Complaint Against Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity

The Nuremberg War Tribunal against executives of the pharmaceutical/petrochemical cartel IG- Farben

More than half a century ago, the Nuremberg War Tribunal took place against the executives of the IG Farben Corporation, the largest pharmaceutical-petrochemical cartel in pre-world-war Europe. The Nuremberg War Tribunal brought to justice those responsible for the Second World War and set the precedent for international prosecution of war crimes and ultimately the International Court in The Hague.

Unbeknown to most people today, the Nuremberg War Tribunal did not only sentence the political and military leaders, but also the corporate executives who brought Hitler to power. 24 executives and managers of IG Farben were indicted in this War Tribunal. US chief prosecutor Telford Taylor stated in his opening statement: “The indictment accuses these men of mature responsibility for visiting upon mankind the most devastating and catastrophic war in human history. It accuses them of wholesale, enslavement, plunder and murder. These are terrible charges.”

And he continued, “These accused corporate executives, not the Nazi lunatics are the principal war criminals. If their crimes are not brought to the daylight and they are not punished, they will commit even larger crimes in the future than Hitler could ever have committed.”

In 1947, the main charges against the IG Farben managers were:

Charge 1: the planning and conduction of a war of aggression and the conquest of other countries with the result of unprecedented destruction in the entire world, the death of millions of people and the continued sufferings of millions more.
Charge 2: deportation, plundering and spoliation of public and private property in the occupied countries with the purpose of permanently exerting economic control in these countries and other severe crimes.
Charge 3: slavery, mistreatment, terrorizing, torture and murdering of millions of people.

Now, half a century later, the charges in this complaint, are strikingly similar:

Planning and conduct of a war of aggression against Iraq under the pretence of fighting international terror and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction with the result that vast areas of the country are devastated, thousands of people have died and hundreds of thousands were injured.
Plundering and spoliation of public and private property in the pursuit of economic power and control in entire regions of the world by escalating an international crisis. Against this war of aggression the accused were deliberately factoring in the use of weapons of mass destruction including nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.
Genocide by killing, by causing serious bodily harm and by inflicting conditions of life to bring about physical destruction and crimes against humanity of murder and of other inhumane acts.