Phillips Nuremberg Trials Collection: Trial 6 - I.G. Farben Case

The IG Farben Trial was the second of three trials of leading industrialists of Nazi Germany for their conduct during the Nazi regime. (The two other industrialist trials were the Flick Case and the Krupp Case.)

The defendants in this case had all been directors of IG Farben, a large German conglomerate of chemical firms. The company had been a major actor in World War I, when their development of the Haber-Bosch process for nitrogen fixation helped German cope with their loss of access to the Chilean nitrate trade and allowed IG Farben to produce synthetic nitrate. (Nitrate is an important component for the fabrication of explosives such as gunpowder, dynamite or TNT.) In World War II, an IG Farben subsidiary, Degesch, manufactured Zyklon B, the poison gas used at the extermination camps (the other supplier of the gas was the firm Tesch/Stabenow). IG Farben also developed processes for synthesizing gasoline and rubber from coal, and thereby greatly contributed to Germany's ability to wage a war despite having been cut off from all major oil fields. The charges consequently centered on preparing to wage an aggressive war, but also on slave labor and plundering.

Counts: 1) Crimes Against Peace; 2) Spoliation; 3) Slave Labor; 4) Membership in the SS; and Conspiracy

 Original Indictment

• Indictment
• Opening Statement for the United States of America
• Application for the Production of Documents
  • Reply of the Defense
  • Reply of the Prosecution
  • Order
• Order on Defense Motion to Strike Affidavit of defendant Schmitz
  • Dissent
• Closing Statement for the United States of America
• Judgment of the Tribunal
  • Concurring Opinion of Judge Hebert on Counts One and Five
  • Dissenting Opinion of Judge Hebert on Count Three

*The Lousiana State University Law Library, Nuremberg Trials collection - a digital collection of papers collected by Paul M. Hebert during his tenure as a judge at the United States Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The bulk of the papers comprise the transcripts of the trial of United States vs. Carl Krauch (the I.G. Farbenindustrie Trial) along with the prosecution and defense exhibits from that trial.

Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10

The 15-volume series, also known as “The Green Series,” focuses on the 12 trials of almost 200 defendants. This publication by the United States Government Printing Office is the official abridged record of the individual indictments and judgments, as well as the administrative materials that were common to all the trials.

• Volume 7, "The I.G. Farben Case"
• Volume 8, "The I.G. Farben Case"

Style of the case: United States of America v. Carl Krauch, et al.

Indictment filed: 3 May 1947

Trial dates: 27 August 1947 - 10 June 1948

NMT 6 Judges: Curtis Grover Shake (Indiana) (presiding judge); James Morris (North Dakota); Paul M. Hebert (Louisiana)*; and Clarence F. Merrell, (Indiana) (alternate judge)

Chief Prosecutor: Drexel A. Sprecher; Assistants: Belle Mayer Zeck

Judgment: 29 July 1948

Sentencing: 30 July 1948