| Original caption: “Chief of Counsel prosecuting the former Farben officials is Brig. Gen. Telford Taylor who in his opening statement charged: ‘The indictment accuses these men of major responsibility for visiting upon mankind the most searing and catastrophic war in human history.’” United States Army Brigadier General Telford Taylor (February 24, 1908 – May 23, 1998) makes opening statements during the IG Farben trial. Taylor was now the chief prosecutor. The 23 defendants sat glumly in the dock. They had been accustomed to sitting on the boards of directors of some of the most prestigious firms in the world. Now, in the same paneled courtroom at Nuremberg where not 2 years before Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering (January 12, 1893 – October 15, 1946), Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (“Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force”) and other leaders of the Reich had been condemned, they were about to listen to the verdict—more than a year had passed since the indictments had been handed down in 1947 accusing the I.G. Farben directors of plunder, slavery, complicity in aggression, and mass murder. Over 6,000 documents had been submitted by the dozen American prosecutors and by some 60 German lawyers selected by the defendants. Nearly 200 witnesses had been heard. Chief Judge Curtis Grover Shake (July 14, 1887 – September 11, 1978), who had come from the Supreme Court of the State of Indiana, read the decision. His opinion was shared by Judge James Morris (January 2, 1893 – July 20, 1980), who had been on the Supreme Court of North Dakota: “Auschwitz was financed and owned by Farben The Auschwitz construction workers furnished by the concentration camp lived and labored under the shadow of extermination…the defendants most closely connected with the Auschwitz construction project bear great responsibility with respect to the workers. They applied to the Reich Labor Office for labor…Responsibility for taking the initiative in the unlawful employment was theirs and, to some extent at least, they must share the responsibility for mistreatment of the workers with the Schutzstaffel SS and the construction contractors…The use of concentration camp labor and forced foreign workers at Auschwitz with the initiative displayed by the officials of Farben in the procurement and utilization of such labor, is a crime against humanity. Nine of the twenty-three Farben directors were found guilty of corporate plunder in occupied territories. Only five were held to be criminally liable for the abuse of slave labor. Judge Paul M. Hebert (November 1, 1907 – February 3, 1977), former Dean of the Law School of Louisiana State University, felt that the other two judges had been too lenient: ‘I conclude from the record that Farben accepted and frequently sought the forced workers…The important fact is that Farben’s Vorstand [executive board of directors] willingly cooperated in utilizing forced labor. They were not forced to do so …The conditions at Auschwitz were so horrible that it is utterly incredible to conclude that they were unknown to the defendants, the principle corporate directors, who were responsible for Farben’s connection with the project…Each defendant who is a member of the Vorstand should be held guilty.’” The indictment listed 5 charges: 1. Planning, preparation, initiation, and waging of wars of aggression and invasions of other countries. 2. War crimes and crimes against humanity through the plundering and spoliation of occupied territories, and the seizure of plants in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Norway, France, and Russia. 3. War crimes and crimes against humanity through participation in the enslavement and deportation to slave labor on a gigantic scale of concentration camp inmates and civilians in occupied countries, and of prisoners of war, and the mistreatment, terrorization, torture, and murder of enslaved persons. 4. Membership in a criminal organization, the SS. 5. Acting as leaders in a conspiracy to commit the crimes mentioned under counts 1, 2, and 3. The Associated Press reported in a nationally syndicated article on August 27, 1947: “24 of Farben Directors Go on Trial in United States Court as Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler’s (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) War Backers – Group Denounced as Thirsting for Power, Profits, World Plunder – Giant Chemical Industry Charged With Working ‘Slave Labor to Death’ – They Would Do It Again! By Donald Doane [(May 14, 1911 – October 6, 1999)] Nuremberg, Germany. August 27 — A 4-person United States court, opening the war crimes trial of 24 directors of the 1,000,000,000-dollar IG Farben chemical trust, heard the prosecution charges today that they deliberately fostered Adolf Hitler’s wars of aggression for their own profit. Further than that, Brigadier General Telford Taylor told the court, ‘they would breed a new war if they got another