THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, were you going to put in the whole of

Rosenberg’s interrogation?

MR. DODD: No, Your Honor, I was not prepared to put in the whole of

Rosenberg’s interrogation, but only certain parts of it. These parts are

available, and have been for some time, to counsel. The whole of the

Rosenberg interrogation in English was given to Sauckel’s counsel,

however, and he has the entire text of it, the only available copy that

we have.

THE PRESIDENT: Has counsel for Rosenberg not got the entire document?

MR. DODD: He has only the excerpt that we propose to read into the

record here at this time.

DR. THOMA: May I say something?

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, the Tribunal considers that if you propose to

put in a part of the interrogation, the whole interrogation ought to be

submitted to the defendant’s counsel, that then you may read what part

you like of the interrogation, and then defendant’s counsel may refer to

any other part of the interrogation directly if it is necessary for the

purpose of explaining the part which has been read by counsel for the

Prosecution. So before you use this interrogation, Rosenberg’s counsel

must have a copy of the whole interrogation.

MR. DODD: I might say, Your Honor, that we turned over the whole

interrogation to counsel for the Defendant Sauckel; and we understood

that he would make it available to all other counsel for the Defense.

Apparently, that did not happen.

DR. THOMA: Thank you, Mr. President.

DR. SERVATIUS: I received these documents from the Prosecution last

night. They were in English; that is sufficient for me, but counsel for

the other defendants are not all in a position to follow the English

text, so that certain difficulties arise, and I must find time to

interpret the document to my colleagues. But it would be desirable if

the Prosecution could give us the German text, for the interrogation

took place in German and was translated into English, so that the

original German text should be available.

Those are the difficulties, and I would like to suggest that the German

text be also handed to us as soon as possible.

MR. DODD: With reference to the so-called German text, the original is

an English text. These interrogations were made through an interpreter

and they were transcribed in English so that the original text is an

English text, and that is what was turned over to the attorney for the

Defendant Sauckel with the understanding that it would be made available

to all other counsel.

THE PRESIDENT: But of course that doesn’t quite meet their difficulties

because they don’t all of them speak English, or are not all able to

read English, so I am afraid you must wait until Rosenberg’s counsel has

got a copy of the entire interrogation in his own language.

MR. DODD: Very well.

Passing on beyond the document to which we have just referred—which we

now withdraw in view of the ruling—and which we will offer at a later

date after we have complied with the ruling of the Court, we have a

letter dated the 21st of December 1942, which is Document 018-PS, and

which bears Exhibit Number USA-186—which, by the way, is a letter from

the Defendant Rosenberg to the Defendant Sauckel—and I wish to quote

from Page 1, Paragraph 3 of the English text. In the German text it

appears at Page 3, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly:

“Even if I in no way deny that the numbers demanded by the Reich

Minister for Armament and Munitions as well as by the

agricultural economy justify unusual and severe measures, I

must, because I am answerable for the Occupied Eastern

Territories, emphatically request that, in filling the quota

demanded, measures be excluded the consequences and our

toleration of which will some day be held against me and my

collaborators.”

In the Ukraine area, arson was indeed used as a terror instrument to

enforce these conscription measures; and we refer now to Document Number

254-PS, which is Exhibit USA-188. This document is from an official of

the Rosenberg Ministry and was also found in the Rosenberg file. It is

dated June 29, 1944 and encloses a copy of a letter from one Paul Raab,

a district commissioner in the territory of Wassilkov, to the Defendant

Rosenberg. I wish to quote from Raab’s letter, Page 1, starting with

Paragraph 1 of the English text which reads as follows:

“According to a charge by the Supreme Command of the Army, I

burned down several houses . . . in the territory of Wassilkov,

Ukraine, belonging to insubordinate people ordered to labor

service—this accusation is true.”

Passing now to the third paragraph:

“During the year of 1942 the conscription of workers was

accomplished nearly exclusively by way of propaganda. Only

rarely was force necessary. But in August 1942, measures had to

be taken against two families in the villages of Glevenka and

Soliony-Shatior, each of which were to supply one person for

labor. Both had been requested in June for the first time but

had not obeyed, although requested repeatedly. They had to be

brought in by force, but succeeded twice in escaping from the

collecting camp in Kiev or while in transit. Before the second

arrest, the fathers of both of the workers were taken into

custody as hostages to be released only when their sons

appeared. When, after the second escape, the re-arrest of both

the young men and the fathers was ordered, the police patrols

detailed to do this, found the houses empty.”

