During the Nuremberg Trials, former President of the Imperial Bank, Hjalmar Schacht, in an interview with an American lawyer, said: “If you want to indict the industrialists who helped rearm Germany, then you must indict yourself. You will be required to indict the Americans. The Opel car plant, for example, produced nothing but military products. This plant was owned by your General Motors. Almost until the end of the war, with special permission to trade with Germany, Italy, Japan, the American telecommunications company ITT was running its business. The auto giant Ford did not stop production in France after its occupation by the Germans, while Hermann Goering, who headed the industrial concern Reichswerk Hermann Goering, personally sponsored Ford's activities in Europe. What to talk about,even if the Coca-Cola company, far from military affairs, has established the production of the Fanta drink in Germany!
The war did not prevent Standard Oil from concluding, through British intermediaries, a contract with the German chemical concern IG Farbenidustri for the production of aviation gasoline in Germany. During the Second World War, not a single Standard Oil tanker was sunk by German submarines.
As you know, the Nuremberg Tribunal found Schacht innocent.
Let's take a closer look at this question
Having entered the world stage after participating in the First World War, the United States paid great attention to the situation in Europe and especially to the events in Germany. Back in 1921-1922. Captain Truman Smith, assistant to the American military attaché in Berlin, drew attention to the emotional and tough speeches in Munich by the still little-known politician in the country, Adolf Hitler, who since 1921 led the German National Socialist Workers Party (NSDAP). In 1922, an American diplomat met him.
From 1923 to 1926 funding for Hitler and his party was carried out through Swiss and Swedish banks. Since 1926, financing of the Nazis began to be carried out directly through banks and industrial concerns in Germany. In the fall of 1930, the head of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Schacht, visited the United States and negotiated directly with representatives of American business. In private negotiations, he told them about the scenarios of Hitler's coming to power in Germany and about his concept of the country's development, the strategy of combating Bolshevism … Soon, the attaché of the American embassy in Berlin, D. Gordon, told US Secretary of State G. Stimson in a diplomatic cable:
Hjalmar Schacht - - President of the Imperial Bank of Germany.
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In May 1933, the president of the imperial bank, Hjalmar Schacht, again visits America, where he meets with President F. Roosevelt and the largest American financiers. Soon Berlin receives investments in German industry and loans from the United States totaling over a billion dollars. A month later, in June, at an international conference in London, Hjalmar Schacht also holds a series of meetings and negotiations with the head of the British bank, N. Montagu. As then, during the Nuremberg trials, J. Schacht said, Great Britain provided loans to Germany in the amount of over a billion pounds, which in dollar terms amounted to two billion dollars.
After the economic crisis experienced by Germany in the 1920s, which was aggravated by the payment of reparations to the winning countries, American industrial corporations and banks, taking advantage of the situation, bought up the assets of many of the country's key enterprises. For example, Standard Oil, owned by the Rockefeller family, gained control over the German corporation I. G. Fairbenindustry ", which actively financed the election campaign of A. Hitler in 1930. Over" Opel "from 1929 to this day, the American automobile corporation" General Motors ", belonging to the Du Pont family, exercises control over the Opel. history of how he was a supporter of Hitler's ideas, created nationalist parties in the United States and ideologically helped Nazi Germany). It was at the factories of this corporation in Germany that the famous Blitz trucks were produced for the German army. The American telephone company ITT has acquired 40% of Germany's telephone networks.
The fact that the United States would not be lost or lost in the course of the war that broke out in Europe was clear even before the first shots were fired. Indeed, it was not for the same that American businessmen and government agencies were buying up the German economy "wholesale and retail" for a long time in order to sacrifice profits because of some kind of hostilities … -
On the eve of World War II, US corporations and banks invested $ 800 million in the country's industry and financial system. The sum for those times is huge. Of these, the leading four from America invested about $ 200 million in the militarized economy of Germany: Standard Oil - 120 million, General Motors - 35 million, ITT investments amounted to 30 million, and Ford - $ 17.5 million …
It cannot but shock the fact that even after the United States entered World War II on December 11, 1941, American corporations continued to actively fulfill orders from firms of enemy countries, supporting the activities of their branches in Germany, Italy and even Japan. To do this, it was only necessary to apply for a special permit to carry out business activities with companies under the control of the Nazis or their allies. The decree of the President of the United States of December 13, 1941 allowed such transactions, doing business with enemy companies, unless there was a special ban from the American Treasury Department. Very often, American corporations easily obtained permits for activities with enemy firms and supplied them with the necessary steel, engines, aviation fuel, rubber,components of radio engineering … So the power of the military industry in Germany and its allies was supported by the economic activity of the United States, whose companies received super-profits for their deals with the enemy. Indeed, who is the war, and who is his mother …
The leaders of the IG Farbenindustry during the Nuremberg trials -1946.
