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The Charges in the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg (Case VI)

Side view of the dock at the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg (1947/48) '© National Archives, Washington, DC
Side view of the dock at the I.G. Farben Trial in Nuremberg (1947/48)
© National Archives, Washington, DC

 a  From the indictment: “1. All of the defendants, acting through the instrumentality of Farben and otherwise, with divers other persons, during a period of years preceding May 8, 1945, participated in the planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression and invasions of other countries, which wars of aggression and invasions were also in violation of international laws and treaties. [...] The acts and conduct set forth in this count were committed by the defendants unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly.”

(Cited in Das Urteil im I.G.-Farben-Prozess. Der vollständige Wortlaut (Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk, 1948), pp. 19–20. (Transl. KL))
 
 b  From the indictment: “Farben marched with the Wehrmacht and played a main role in Germany’s plan to enrich itself through conquest. Farben used its technical knowledge and resources to plunder and exploit the chemical industry and related industries in Europe, to strengthen the German war machine, and to ensure the subjugation of the conquered lands to the German economy.”
(Cited in Das Urteil im I.G.-Farben-Prozess. Der vollständige Wortlaut (Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk, 1948), p. 58. (Transl. KL))
 
 c  The judges summarized the charges once more in their verdict: “a) Farben’s role in the slave-labor program of the Third Reich, b) the use of poison gas, which was supplied by Farben, in the extermination of concentration camp inmates, c) the provision of toxic chemicals made by Farben for criminal medical experiments on enslaved persons, and d) the illegal and inhumane behavior of the defendants in connection with Farben’s Auschwitz plant.”
(Das Urteil im I.G.-Farben-Prozess. Der vollständige Wortlaut (Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk, 1948), p. 107. (Transl. KL))
 
 d  In the indictment it was explained that “[t]he defendants Schneider, Bütefisch, and von der Heyde after September 1, 1939, were members of the Schutzstaffeln of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (commonly known as the ‘SS’), an organization that has been declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal and Article 2 Paragraph 1 (d) of Control Council Law No. 10.”
(Cited in Das Urteil im I.G.-Farben-Prozess. Der vollständige Wortlaut (Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk, 1948), p. 107. (Transl. KL))
 
 e  From the indictment: “All of the defendants, acting through the instrumentality of Farben and otherwise, with divers other persons, during a period of years preceding May 8, 1945, participated as leaders, organizers, instigators, and accomplices in the formulation and execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit war crimes as defined by Control Council Law No. 10, or acts which constituted such war crimes.”
(Cited in Das Urteil im I.G.-Farben-Prozess. Der vollständige Wortlaut (Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk, 1948), p. 20. (Transl. KL))

In 1947, subsequent to the so-called Trial of the Major War Criminals in Nuremberg, United States v. Carl Krauch, et al.—the Farben case—was tried before Military Tribunal VI, which was constituted on August  8, 1947. Designated as judges were Curtis Grover Shake, James Morris, Paul Macarius Hebert, and Clarence F. Merrell. Since December 1946, the prosecution’s team, consisting of Josiah E. Dubois, Drexel A. Sprecher,[1] and Emanuel Minskoff, had been engaged in research for the bill of indictment charging top managers of I.G. Farbenindustrie AG. In this process, they relied principally on documents collected by U.S. government departments and intelligence services, and on the extensive statements and papers put on record by I.G. Farben’s managing board members Hermann Schmitz, Georg von Schnitzler, and Max Ilgner for Bernard Bernstein’s investigative team in summer 1945. Using these materials, the 12 members of prosecution counsel tackled the difficult task of proving the individual guilt of key executives of I.G. Farben: Numerous documents had been duly put aside; “too many witness statements were unsworn, too many legal papers were undated.”[2] The indictment, dated May 8, 1947, finally charged 24 managers at I.G. Farben with having committed one or more of the following crimes:

 

1. Planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression  a 

 

2. Plunder and spoliation in the annexed and occupied countries  b 

 

3. Participation in the slave labor program and policy of genocide of the Nazi dictatorship  c 

 

4. Membership in criminal organizations  d 

 

5. Common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against peace  e 

 

Counts one, three, and five were a novelty in the history of law: they referred to elements of offense that were argued before a court for the first time in the Nuremberg Trials. Charged in addition to Carl Krauch, the chairman of the supervisory board and first-named defendant, were his managing board colleagues Otto Ambros, Max Brüggemann, Ernst Bürgin, Heinrich Bütefisch, Fritz Gajewski, Paul Häfliger, Heinrich Hörlein, Max Ilgner, Friedrich Jähne, Hans Kühne, August von Knieriem, Carl Ludwig Lautenschläger, Wilhelm R. Mann, Heinrich Oster, Hermann Schmitz, Christian Schneider, Georg von Schnitzler, Fritz ter Meer, and Carl Wurster, as well as the two directors Walther Dürrfeld and Heinrich Gattineau and the two executives Erich von der Heyde and Hans Kugler. The case as to the defendant Max Brüggemann, the concern’s chief legal advisor, was withdrawn shortly after the beginning of the main trial.

(SP; transl. KL)



Download

[pdf] Karl Heinz Roth_Case VI The IG Farben Trial at Nuremberg

 

Materials

[pdf] Convictions_CaseVI

 

Source

Indictment Case No. 6, May 3, 1947. Archive of the Fritz Bauer Institute, Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, Case VI, reel 107, Official Court File, Vol. 46, pp. 44–137.

 

Literature

Boll, Bernd: “Fall 6: Der IG-Farben-Prozeß.” In: Gerd R. Ueberschär, ed.: Der Nationalsozialismus vor Gericht. Die alliierten Prozesse gegen Kriegsverbrecher und Soldaten 1943–1952. Frankfurtam Main: Fischer, 1999, pp. 133–43.

OMGUS: Ermittlungen gegen die I.G. Farbenindustrie AG. Nördlingen: Greno, 1986.

Das Urteil im I.G.-Farben-Prozess. Der vollständige Wortlaut. Offenbach am Main: Bollwerk, 1948.

Wagner, Bernd C.: IG Auschwitz. Zwangsarbeit und Vernichtung von Häftlingen des Lagers Monowitz 1941–1945. Munich: Saur, 2000.

[1] The Visual History Archive interview with Drexel Sprecher can be viewed in the workroom of the Wollheim Memorial: Drexel Sprecher, oral history interview [Eng.], March 24, 1996. USC Shoah Foundation Institute, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Archive, Code 12462.

[2] Bernd Boll: “Fall 6: Der IG-Farben-Prozeß.” In: Gerd R. Ueberschär, ed.: Der Nationalsozialismus vor Gericht. Die alliierten Prozesse gegen Kriegsverbrecher und Soldaten 1943–1952 (Frankfurtam Main: Fischer, 1999), pp. 133–43, here p. 135. (Translated by KL)