chance. These are the men who made war possible, and they did it because they wanted to conquer,’ said Taylor, the United States chief of counsel for war crimes. These men were governed by the same unquenchable thirst for power that for years has gripped and distorted the minds of the military caste and many other leading Germans. Their long-range objective was. ultimately, Farben’s domination of the chemical industry of the world. ‘What these men did was done with the utmost deliberation and would, I venture to surmise, be repeated if the opportunity should recur.’” “Outline of Case” In a 108-page outline of the case against the industrialists, Gen Taylor and 2 of his chief prosecutors told the court they would prove that: 1. Farben leaders knew of, approved, and promoted Hitler’s schemes for world conquest and prostituted their entire giant industry to help him win; 2. Farben profited immensely by the plundering of chemical industries in conquered countries, with Farben officials personally putting pressure upon Nazi leaders to obtain captured factories; 3. Farben “deliberately used international cartels and syndicate arrangements” as “a tool of German foreign policy, to secure the maximum amount of technical Information for Germany to promote Germany’s war efforts and to withhold so far as possible any intormation of military value and thereby weaken the military potential of other countries;’ 4. Farben was an “eager participant” in the Nazis’ brutal use of slave labor, working thousands to death in its factories. “Farben-Standard Oil Pact” Taylor charged that, as early as March 1934. Farben started holding out technical information from Standard Oil of New Jersey and other non-German firms with which the chemical trust had agreements. He said the Farben-Standard Oil agreement delayed for years the development of synthetic rubber and fuels in the United States. The general cited the 1929 agreement between Farben and the oil company as “an excellent illustration of the manner in which Farben, in close co-operation with the Nazi government, utilized international cartel arrangements in the interests of the German war economy.” “Standard Oil recognized Farben’s priority in the chemical business and, except in Germany, Farben recognized Standard Oil’s priority in the oil business,” the prosecutor said. Standard was to turn over to Farben new chemical processes, unless allied to the oil business, and Farben was to give Standard new methods related to oil and gas. “The Standard Oil Company served the agreement meticulously,” Taylor said.”Farben, on the contrary, behaved with calculated deceitfulness.” The defendants were the men who ran IG Farben, its official name is Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft, which is the world’s biggest chemical combine—and allegedly used it as a tool for Nazi conquest. 21 of the 24 pleaded not guilty on arraignment on August 14. “May Set Precedent” For their trial, which may establish an important precedent by holding industrialists as well as political and military leaders responsible for plotting aggression, the Farben officials sat in the same dock where Hermann Goering and his Nazi colleagues were tried. “We are not trying them for being Nazis,” General Taylor declared, “nor because they exercised great power and controlled great wealth. “‘The indictment accuses these men of major responsibility for visiting upon mankind the most catastrophic war in human history,’ he asserted. ‘It accuses them of wholesale enslavement, plunder and murder.’ The defendants, he continued, ‘will no doubt tell us that they were merely overzealous patriots” doing what “any patriotic businessman would have done.’” “‘This,’ he said, ‘is not the truth. They knew that Hitler’s war engine, which they did so much to build, was going to be used,’ and they planned to use it themselves, Taylor continued. The twenty-thousand-word indictment charged that, without Farben, Hitler would have been powerless to start the war or to wage it so successfully for so long. It accused Farben of plundering subjugated countries and of working slave laborers to death, with their crematorium their ultimate destination.” “Defendants and Judges” “Twenty-two of the twenty-four indicted men were in the dock today. Max Brueggeman (???? – ????), secretary of Farben’s board of directors, was seriously ill with a heart ailment [his indictment was dismissed in July], and Karl Wurster (December 2, 1900 – December 14, 1974), IG Farben Director, was recuperating from an operation. Wehrwirtschaftsführer (literally “Defense Economy Leader”) Carl Lautenschläger (February 27, 1888 – December 6, 1962) was not present at the August 14 arraignment because of the death of his son, but was present today. The other defendants are: Carl Krauch (April 7, 1887 – February 3, 1968), chairman of Farben’s supervisory board of directors; Hermann Schmitz (January 1, 1881 – October 8, 1960), chairman of the managing board of directors; George von