Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression
Individual Responsibility Of Defendants

Hjalmar Schacht

(Part 7 of 13)

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D. SCHACHT PARTICIPATED IN THE NAZI CONSPIRACY PURPOSELY, WILLINGLY, AND WITH KNOWLEDGE OF ITS ILLEGAL AIMS AND METHODS.

(1) He was a faithful adherent of Hitler. It has already been demonstrated that even before Hitler's accession to power, Schacht aligned himself with Hitler and accepted his program. Schacht's utterances after Hitler had entrenched himself in power clearly show that he remained a faithful servant of Hitler despite the series of outrages committed under Hitler's direction.

At the opening of the Leipzig Fair on 4 March 1935, Schacht said

"My so-called foreign friends don't render any services to me or the cause, which they don't want anyway, of course, but not even to themselves, if they try to construe a contrast between me and the allegedly impossible economic theories of National Socialism and represent me as a sort of guardian of economic reason. I assure you that all that I am doing and saying enjoys the absolute approval of the Fuehrer and that I would never do or say anything that does not have

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his approval. Not I but the Fuehrer is the guardian of economic reason." (EC-503)

On the occasion of the unveiling of Hitler's bust in the vestibule of the Reichsbank on 31 July 1935, Schacht said:

"Germany stays and falls with the success of the policy of Hitler." (EC-415)

At a ceremony in connection with the creation of the Economic Chamber for Pomerania in Stettin on 19 January 1936, Schacht denied that there was any disagreement between Hitler and his collaborators, and went on to say:

"In Germany there is fortunately only one policy and one economic policy, namely that of Adolf Hitler; to work with him and for his goals is the highest satisfaction for every member of the people's community." (EC-502)

In May 1936,. Schacht was attacked by some of the more radical elements of the Nazi Party because he had rejected their "partially irrational ideas" concerning armament financing. In repelling these attacks, Schacht emphasized at a secret meeting of the Ministers on 12 May 1936, that his program of financing armaments had meant "the commitment of the last reserve from the very beginning"; and he announced that despite the attacks, he would continue to work because he

"*** stands with unswerving loyalty to the Fuehrer, because he fully recognizes the basic idea of National Socialism and because at the end, the disturbances, compared to the great task, can be considered irrelevant." (1301-PS).

So far as appears, Schacht did not become a member of the Nazi Party until January 1937. Franz Reuter, whose biography of Schacht was officially published in Germany in 1937, has stated that Schacht's becoming a regular Party member was only a question of secondary importance, and even part of a carefully planned policy, for,

"By not doing so -- at least until the final assertion and victory of the Party -- he [Schacht] was able to assist it [the Party] much better than he would have been able to do had he become an official Party member." (EC-460)

On 30 January 1937, Hitler bestowed the Golden Party Badge upon Schacht, in recognition of his "special services to Party and State." Schacht accepted this hallmark of approval by the Fuehrer with effusive thanks and a pledge of continued support In his speech of acceptance, Schacht stated:

"The presentation of the Golden Badge of the Movement is the highest honor the Third Reich has to offer. In honoring me as the head of the Reichsbank and the Reich and

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Prussian Ministry of Economics, it honors at the same time the two agencies which I am directing as well as the work of all those officials, employees and workers functioning in these two agencies."

*******

"I think all my colleagues among the ranks of officials, employees, and workers for their faithfulness in the performance of their work, and appeal to all of them further to devote, with all their hearts, their entire strength to the Fuehrer and the Reich. The German future lies in the hands of our Fuehrer." (EC-500)

The depths of adulation were reached in a speech which Schacht delivered on the occasion of Hitler's 48th birthday in April 1937. Schacht spoke as one of Hitler's "closest collaborators," who had seen at first hand the difficulties which beset the Fuehrer in the relentless march toward his goals. In his speech, Schacht stated:

"With the limitless passion of a burning heart and the infallible instinct of the born statesman, Adolf Hitler has won for himself the soul of the German people in a battle fought for 14 years with unswerving consequence."

*******

"Only the closest collaborators of the Fuehrer know how difficult is the burden of this responsibility; how sorrowful are the hours during which decisions must be made which bear upon the well being and the fate of all of Germany." (EC- 501 )

In November 1938, at a time Schacht now asserts he was plotting against Hitler, he stated in a speech:

"Instead of a weak and vacillating Government, a single, purposeful, energetic personality is ruling today. That is the great miracle which has actually happened in Germany and which has had its effects in all fields of life and not least in that of economy and finance. There is no German financial miracle. There is only the miracle of the reawakening of German national consciousness and German discipline, and we owe this miracle to our Fuehrer Adolf Hitler." (EC-611)

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