A Slap On The Wrist

Farben at Nuremberg

In 1948, a small minority of the IG Farben directors - all of the eye-witnesses - were found guilty in at Nuremberg of mass murder, enslavement and plunder, including Fritz ter Meer. Because of pressure from right wing legislators in the US (who felt the real enemy was "communism - not German businessmen") they were all out of jail within four years. (66)

Despite introducing gas warfare, forced labor, National Socialism and the "Fuhrer Principle," despite encouraging anti-Semitism, despite being the Nazi's biggest financial backers, they were all acquitted of "preparation and waging of aggressive warfare" and "conspiracy" - the court ruled that there was not enough evidence of "knowledge of the immediate result" of their own actions. (67)

Had they all been found guilty, war profiteering might have ended - or at least become more difficult. As in WW1, the war trials were a sham.

Otto Ambrose

Hermann Schmitz

Carl Krauch

Hermann Schmitz being sentenced