synthetic rubber and various raw materials. Deliveries also went to Italy and Austria. At the same time, during the war years in the United States there were serious problems with the supply of synthetic rubber for the American industry. The war did not prevent Standard Oil, using British intermediaries, to conclude a contract with I. G. Ferbinindustri , which made it possible to produce aviation gasoline in Germany. So the Luftwaffe planes that bombed the peaceful cities of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, killed British and American soldiers, received gasoline created by an American corporation. During the Second World War, not a single Standard Oil tanker was sunk by German submarines. This is understandable - no one chops the branch on which they sit.
Almost until the end of the war, with a special permit for trade with Germany, Italy, Japan, the American ITT ran its business. The automobile concern "Ford" did not stop production in France after the German occupation. Special patronage of the concern's activities in Europe was personally provided by Hermann Goering, who headed the industrial concern "Reichswerk Hermann Goering". Even the Coca Cola company, which is far from military supplies, has established the production of the Fanta drink in Germany. And these are far from all examples of cooperation between big business in the United States and Nazi Germany during the war. Subsequently, Yalomir Schacht, in an interview with the American doctor Gilbert during the Nuremberg trials, said: “If you want to indict the industrialists who helped to rearm Germany, then you must indict yourself. Automobile plant "Opel",for example, it did not produce anything except military products. This plant was owned by your General Motors … As you know, the Nuremberg Tribunal found Y. Shakht innocent.
"-General Electric" - (GE)
1946: Not for the first or last time, the giant General Electric (GE) has found itself in federal court for antitrust violations. The US government accused GE and one of its partners of conspiracy to monopolize the market, raise prices and crowd out competitors.
But this was an extraordinary antitrust case. In the first year after the war, GE was put on trial on charges of conspiracy with the main German arms company, Krupp. Their partnership artificially raised the cost of US defense preparations. At the same time, it helped Hitler to subsidize the rearmament of Germany. Cooperation between them continued even after the invasion of Poland by Nazi tanks.
GE was not alone in the US big business world in making cordial and lucrative deals with corporations in Nazi Germany. "-Kodak" - "-Dupont" - and "-Shell Oil" are also known for their friendly business relations with Germany. Thanks to recent reparations payments, such activities by General Motors (GM) and -Ford are best known. And these cases are instructive.
When war broke out in 1939, GM and Ford controlled 70% of the German car market through subsidiaries. Those companies "- quickly re-equipped production in order to become suppliers of military equipment for the German army," - writes M. Dobbs in the "-Washington Post" -.
“When American soldiers invaded Europe in June 1944 in jeeps, trucks and tanks made by the Big Three, as a result of one of the largest military programs ever implemented,” notes Dobbs, “they were unpleasantly surprised that the enemy also travels on trucks "-Ford" - and "-Opel" - manufactured at 100% subsidiaries owned by GM, and flies on aircraft built by "-Opel" -.
Major US auto manufacturers (including Chrysler) established multinational operations as early as the 1920s and 1930s, with factories in Germany, Eastern Europe and Japan.
The notorious anti-Semite Henry Ford created a kind of mutual admiration society with Adolf Hitler. The German dictator enthusiastically applauded American mass production. “I see Henry Ford as my inspiration,” said Hitler, who always held a life-size portrait of this American industrialist over his desk. In 1938, Ford accepted the highest honor that Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle.
Ford played a role in building up the military power of Nazi Germany before the war. US Army Intelligence reported that the "-real target" of the truck assembly plant, opened in Berlin in 1938, was to produce "-military vehicles for the Wehrmacht."
"-General Motors" -
One senior GM official also received a medal from Hitler, apparently for grant and future service. The pull of GM into Germany began in 1935, after the opening of a truck factory near Berlin. In a few years, the trucks produced at this plant will become part of the German army convoys that will crash through Poland, France and the Soviet Union.
