. ©MAZAL LIBRARY

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. NUERNBERG MILITARY TRIBUNAL
Volume IX · Page 1
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Table of Contents - Volume 9
INTRODUCTION
 
The trial of twelve officials of the Krupp concern was commonly referred to as the “Krupp Case” and is officially designated as United States of America vs. Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, et al (Case 10). The Krupp Case was the third and last of the so-called industrialist cases tried in Nuernberg, the judgment being rendered on the day following the imposition of sentences in the “I.G. Farben Case.”

Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, the father of the first named defendant and the leading figure in the Krupp concern until 1943, was not indicted because of his continuing incapacity to stand trial for physical and mental reasons. Gustav Krupp had been indicted under all four counts of the indictment lodged with the International Military Tribunal (IMT) on 6 October 1945, being charged with crimes against the peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. However, before the trial began, the IMT granted a defense application for postponement of the proceedings against Gustav Krupp, and in its judgment the IMT stated, “the Tribunal decided that the defendant Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach could not then be tried because of his physical and mental condition, but that the charges against him in the indictment should be retained for trial thereafter, if the physical and mental condition of the defendant should permit.”

Alfried Krupp and eight of his codefendants were members or deputy members of the Vorstand (Managing Board) of the concern for varying periods of time, and the other three defendants held other important official positions in the firm. After December 1943, Alfried Krupp was the sole owner and the directing head of the Krupp concern, assisted by a “Direktorium” composed of the former members or deputy members of the old Vorstand, excluding only the defendant Loeser.

All of the defendants were charged with crimes against peace and with participation in a common plan or conspiracy to commit crimes against peace (counts one and four). These charges were dismissed by the Tribunal shortly after the prosecution's case–in–chief was completed, upon a defense motion that the prosecution's evidence had failed to sustain these charges. All of the defendants, except Kupke and Lehmann, were charged under count two with plunder and spoliation activities during belligerent occupations by Germany of neighboring countries. Six of the ten defendants charged were found guilty under this count. All of the defendants were charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the slave labor program of the Third  
 
 
903432—51—2
 
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