Schnitzler (October 29, 1884 – May 24, 1962), chief of all foreign and domestic sales divisions; Wehrwirtschaftsführer Fritz Gajewski (October 13, 1885 – December 2, 1965), Technical Director of Agfa; Wehrwirtschaftsführer Heinrich Hörlein (June 5, 1882 – May 23, 1954), head of their Pharmaceutical Research Department; August von Knieriem (June 11, 1887 – October 17, 1978), served on the board of directors of Anorgana; Fritz ter Meer (July 4, 1884 – October 27, 1967), IG Farben Board Member; Wehrwirtschaftsführer Christian Schmeder (November 19, 1887 – May 5, 1972), Plant Manager at Merseburg; Otto Ambros (May 19, 1901 – July 23, 1990), Plant Manager at Dyhernfurth for nerve gas production; Wehrwirtschaftsführer Ernest Bürgin (July 31, 1885 – June 22, 1966), Plant Manager at Flixwerke, Spain; Wehrwirtschaftsführer SS-Obersturmbannführer Heinrich Buetefisch (February 24, 1894 – September 5, 1969), Plant Manager at Bunawerke, Monowitz, Auschwitz, Poland; Paul Harfliger (November 19, 1886 – November 15, 1950), Plant Manager, Griesheim-Elektron, Commercial and Chemical Committee; Wehrwirtschaftsführer Max Ilgner (June 28, 1899 – March 28, 1966), Wirtschaftspolitische Abteilung (“Economic Policy Department”); Friedrich Jaehne (October 24, 1879 – December 21, 1965), Plant Manager at Buna, Auschwitz, Poland; Hans Kuehne (June 3, 1880 – February 18, 1969), Chief of Production for Organic and Inorganic Chemicals; SA-Sturmführer Wilhelm Mann (April 4, 1894 – March 10, 1992), supervisor at Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung, Zyklon-B producer; Heinrich Oster (May 9, 1878 – October 29, 1954), BASF Executive; Walter Duerfild (June 24, 1899 – March 1, 1967), Plant Manager at Buna, Auschwitz, Poland; SA-Standartenführer Heinrich Gettineau (January 6, 1905 – April 27, 1985), Director of Dynamit-Nobel-Fabrik, Czechoslovakia, Wirtschaftspolitische Abteilung (“Economic Policy Department”); SS-Hauptscharführer Erich von der Heyge (May 1, 1900 – August 5, 1984), Wirtschaftspolitische Abteilung (“Economic Policy Department”); and Hans Kuggler (December 1900 – September 14, 1968) Planat Manager, Aussig-Falkenauer, Czechoslovakia.” “Judges hearing the case were Curtis G. Shake of Vincennes, Indiana; Paul M. Herbert of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; James Morris of Bismarck, North Dakota; and Clarence F.I. Merrell (February 19, 1887 – February 10, 1954) of Indianapolis.” “History of Farben” “Taylor traced the history of Farben from a modest start as a dye works to a global combine. He said the first major step of the officials was to help put Hitler in power. They then made big contributions to the Nazis, he said, began building stockpiles of synthetic rubber and gasoline, and training their factory hands in defense against gas attacks and air raids. After the 1936 Nuremberg rally of the Nazis, at which Hitler announced a four-year plan to make Germany self-sufficient in critical war materials, Taylor said, the Farben outposts abroad were converted more and more to espionage and propaganda: He said Farben worked out a maze of more than two thousand cartel agreements, its every move made in consultation with the Nazi government and designed to strengthen the technical position of Germany while slowing down research abroad, particularly in the United States. The indictment charged that, through its cartel arrangements, Farben retarded the production within the United States of synthetic rubber, magnesium, synthetic nitrogen, tetrazene, atabrine, and sulfa drugs.” “Designed to Weaken the United States” The most significant impact upon the ability of the peace-loving nations of the world to defend themselves was Farben’s prewar activities designed to weaken the United States as an arsenal of democracy,” the indictment said. Taylor said the trial was no act of vengeance but an “inescapable and solemn duty to test the conduct of these men by the same laws and commandments which they dared disavow. “The crimes with which these men are charged were not committed in a rage or under the stress of sudden temptation. They were not slips or lapses of otherwise well-ordered men. “One does not build a stupendous war machine in a fit of passion nor an Auschwitz factory during a passing spasm of brutality.” The reference was to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where Farben had a branch factory, a synthetic rubber plant, where the slave labor was subjected to atrocities which caused a turnover of 300 percent in a year. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0971.jpg |
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| Image Dimensions | 1300 x 1042 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | August 27, 1947 |
| Location | Justizpalast |
| City | Nuremberg |
| State or Province | Bavaria |
| Country | Germany |
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| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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