After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939, GM chairman A. P. Sloane said that the behavior of the Nazis "- should not be seen as the business of General Motors managers." The GM plant in Germany was very profitable. “We have no right to stop working at this plant,” said Sloane.
GM and Ford were vital components of the Nazi war effort. German "-Ford" was the second largest manufacturer of trucks for the Nazi military. GM factories have built thousands of bombers and jet acceleration systems for Luftwaffe fighters. At the same time, they were enriched by the production of aircraft engines for the US Army Air Corps.
"-The sudden start of the war in September 1939 led to a complete switch of the factories GM and" -Ford "- in the Axis countries for the production of aircraft and trucks" - noted in the report of the US Senate Judiciary Committee in 1974. Difficulties subsidiaries GM and Ford - built approximately 90% of armored 3-ton semi-trucks and more than 70% of medium and large trucks of the Reich. These vehicles, in accordance with the reports of American intelligence, served as "- the main transport system of the German army" - ".
"-General Motors" was far more important to the Nazi war machine than Switzerland, says researcher B. Snell. Switzerland was only a repository of looted funds, while GM was an integral part of Germany's war effort. The Nazis could have invaded Poland and Russia without Switzerland. But they couldn't have done it without GM."
Company officials claimed that Hitler's government had taken over the management of their German factories and that they had “lost control” of the situation. But documents unearthed in German and American archives show that, in some cases, American managers at both Ford and GM continued to convert those factories to war production.
"-When American soldiers liberated the Ford factories" - in Cologne and Berlin, they found poor foreign workers behind barbed wire and company documents extolling the '-Fuehrer genius' - "- writes M. Dobbs.
After the war, both GM and Ford brazenly demanded damages from the US government for damages to their factories in Germany caused by the Allied air strikes. In 1967, GM received compensation of $ 33 million from the US government for the bombing of the Russelheim plant.
Compared to Ford and GM, GE's involvement with Nazi Germany seems less overt and far-reaching than these automakers. But, nevertheless, it is instructive, since it shows GE's complex kinship with the "Third Reich" -.
Back in 1904, GE began joining forces with major foreign "rivals" to carve up global markets for critical goods and technology. In the same year, GE entered into an agreement with AEG. In the following year, GE established a relationship with "-Tokyo Electric" -. GE's early alliance with German firms was only temporarily severed by the First World War. GE acquired 16% of AEG shares and placed 4 of its representatives on the AEG board. GE also acquired a stake in another large electrical engineering company, Siemens.
GE's patent agreements and minority holdings in German and Japanese corporations protected GE's domestic market while at the same time opening up access to foreign markets.
It was GE's conspiracy with the German steel company Krupp that influenced the US war effort and brought it to New York court.
Both GE and -Krupp had patents for tungsten carbide, a hard metal composition highly regarded for its use in cutting dies and metal cutting. None of the company's patents were sufficient to establish a monopoly. But together they could influence the world market.
Negotiations between GE and "-Krupp" - began in April 1928. A GE spokesman said that his company's willingness to enter a new business depends on "- to what extent they can overcome the competition" -. After 8 months, they entered into an agreement that gave GE the right to fix prices. GE has established a subsidiary, Karboly, to manage the business.
Immediately, the price of tungsten carbide rose from $ 48 to $ 453 per pound.
GE used this agreement to harm or buy out internal competitors. When the head of American Cutting Elois asked GE to keep it in business, a GE spokesman told him, “It seems clear to me that the American market will be better off with five carbide suppliers than six.” -.
GE in its agreement with -Krupp - agreed to sell tungsten carbide (also known as carbola) only in the Western Hemisphere and pay royalties to -Krupp -. The owner of this company, Gustav Krupp, was the main corporate supporter of Adolf Hitler. Both before and after Hitler's rise to power, GE royalties indirectly subsidized the Nazis.
In 1935, when the US government began defense preparations, tungsten carbide (at GE prices) was deemed too expensive.
