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asked me what I had to do with the Flick group and I gave him the
answer.¹ (Just before that Mr. Wollstaedter had asked Mr. Putze in a
joking manner whether we had an eye on Markstaedt.) The reason we came, I told
Mr. Wollstaedter, was to let him know that we should gladly supply him with
rolling-mill equipment [Walzwerkseinrichtungen], should he possibly have a need
for them. Apart from that the activity of Markstaedt interested us, of course,
from the point of view of the LHW. Up to now LHW and Famo, have been the most
important industrial complex in the Lower Silesian area. Since the Krupp firm
had decided to build such a big plant there, it was, of course, for us of
general importance to know what further plans were being made and what was
going on in Markstaedt. Mr. Wollstaedter fully understood this and willingly
gave us the desired information as follows:
The land which the Krupp
firm had acquired lies near the communities of Markstaedt and Fuenfkirchen
between the Breslau-Oppeln railway and the Oder River on the eastern side of
the Oder. The land comprises 2000 hectars or 20 million square meters. It had
for the most part already been acquired before by I.G. Farben, partly by
expropriation of the former owners because I.G. Farben originally had had the
intention to build a buna plant there. The Krupp firm later on bought the land
from I.G. Farben after the plans to build a buna plant did not
materialize.² It is intended to make a canal to the Oder and also a port.
The original planning had provided for the construction of a complete
foundry (open hearth and electro steel plant, rolling mills and refining
plants) with a total steel output of 1000 tons per month — an output which
fairly well corresponds to the present output of Krupp in Essen and
Rheinhausen. In connection with the rolling mills definite plans had already
been drawn up for the cylinder works of the well-known big armored plates
“street” by Sack. But because of the deteriorating war situation this
big plan had to be postponed. For the time being the Krupp firm received the
order to confine itself to the production of finished armament products.
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¹ The head, Friedrich
Flick, and five officials of the Flick concern were tried on charges of
spoliation of property or participation in the slave-labor program in the
“Flick Case,” United States vs. Friedrich Flick, et al., Case 5,
volume VI. Bernhard Weiss, who signed this memorandum, as well as the two
persons receiving copies of this memorandum (Burkart and Kaletsch) were
defendants in the Flick Case. Weiss was found guilty on the slave-labor
charges, whereas Burkart and Kaletsch were acquitted.
² The I.G.
Farben concern did build a large buna and synthetic oil plant at another site
near the Auschwitz concentration camp. Twenty-four officials of the I.G. Farben
concern were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity for alleged
responsibility in Farben's employment of concentration camp inmates at the
Farben Auschwitz plant. Five of the officials were found guilty, the rest
acquitted of these charges. (United States vs. Carl Krauch, et al., Case 6.
vols. VII and VIII.)
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