hague Conventions, and the Kellogg-Briand Pact. They
therefore knew the war to be both a war of aggression and a war in violation of
international treaties. Their participation in the waging of Germany’s
criminal war, like their participation in its preparation, was done with full
knowledge of the significance of Nazi policy and with the intention of
assisting it fully to secure its end — the aggrandizement of
Germany. |
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| * * * * * |
389 |
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