On December 11, 1939 (9 weeks after Hitler's attack on Poland), a representative of GE International - telegraphed GE official Dr. Z. Jeffries from Berlin: “- Our friends at Osrem - equipment related to GE] informed me yesterday that Krupp would be interested in capitalizing the royalties now received from "-Karbola" - … - In this regard, Dr. Louis (official representative of "-Krupp" -) wants to meet with me in Zurich, where we are both supposed to be next week. They are very interested that the name of Krupp is not used in correspondence, especially in telegrams that may fall into unnecessary hands, and thus I must refer to them in the future or as a European licensor in accordance with the "-Karbola" contract. or simply, as to Dr. Louis … - "-.
"-" - Inappropriate hands "- could be either the US government or the governments of Europe, attacked by Hitler" - reported the newspaper "-UE NEWS" - in 1948 in the article "-GE agreed to protect the Nazis" -.
“In 1940, when the American defensive effort was in full swing, GE was still reporting to Nazi officials who had moved to Zurich, Switzerland, how much tungsten carbide was being used in the United States. GE paid royalties to the Nazis for every pound used here. It was money for Hitler's war chest”-.
In other words, Hitler received 12 pounds of tungsten carbide for the same price the US government paid for 1 pound. For every pound of material sold in the United States, Hitler, with the help of Krupp, received royalties, which went towards the purchase of military equipment.
In 1940, when Europe was at war, Krupp arranged to receive royalties from GE through a Swiss intermediary.
Fears Sterling Steel, a company seeking to sell lathe blanks for US Army artillery shells, clashed with GE over price levels and filed a complaint with the US Department of Justice.
In September 1940, SE News reported that two federal antitrust indictments had been filed against GE and -Krupp. They were accused of conspiracy to maintain a worldwide monopoly in the production and sale of tungsten carbide. However, the entry of the United States into World War II interrupted this business.
Direct investments of American capital in German industry were of great importance for arming Germany and creating her war machine. According to official figures, direct American investment in German industry in 1930 was $ 216.5 million. In Germany, there were up to 60 branches of American concerns. Senator Kilgore said in 1943: "Huge sums of American money went abroad to build factories, which are now a misfortune to our existence and a constant hindrance to our war efforts." Kilgore had every reason to make such a statement, since the Senate Commission, headed by him, determined the amount of American investments in Germany at $ 1 billion. The Kilgore Commission also found that only a fraction of American companies owned such a large share of the share capital,which allowed control of 278 German joint stock companies. This shows how over the years of Hitler's dictatorship the ties between the American and German monopolists were strengthened and how great was the role of US capital not only in the reconstruction, but also in the further development of the military-industrial potential of Nazi Germany.
American investments were directed primarily to engineering, automotive, electrical, aviation, oil, chemical and other military industries. The US monopolies did not help Germany unselfishly. Their investments gave great profits … -.
“When American soldiers invaded Europe in June 1944 in jeeps, trucks and tanks made by the Big Three, as a result of one of the largest military programs ever implemented,” notes Dobbs, “they were unpleasantly surprised that the enemy also travels on trucks "-Ford" - and "-Opel" - manufactured at 100% subsidiaries owned by GM, and flies on aircraft built by "-Opel" -.
Major US auto manufacturers (including Chrysler) established multinational operations as early as the 1920s and 1930s, with factories in Germany, Eastern Europe and Japan.
Standard Oil
In 1929, an agreement was concluded between the American oil trust "Standard Oil" and the German chemical concern "IG Farbenindustry", which played a crucial role in preparing Hitlerite Germany for World War II. IG Farbenindustry has received over $ 60 million from Standard Oil to develop a technology for the production of synthetic fuel on an industrial scale. With the advent of the fascists to power, the ties between the monopolies of the United States and Germany became even closer.
With the active help of American firms, the German imperialists organized the importation of weapons from abroad on a large scale. In just eight months of 1934, the American aviation company Aircraft Corporation increased the export of its products to Germany in comparison with 1933 by 6.4 times. In addition to the Aircraft Corporation, other American firms were also involved in the supply of aircraft. The United Aircraft Transport company imported parts for the construction of aircraft, the Sperry Gyroscope Company imported aviation radio equipment. The American companies Curtiss Wright, American Aircraft and others sent their products to Germany on a large scale - mainly motors and aircraft.
