Krupp Trial 1947-48, Nazi Clemency, Steel Industrialist, Slave Labor; Flick, IG Farben; J McCloy; Marshall Plan

Last edited Mon Jan 13, 2025, 10:09 PM - Edit history (2)

The United States of America vs. Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, et al.
Krupp Trial, Vanderbilt Library. Edit.

- Krupp Trial: The United States of America vs. Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, et al. After World War II, the U.S. Office, Chief of Counsel for War Crimes indicted Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach and 11 other key officials of the German Krupp steel and armament manufacturer on 4 counts:
1.) planning, preparing, initiating, and waging aggressive war;
2.) plunder and spoliation of occupied countries;
3.) deportation, exploitation and abuse of slave labor; and
4.) common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against the peace.
The trial took place between August 16, 1947, and July 31, 1948. Judges included Hu C. Anderson of Tennessee (presiding), Edward James Daly of Connecticut, and William John Wilkins of Washington.

- The Krupp Trial in Context: The Krupp Trial was one of 12 subsequent U.S. Military Tribunals in Nürnberg (NMTs) that followed the more famous International Military Tribunal (IMT), in which lawyers from the Allied countries of the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and France jointly tried 24 key NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party: Nazi) officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The IMT and NMTs all took place shortly after World War II in the German city of Nürnberg (Nuremberg in English). Nürnberg was chosen both for its large Palace of Justice, which had escaped bombing, and because of the city's historical importance to the Nazi Party as the locus of massive rallies and the promulgation of the infamous Nürnberg Laws.

After the IMT, many other trials took place in the 4 zones of occupied Germany. One purpose of these trials was to address broader social responsibility for crimes committed during the Third Reich by civilian professionals including doctors, industrialists, lawyers, and judges. The NMTs consisted of the following 12 cases:.
The Krupp Trial was the last of 3 NMTs against large industrial firms in Nazi Germany; the other two cases indicted the Flick Concern, an industrial conglomeration of coal and iron mines and steel manufacturers, and I.G. Farben, a chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. A key difference in the Krupp Trial was the judges' wholesale rejection of the defense argument of necessity, according to which the defendants acted under duress by obeying government laws and policies when they used slave labor.

- The Krupp Firm. The Krupp firm started as a German family business in the late 1500s. By the 20th cent., Krupp had become an enormous steel and armament manufacturer headquartered in Essen. During both world wars, Krupp was Germany’s main supplier of weapons, from bullets and anti-aircraft guns, to tanks and U-boats. After Alfried Krupp’s death in 1967, the Krupp firm legally changed status from a family enterprise to a foundation. Krupp merged with Thyssen AG in 1999 to become ThyssenKrupp AG...
https://krupp.library.vanderbilt.edu/trial

- 'Krupp Trial and Nazi Clemency.' Robert H. Jackson Center (9 mins).

- ALFRIED KRUPP. German industrialist, a competitor in Olympic yacht races, contributor to the SS and a member of the Krupp family, which has been prominent in German industry since the early 19th cent. He was convicted after World War II of crimes against humanity for the genocidal manner in which he operated his factories (with the use of slave labor) and sentenced to 12 years in prison, subsequently commuted to 3 years with time served in 1951. The family company, known formally as Friedrich Krupp AG Hoesch-Krupp, was a key supplier of weapons and materiel to the German Government and the Wehrmacht during World War II...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfried_Krupp_von_Bohlen_und_Halbach
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- John Jay McCloy (March 31, 1895 – March 11, 1989) was an American lawyer, diplomat, banker, and high-ranking bureaucrat. He served as Assistant Secretary of War during World War II under Henry Stimson. In this capacity he dealt with German sabotage and political tensions in the North Africa Campaign. He was both the prime mover of Japanese internment and as well as a high-ranking Federal bureaucrat who opposed the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After the war, he served as the president of the World Bank, U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank, chairman of the Council on Foreign Relations, a member of the Warren Commission, and a prominent adviser to all presidents from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. McCloy was a member of a foreign policy group called "The Wise Men."...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_J._McCloy