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[particu…] larly the Army and Navy High Commands on the other
hand, amounted to a veritable alliance. The wartime activities of the Krupp
enterprises were based, in part, upon spoliation of other countries and on
exploitation and maltreatment of large masses of forced foreign labor.
In my opinion, the evidence has shown that the basic policy of the
Krupp concern which proved to be of such substantial assistance to
Hitler’s aggressive projects, was established immediately after the First
War, that it was carried on during the Weimar Republic, and that it was greatly
intensified during those first years of the Hitler regime when none of the
present defendants as yet occupied a position of policymaking responsibility in
the Krupp combine. This was a decisive consideration for this Tribunal in
dismissing counts one and four of the indictment. For, the Tribunal found it
appropriate to adopt a conservative concept of “common plan” or
“conspiracy” as contained in Control Council Law No. 10.
Under a widely accepted, less conservative theory of conspiracy, those
who, with knowledge of the criminal plan, enter into the common enterprise at a
later date, become responsible for everything that was done under the
conspiracy previously started. Hence, had the Tribunal adopted that doctrine,
it would have had to determine whether Gustav Krupp had the requisite state of
mind, and whether, when the defendants reached highly responsible positions,
they become parties to his plans, or, in other words, his coconspirators. For,
I am convinced that when the defendants reached their top positions within the
Krupp concern, they knew the basic policy of the concern and of Gustav Krupp.
As said before, the Tribunal did not adopt this line; furthermore, the
Tribunal, acting as it did in a comparatively new field of international law,
wished conservatively to restrict the individual crime against peace to such
persons, who, individually, played a substantial part in the planning,
preparation, initiation, or waging of aggressive war. But until well into the
late 30’s the Krupp officials who held the highest positions in the Krupp
enterprises, were persons other than the present defendants. And the man who
stood at the apex of Krupp’s huge industrial combine until 1943 was Gustav
Krupp. At that time, all the wars of aggression had started and were well under
way. In order to be guilty of crimes against peace, a person must be shown to
have acted in a manner which actually and substantially influenced the course
of international events. Giving the defendants the benefit of what may be
called a very slight doubt, and although the evidence with respect to some of
them was extraordinarily strong, I concurred that, in view of Gustav
Krupp’s overriding authority |
457 |
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