Of particular importance to Germany was the granting of patents by American firms for the latest inventions in the field of aviation. Pratt & Whitney has entered into an agreement with the German company Bayerische Motorwerke to transfer a patent for air-cooled aircraft engines to Germany. The American company United Aircraft Export transferred its patents for military aircraft to a German firm. The largest American company "Douglas" sold a patent for the new aircraft to Germany.
In February 1933, the Dupont American Chemical Trust entered into an agreement with IG Farbenindustry to sell explosives and ammunition that were sent to Germany via Holland.
Already in 1934, the supply of weapons from the United States to Germany took on such proportions that the Senate commission to investigate the activities of military enterprises became interested in them. The commission found that there are many secret agreements on mutual information and the exchange of patents in the field of weapons between American and German firms. Commissioner Senator Clarke said: "If Germany were to be active militarily tomorrow, it would be more powerful thanks to patents and technical expertise transferred to it by American firms."
In 1940, US Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, acknowledged that “in 1934 and 1935. Hitler was supplied with hundreds of first-class aircraft engines manufactured in the United States ", and the Senate Commission in the same 1940 concluded that" American industrialists, with the consent of the US government, freely sold patents and rights to design engines to the German government … - ".
Standard Oil has undertaken to finance the construction of new synthetic fuel plants in Germany. The scope of funding can be judged by the statement of the American commercial attaché in Berlin, who in December 1935 in an official conversation noted that “after two years, Germany will produce oil and gas from coal in an amount sufficient for a long war. Standard Oil provided her with millions of dollars for this."
The Standard Oil Trust not only actively helped to establish the production of synthetic gasoline, but also spent large sums on exploration and organization of oil production in Germany. The trust owned more than half of the capital of the oil company, which owned more than a third of all gas stations. The German-American Oil Company owned refineries and mineral oil plants. When World War II broke out, there were coal hydrogenation plants in Germany and Japan. But they weren't in the US.
In 1935, shortly after Hitler broke the military clauses of the Treaty of Versailles and introduced universal military service in Germany, the American company Ethyl Gasoline Corporation granted, with the permission of the American government, a patent, which it owned monopoly, for the production of tetraethyl lead, an antiknock additive in gasoline. In one of the secret documents that became known after the war, experts from IG Farbenindustry assessed the value of the American firm's assistance as follows: “There is no need to emphasize that modern war is unthinkable without tetraethyl lead. Since the beginning of the war, we have been able to produce tetraethyl lead solely because not long before that the Americans had built a plant for us, prepared it for operation and passed on the necessary experience to us. Equally great was the help of American capital in the development of methods for the production of synthetic rubber.
Jasco's laboratories and its pilot plant in Baton Rouge, Louisiana developed the technology for the mass production of Buna rubber. The ownership of this patent passed to the German Trust. "Standard Oil" has developed a method of obtaining and a technology for the production of a new type of rubber - butyl, of a higher quality than "buna".
American monopolies also helped Nazi Germany in the production of aluminum, magnesium, nickel, tungsten carbide, beryllium and other strategic materials.
In 1935, German production of light and non-ferrous metals already exceeded French and Canadian production by four times, British and Norwegian production by six times, exceeding American production by 16 thousand tons.
For the successful preparation of war, the Nazis considered it essential to weaken Germany's dependence on the import of iron ore. There were several iron ore deposits in Germany with 20-25% iron content. The development of such poor ores was considered unprofitable. Nevertheless, on the basis of these deposits, construction began on three plants with an annual steel production of 6 million tons, which was one third of all steel production in Germany. Officially, the work was carried out by the Hermann Goering concern, but in reality it was carried out by the specially created American firm “R. Brassert ". "This company," writes the English economist N. Mühlen, "until then almost unknown in Germany …" turned out to be closely connected with the "autarky" of the Reich in the field of supplying it with iron ore - one of the main elements of economic independence in the production of weapons. "The firm "R. Brassert”was only a branch of the large Chicago firm Brassert, which collaborated with the American Morgan Trust.
Under the terms of cartel agreements, American firms had to inform their German partners about all technical innovations they were interested in. Thus, the Bowhand Lomb firm willingly provided Zeiss with US military secrets and only asked to keep all information secret.
After the war, when Standard Oil was disbanded, oil giants such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP emerged.
ITT
Close ties of the banking house of Morgan with the German fascists were established through the international telephone and telegraph corporation, ITT, which was under his complete control.
