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formation of a party or a movement. One thing, however, formed, the
rebellion arising from the human distress which increases as the work of people
loses its meaning, because it must be performed under the irresistible
compulsion of a presumptuous dictatorship which disregards the convictions of
the personal conscience which has its source in God.
This need brought
together clandestinely men and women from all circles of the population and
forged them into an underground community which today we call the German
resistance. The conspirators, generally speaking, knew and met each other only
if they were close acquaintances for they had to be careful not to call
attention to themselves and thus be caught.
The organizers and leaders
of the resistance were anxious to fill positions which could offer them a
secure platform as a starting point for the intended coup d’etat.
As a matter of course they, as everyone else in Germany, were forced to
consider their professional and political effectiveness as they existed in the
Hitler regime. I, too, took the same path as these men. It culminated before
the People’s Court. That the latter’s death sentence was not executed
and that I am now standing here is more than a miracle.
DEFENDANT
ALFRIED KRUPP: Mr. President, Your Honors. My codefendants have asked me when
speaking the final words in this trial to do so on their behalf as well. When
in 1943 I became the responsible bearer of the Krupp name and tradition, little
did I anticipate that this legacy would one day bring me into the
defendant’s dock, just as little as my associates anticipated when years
and decades ago they joined a firm whose good reputation seemed unshakeable.
And yet the name of Krupp was on the list of war criminals long before the end
of the war, not because of the charges to which the prosecution is compiling
against us now, but because of a notion which is as old as it is fallacious:
Krupp wanted war and Krupp made war.
You gentlemen of the
Tribunal have recognized the notion for what it is, a misconception with some,
with others a lie.
As a member of the fifth generation which produced
steel, the fourth generation which forged weapons, I should like to add one
thing. Never in my parents’ home nor in my family did I hear one word or
experience one act which welcomed or promoted any war at any place or at any
time. The symbol of our house does not depict a cannon, but three interlocked
wheels, emblem of peaceful trade.
With the ruling acquitting Krupp from
the responsibility for war, you have served the truth. The International
Military Tribunal before which my father was indicted would have had to
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