“After the accession to power of Adolf Hitler I had the satisfaction of being able to report to the Fuehrer that Krupps stood ready, after a short warming-up period, to begin the rearmament of the German people without any gaps of experience,—the blood of the comrades of KAR. Saturday 1923 had not been shed in vain. Since that time I was often permitted to accompany the Fuehrer through the old and new workshops and to experience how the workers of Krupp cheered him in gratitude. In the years after 1933 we worked with an incredible intensity and when the war did break out the speed and results were again increased. We are all proud of having thus contributed to the heretofore magnificent successes of our army.”

* * * * * *

“I have always considered it to be an honour as well as an obligation to be the head of an arms factory and I know that the employees of Krupp share these feelings. Thanks to the educational work of the National Socialist Government this is the case all over Germany. I know that the things I have said here about the armament worker in particular hold true for every German worker. With these men and women who work for the cause with all their hearts, with cool heads and skilled hands we will master every fate.” (D-94; see D-64).

In a memorandum of a conference held on 9 December 1942, concerning the proposed publication of a book dealing with Krupp’s armament activities, Von Bulow, confidential secretary to Krupp, wrote:

“For the period of transition from 1919 up to rearmament, A. K. [Krupp] had undertaken various tasks in order to keep up the Company’s activity in the field of artillery, in the sense of observing activities in that field in the rest of the world (relation: BOFORS) and then also for the production of artillery material, within and to a certain extent also beyond, the limitation established by the peace dictate.” (D-249).

B. AFTER THE CONSPIRATORS’ ACCESSION TO POWER, KRUPP LENT HIS INFLUENCE, PRESTIGE, AND FINANCIAL SUPPORT TO THE CONSOLIDATION OF THEIR CONTROL OVER THE GERMAN STATE.

(1) With knowledge of the aims and purposes of the Nazi conspiracy, he sought to reorganize the Reich Association of German Industry, of which he was Chairman, so as to bring it into line with the aims of the conspirators and to make it an effective instrument for the execution of their policies.

(a) Upon the invitation of Goering (D-201), Krupp attended a meeting in Berlin on 20 February 1933, during which Hitler, in a speech to a select group of industrialists, announced the conspirators’ aims to seize totalitarian control over Germany, to destroy the parliamentary system, to crush all opposition by force, and to restore the power of the Wehrmacht. In the course of this speech, Hitler stated:

“Private enterprise cannot be maintained in the age of Democracy; it is conceivable only if the people have a sound idea of authority and personality. * * * Life always tears up humanity. It is therefore the noblest task of a Leader to find ideals that are stronger than the factors that pull the people apart. I recognized even while in the hospital that one had to search for new ideas conducive to reconstruction. I found them in Nationalism, in the value of personality, in the denial of reconciliation between nations, in the strength and power of individual personality. * * * If one rejects pacifism, one must put a new idea in its place immediately. Everything must be pushed aside, must be replaced by something better.”

“* * * We must not forget that all the benefits of culture must be introduced more or less with an iron fist, just as once upon a time the farmers were forced to plant potatoes. For all this, however, courage, and iron will and perseverance are essential.”