Shortly after the fascist coup in Germany, the chairman of the board of ITT was received by Hitler. As a result of the conversation, Ribbentrop's agent G. Westrick was put at the head of all three German companies owned by ITT, who appointed SS leaders and other prominent Nazis to leading positions on the boards of firms and at enterprises.
If through ITT the house of Morgan established control over many enterprises that produced telegraph and telephone equipment, as well as over the radio industry in Germany and extended its tentacles to aircraft construction, then through another large American company, General Electric, he had close ties with the electrical industry in Germany.
During the years of the fascist dictatorship, General Electric achieved full control over the Algemeine Elektricityts Gesellschaft (AEG), the largest German electrical engineering concern with a capital of 120 million marks. Through the AEG, General Electric acquired indirect control over a significant part of the electrical industry in Germany, including over the well-known Siemens electric concern, the Osram light bulb company, etc.
Hugo boss
Hugo Boss made an official apology to all those who suffered from the brand's collaboration with the Nazis during World War II. Recall that in the 30s of the last century, the Hugo Boss clothing factory, opened in 1923, received a large order for sewing uniforms for members of the Nazi party. In addition, in April 1940, the company began to use forced labor in its industries - dozens of workers were French prisoners of war.
Hugo Boss himself has repeatedly argued that cooperation with the Nazis - employees of Hugo Boss even joined the ranks of the NSDAP - was a necessity, but some historians hold a different opinion. For example, Roman Kester, author of the company-commissioned book Hugo Boss: 1942-1945, believes that the founder of the factory sympathized with the party's course. The incriminating story of the famous fashion brand will be released very soon: perhaps, after the disclosure of the facts exciting the public and representatives of the company for more than half a century, the noise around Hugo Boss's Nazi past will finally subside.
Kodak
When you think of Kodak, idyllic family photos and captured memories immediately pop into your eyes, but what you really have to keep in mind is the forced labor that was used by the German subsidiary during World War II. Kodak subsidiaries in neutral European countries did lively business with the Nazis, providing them with both a market for their goods and valuable foreign exchange. The Portuguese unit even donated its profits to the unit in The Hague, which was under Nazi occupation at the time.
During World War II, the German subsidiary of Kodak used slaves from concentration camps, but in fact many of the European companies used ties to the Nazi government to supply slaves. Wilhelm Kepler, one of Hitler's leading economic advisers, had a partnership with the company at Kodak. When Nazi propaganda began in Germany, Kepler advised Kodak and a number of other American companies to use Jewish "employees" for their work. (Source: The Nation)
Enterprises "-Kodak" - worked in Nazi Germany, using free slave labor. At the same time, they released not only film, which was used to create domestic propaganda films and commercials that spread around the world (as well as on each Luftwaffe fighter there was a cinema machine that helped German pilots in fixing and further analysis of the situation), but moreover, this company was engaged not only in the manufacture of cameras - she mastered the production of fuses, detonators and other military products for the Germans.
Coca-cola worked with both sides during World War II. They supported the Allied troops, and at the same time sold their soda water to the Nazis. But, since 1941, the German subsidiary of Coca-cola stopped receiving supplies from America due to wartime restrictions. So they invented a new drink, especially for the Nazis: Fanta fruit soda. Long before that, Fanta began to advertise exotic beauties languishing in heat - it was the unofficial drink of Nazi Germany.
IBM
IBM built machines to keep track of oil shipments, manage bank accounts, and keep track of train schedules to death camps. In September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, the New York Times reported that three million Jews must be "immediately removed" from Poland and most likely "exterminated." What was IBM's reaction? An internal document says that due to this situation, they have increased the production of equipment for accounting in alphabetical order.
Random house
Random House, part of Bertelsmann AG, published Nazi propaganda, including the publication of a book entitled Sterilization and Euthanasia: A Contribution to Christian Ethics. Bertelsmann AG still owns and operates several companies. Random House in 1997, decided to expand the term "Nazi, Nazi" in Webster's dictionary. In colloquial speech, they softened this definition. (Source: New York Observer, ADL)
So, despite the fact that fascism within the United States was defeated, some of the American monopolies adhered to the policy of assisting the arming of Hitlerite Germany. They bear a large share of the responsibility for the development of events that led to the world war.