“The vast territories of the eastern European region, containing raw materials which have not yet been opened up to Europe, will become the promising colonial territory of Europe.”
And exactly what Europe were you discussing in December 1941 and what former German territories did you wish to mention to the Tribunal? I am asking you.
FUNK: I have not said that. I said that I did not speak about colonial territories, but of the old colonization areas of Germany.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: Yes, but we are not speaking here of old territories; we are speaking here of new territories which you wished to conquer.
FUNK: The area had been conquered already. We did not have to conquer that. That had been conquered by German troops.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: No. It was not known that they were conquered, since you were already retreating from them.
You said that you were the President of the Continental Oil Company. This company was organized for the exploitation of the oil fields of the Occupied Eastern Territories, especially in the districts of Grozny and Baku. Please answer me “yes” or “no.”
FUNK: Not only of the Occupied Territories—this company was concerned with oil industries all over Europe. It had its beginnings in the Romanian oil interests and whenever German troops occupied territories where there were oil deposits, that company, which was a part of the Four Year Plan, was given the task by the various economic offices, later by the armament industry, of producing oil in these territories and of restoring the destroyed oil-producing districts. The company had a tremendous reconstruction program. I personally was the president of the supervisory board and I mainly had to do the financing of that company only.
MR. COUNSELLOR RAGINSKY: That I have already heard. But you have not answered my question.
I asked you if this company had as object the exploitation of the Grozny and Baku oil wells. Did the oil wells of the Caucasus form the basic capital of the Continental Oil Company?