Hjalmar Schacht

[record scratches] To characterize the sixth day of the war crimes trial here in Nuremberg, the American prosecution is still piling up the documentary evidence dealing primarily today with the Nazi preparations for aggression from the years 1933 to '39.

In evidence today have been documents by Yodel, uh, Raeder, and Schacht, as well as speeches by Hitler.

Raeder was on the spot.

The evidence was brought out showing the German army and navy were built up even before the Nazis took control of the government The Russian Vice Commissar of Foreign Affairs, Vyshinsky, was also introduced to the court by Justice Jackson.

Conclusion.

The Tribunal finds that Streicher is not guilty on count one, but that he is guilty on count four.

A surprise verdict for Hjalmar Schacht The Tribunal fi- finds that Schacht is not guilty on this indictment and directs that he should be discharged by the Marshal when the Tribunal presently adjourns.

Another acquittal, this time for Franz von Papen Von Papen can be held guilty only if he was a party to the planning of aggressive war.

Maxwell was doing at the same time for the British, which was, um, again, interviewing, um, high, high-value targets.

I think he, um, th- there's claims that he interviewed, for example, Hjalmar Schacht, who was, uh, the, uh, head of the Deutsche Bank, um, for the beginning of the Nazi period.

He eventually, um, emigrate, or runs away to England, um, you know, uh.

Again, that's a whole story I won't get into.

he was good friends with, like, Montagu Norman and, and all these, like, central bankers that founded, like, the Bank of International Settlements and whatnot.

Really, uh, quite, like, the top-level operative.

And then also Hjalmar Schacht ends up in the Bahamas later as well, I believe, or, or in, in some Caribbean island.

Um-

He was a very arrogant, aristocratic chap.

The other acquittals are Hjalmar Schacht, former president of the Reichsbank, and Hans Fritzsche, an official from the propaganda ministry.

And with the sentences handed out, they are released.

The seven to be sent to prison remain incarcerated at Nuremberg before being transferred to Spandau Prison in Berlin.

He was the Reich Minister of Economics.

There was Helmar Schacht, and he's an interesting case too.

We'll get into him as we deep dive further moving forward.

There's Rudolf Hess, and, you know, we've already dealt extensively with the matter of Hess, and we will deal more with Hess when the time comes in discussing, you know, the litigation of his case.

Um, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, you know, who'd succeeded Reinhard Heydrich, you know, he was, he, he, he was, he was tried, but he, he, uh, you know, he, he was, he was not nearly the personage, uh, that, that Heydrich was in terms of his command authority or his charisma, for lack of a better way to characterize it.

And also, I mean, his tenure was comparatively brief, okay? Um, so you didn't have, uh, you know, in, in terms of the political leadership, you know, Martin Bormann was dead.

You know, like, there's really, there really was, there was Göring, there was Alfred Rosenberg, you know, there was Hjalmar Schacht, and Schacht was, uh, you know, he was the, he was the chairman of the Reichsbank, but I mean, he was, it was, he didn't, even, even, uh, even the British, everybody stipulated except the Soviets that even within the rather punitive terms of, uh, uh, of the Nuremberg, uh, indictment, like, he did not belong there.

So Göring essentially, he was, it was, you know, he was, he was being assigned primary command responsibility for the alleged crimes of the Third Reich.

The Tribunal finds that Streicher is not guilty on count one, but he is guilty on count four.

The finding on Schacht was delivered by the United States judge, The Honorable Mr. Francis Biddle.

It was a very detailed finding drawn up and agreed upon by all the judges of all the four nations constituting the Tribunal: Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and France.

Here is the concluding passage of this agreed finding upon Schacht.

Schacht was not involved in the planning of any of the specific wars of aggression charged in count two.

His participation in the occupation of Austria and the Sudetenland, uh, neither of which are charged as aggressive wars, was on such a limited basis that it does not amount to participation in the common plan charged in count one.

He was clearly not one of the inner circle around Hitler which was most closely intertwined with this common plan.

He was regarded by this group with undisguised hostility.

Um, it's about the Nuremberg trials.

Uh, you know who Hjalmar Schacht is?

Uh, not right off the top of my head.

He was the Reichsbanker.

Henry Davison of the House of Morgan devised a scheme to finance the Allies for as long as possible, but European gold stocks were eventually depleted in World War I.

The German currency Ponzi scheme, conceived by Hjalmar Schacht, ran its natural course.

The factories came to a halt.

The munitions spent.