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| constitute a violation of Article 43 of the Hague Regulations which
requires that the laws in force in an occupied country be respected; that it
was also a violation of Article 46 of the Hague Regulations which provides that
private property must be respected; that the Krupp firm, through defendants
Krupp, Loeser, Houdremont, Mueller, Janssen, and Eberhardt, voluntarily and
without duress participated in these violations by purchasing and removing the
machinery and leasing the property of the Austin plant and in leasing the Paris
property; and that there was no justification for such action, either in the
interest of public order and safety or the needs of the army of
occupation |
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| THE ELMAG PLANT LOCATED AT MULHOUSE |
| |
For more than 125 years a French company known as S.A.C.M. (Alsacian
Corporation for Mechanical Construction) had its principal place of business at
Mulhouse, Alsace. The company owned eight plants, four of which were located in
France, outside of Alsace, but the principal works of the four located in
Alsace were at Mulhouse. At the outbreak of the war the principal product of
the Mulhouse plant was textile machinery, and a portion of the plant was
devoted to the manufacture of combustion engines, machines tools, and machinery
for the fuel industry.
Upon the German occupation of Alsace in June
1940, a “Chief of civilian administration” was appointed by the
Germans, and German law was introduced. A German administrator was appointed to
take charge of the S.A.C.M. properties which we shall refer to hereinafter as
ELMAG, an abbreviation of the German translation of the name of the firm,
namely, Elsaessische Maschinenfabrik A.G. The reason for this seizure seems to
have been that the majority of the stock of the company was owned by Frenchmen,
living outside of Alsace. The company was referred to as “an Alsatian
enterprise in which enemy interests predominate.” The action was protested
by the president and those of the directors who had remained with the company
after the occupation.
In August 1940 when the German administrator took
over the plant, ELMAG still used about one-half of the working hours for
producing textile machinery but this figure rapidly decreased later in favor of
direct and indirect production for the German armed forces.
As a result
of damaging air raids on the Gusstahlfabrik-Essen plant in March 1943 it was
decided to move the Krupp Krawa |
1353 |
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