Ter Meer

We looked at the dates and places of incarceration, and the dates of all Von Schnitzler s 1945 statements, and the facts led straight to one man — Dr. Fritz ter Meer, the great developer of the buna-rubber process. 

In 1945 Von Schnitzler had said absolutely nothing significant while Dr. ter Meer was around. Whenever Ter Meer landed in the same jail with him, he stopped talking. Ter Meer was now at Dachau, and he was slated to come back to Numberg for questioning within a few days. 

If we re right about this," Sprecher said, "Von Schnitzler knows Ter Meer is coming, and he doesn t relish seeing him."... 

We had it figured to a T," he said. "He almost cried. It seems Ter Meer was working on him for months, whenever they were in the same jail. Ter Meer kept hammering away at the idea that Von Schnitzler was not qualified to speak for Farben policy because he was not a true, all-round scientist. He humiliated Von Schnitzler by referring to him in front of the others as that salesman. Brother, Von Schnitzler was mad today."... 

Here. He worked along well with me today. We can hold Ter Meer there in Dachau. But the way it s going, there ll still be some exceptions to the 1945 statements. When I get through with this interrogation, I think we ought to send Von Schnitzler someplace where he can be alone and think it over."... 

On the day Ter Meer was put on the train for Numberg, Sprech-er released Von Schnitzler from the Numberg jail and put him on the train for Munich, the rail point nearest Dachau. Ter Meer and Von Schnitzler crossed in transit, so to speak. Von Schnitzler was told merely to "rest and think it over."... 

Nothing of note has happened yet, but all save two defendants have been scribbling on the mimeographed copies of the indictments in their laps. The exceptions are Dr. ter Meer and Dr. Schmitz. The microphone does not alter Schmitz s stolid gaze. 

Dr. ter Meer now entered the prosecution s case. We could not keep him out. Along with several other directors, Ter Meer had been transferred to Cransberg Prison, where Schmitz had "talked." Schmitz produced a copy of his statement, which Ter Meer read in consternation. He sat down and wrote a long letter to the American authorities. 

Dr. ter Meer also claimed that the Vermittlungstelle Wehrmacht had never carried out the program Krauch had announced. From three rooms in the rear of Berlin Northwest 7, could Farben direct its far-flung plants in a deliberate scheme to make war This was the question posed by the most formidably equipped of Farben s industrial scientists. As chief director of all dyestuffs, with Von... 

Schnitzler s dyestuffs committee as a mere advisor, Ter Meer had given the lie to Von Schnitzler. And now he was giving the lie to Schmitz. 

All I m saying is that we can use a simpler method of proof from now on, one that would reflect back on the proof that s already in. It s hard to take the rearmament up the line. It s not so hard with some of the things that happened at Auschwitz. For example, Farben built its buna-rubber plant near Auschwitz and put the engineer Duerrfeld in charge. And then we show that Duerrfeld s boss, Ambros, knew that concentration-camp inmates were being used at the plant, and he reported this to Ter Meer and the other members of the technical committee. But these technical-committee members were also members of the board. In this way we can show not only what kind of men these defendants are, but also begin to show responsibility all the way up to the top."... 

The aspirin saint had impressed the court more than the evidence against him. We could not afford to stumble when we tackled his superior, Fritz ter Meer. 

One night after dinner, Jan Charmatz and I were walking around the Palace of Justice grounds. We had been discussing Dr. ter Meer, and our conclusion that the whole defense would finally rest on how well Ter Meer could show that Farben s connections with the state were "pure private enterprise."... 

Bemdt, a short stocky man, was puffing as he halted between Charmatz and me, gesticulating. "Herr Prosecutor. Mr. Char-matz " His fingers ran through his white hair. He coughed. "I have a little problem," he said. "Dr. ter Meer is here with me and —"... 

Ter Meer " Charmatz and I exclaimed together. "What is he doing out of jail "... 

He motioned behind him. Ter Meer came out of the shadows and stood there looking over our heads. Charmatz moved so close to Bemdt that for a moment I thought he was going to take hold of him. 

Bemdt s head bobbed up and down as he explained. It seemed that Ter Meer had wanted to get some of his papers at Frankfurt, to refresh his recollection, and the Tribunal had not only granted him permission to go there, 250 kilometers away, but had set no bond on him and had permitted him to go unguarded in the custody of Bemdt. 

But my client —" Bemdt looked back anxiously at Ter Meer. As Ter Meer lighted a cigarette, we could see that his face was livid. 

We went into the jail and managed without too much trouble to recommit him. The night guard explained that he was new and had never heard of Ter Meer. Ter Meer bowed gravely and in a tight voice thanked us for our co-operation. 

Charmatz remarked that Ter Meer must have developed an awful dependence on efficiency. What other man would be so furious at a small administrative error which might have given him a night of freedom ... 

Of course, Ter Meer admitted, his position allowed him to give Hoerlein orders, but the Professor s eminence required tact. This relationship — of one man who had the duty to give orders to another man who was too good to take them — had come about when Farben absorbed many firms with well-known directors. 

Ter Meer nodded. They were all members of the Vorstand (board of directors). Ter Meer had control of all the pharmaceutical plants, because, as head of the whole Sparte that took in pharmaceuticals, he was "first." But Professor Hoerlein was "equal." So it was with Professor Hoerlein in his relationship to the other pharmaceutical directors. Bewildering contradictions ... 

Q. Now, Dr. ter Meer, the trial brief states that the defendants, in regard to Auschwitz, closed their eyes to facts. 

Certainly on neither visit, Ter Meer said, had he found any hint of what happened later. A war was going on. During a war many people led unpleasant fives. If anything more than plain... 

Before 1933, Ter Meer had followed the unsteady program of the National Socialists, and he didn t like their program or their methods. They seemed to him little different from the Communists ... 

Then Dr. Bemdt put into evidence the testimony of Ter Meet s gardener, who said that the swastika flag was never flown from Dr. ter Meet s house (which the American generals were now using as a club), even on big national holidays. The Ter Meer mailman was present one day when the postmaster called on Mrs. ter Meer to complain that the Ter Meer contribution was too little, and "there was a violent argument about it."... 

Dr. ter Meer and his assistant, Dr. Struss, were on a trip in Hanover when the Jewish pogrom took place there, and Dr. Struss testified how, after they had returned to Frankfurt, he had tried to cheer Ter-Meer up. "I said that probably it was not so bad after all whereupon, Dr. ter Meer jumped up, as he so often did on important occasions, and pacing up and down, delivered a lengthy lecture on the events taking place in Germany — events which he spoke of as grave, dreadful from the human point of view, and the political consequences which were incalculable."... 

But Farben was unable to meet the competition of the natural-rubber producers. They were millions in the red on this one dream. In 1931, by a very close margin, Ter Meer persuaded his colleagues to go along for another year in one last effort to keep buna in experimental production. By the time he met Hitler, Ter Meer stood alone in his faith that soon buna could be mass-produced at a profit. 

Ter Meer s dilemma was this Farben could perfect the tires (they already had a tire that would last for several hundred miles), but without government encouragement his colleagues would quit the project. And if they handed Hitler the process,... 

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