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INTRODUCTION |
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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 caseinchief 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
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