re: #439 Killgore Trout

Forget the hippies, the real influence in the “Peace at all costs” movement is the corporations
German execs criticise West for allowing tension with Russia to rise

Krupp - World War II

…Krupp received its first order for 135 Panzer I tanks in 1933, and during WWII made tanks, artillery, naval guns, armor plate, munitions and other armaments for the German military. Friedrich Krupp Germaniawerft shipyard launched the German cruiser Prinz Eugen, as well as many of Germany’s U-boats (130 between 1934 and 1945) using preassembled parts supplied by other Krupp factories in a process similar to the construction of the US liberty ships.

In the 1930s, Krupp developed two 800 mm railway guns, the Schwerer Gustav and the Dora. These guns were the biggest artillery pieces ever fielded by an army during wartime, and weighed almost 1,344 tons. They could fire a 7-ton shell over a distance of 37 kilometers. More crucial to the operations of the German military was Krupp’s development of the famed 88 mm anti-aircraft cannon which found use as a notoriously effective anti-tank gun.

In an address to the Hitler Youth, Adolf Hitler stated “In our eyes, the German boy of the future must be slim and slender, as fast as a greyhound, tough as leather and hard as Krupp steel” (“… der deutsche Junge der Zukunft mu schlank und rank sein, flink wie Windhunde, zh wie Leder und hart wie Kruppstahl.”)

Krupp Industries employed workers conscripted by the Nazi regime from across Europe. These workers were initially paid, but as Nazi fortunes declined they were kept as slave workers. They were abused, beaten, and starved by the thousands, as detailed in the book The Arms of Krupp. Nazi Germany kept two million French POW’s captured in 1940 as forced laborers throughout the war. They added compulsory (and volunteer) workers from occupied nations, especially in metal factories. The shortage of volunteers led the Vichy government of France to deport workers to Germany, where, they constituted 15% of the labor force by August 1944. The largest number worked in the giant Krupp steel works in Essen. Low pay, long hours, frequent bombings, and crowded air raid shelters added to the unpleasantness of poor housing, inadequate heating, limited food, and poor medical care, all compounded by harsh Nazi discipline. They finally returned home in the summer of 1945.[7]

Krupp industries was prosecuted after the end of war for its support to the Nazi regime and use of forced labour…