Passing to Paragraph 4, it is stated, and I quote directly:

“At that time I decided at last to take measures to show the

increasingly rebellious Ukrainian youth that our orders have to

be followed. I ordered the burning of the houses of the two

fugitives.”

Would Your Honor like to have the rest of that paragraph?

THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the next few lines.

MR. DODD: “The result was that in the future people obeyed,

willingly, orders concerning labor obligations. However, the

practice of burning houses has not become known for the first

time by my actions, but was suggested in a secret letter from

the Reich Commissioner for Allocation of Labor specifically as a

coercive measure in case other measures should fail. This harsh

punishment was acceptable to the local population . . .”

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): The Commissioner for Labor, Mr. Dodd—you

just said, “an order from the Commissioner of Labor.” Who was that?

MR. DODD: Well, we have discussed this matter previously to our

appearance here today. The document does not identify him by name. We

are not sure. The Defendant Sauckel was called Plenipotentiary General

for Labor, and we think we can’t go much further, and say we don’t know.

It just does not appear.

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Thank you.

MR. DODD: Reading that last sentence again:

“This harsh punishment was acceptable to the local population

because previous to this step both families had ridiculed on

every hand the duty-conscious people who sent their children

partly voluntarily to the labor allocation.”

Turning to Paragraph 2 on Page 2, beginning about two-thirds of the way

through the paragraph, I wish to read as follows—in the German text it

appears at Page 3, Paragraph 1:

“After initial successes, a passive resistance of the population

started, which finally forced me to turn again to arrests,

confiscations, and transfers to labor camps. After a whole

transport of conscripted laborers overcame the police at the

railroad station in Wassilkov and escaped, I saw again the

necessity for strict measures. A few ring-leaders, who of course

had long since escaped, were located in Plissezkoje and in

Mitnitza. After repeated attempts to get hold of them, their

houses were burned down.”

And finally, I wish to pass to the last paragraph on Page 3 of that same

document. In the German text it appears at Page 5, Paragraph 7. Quoting

from that last paragraph on the third page:

“My actions toward fugitive labor draftees were always reported

to District Commissioner Döhrer, of the Wassilkov office, and to

the Commissioner General in Kiev. Both of them knew the

circumstances and agreed with my measures because of their

success.”

That is the end of that part of the quotation.

That Generalkommissar in Kiev, as we indicated yesterday and again this

morning, was the man Koch—we quoted his statement about the master

race.

Another document confirms arson as an instrument of enforcing this labor

program in the village of Bielosersk in the Ukraine in cases of

resistance to forced labor recruitment. Atrocities committed in this

village are related in Document Number 018-PS, which is already in

evidence as Exhibit USA-186. But in addition there is Document Number

290-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-189. This document consists of

correspondence originating within the Rosenberg ministry, which was, of

course, the office headquarters of the Defendant Rosenberg; and it is

dated the 12th day of November 1943. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the

English text, starting with the last line, as follows:

“But even if Müller had been present at the burning of houses in

connection with the Reich conscription in Bielosersk, this

should by no means lead to the removal of Müller from office. It

is mentioned specifically in a directive of the Commissioner

General in Luck, of 21 September 1942, referring to the extreme

urgency of national conscription, that farms of those who refuse

to work are to be burned and their relatives are to be arrested

as hostages and brought to forced labor camps.”

The SS troops were directed to participate in the abduction of these

forced laborers and also in the raids on villages, burning of villages,

and were directed to turn the entire population over for slave labor in

Germany.

We refer to Document Number 3012-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-190.

This document is a secret SS order and it is dated the 19th day of March

1943. I wish to quote from Page 3 of the English text starting with the

third paragraph. In the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3.

It says, and I quote it:

“The activity of the labor offices, that is, of recruiting

commissions, is to be supported to the greatest extent possible.

It will not be possible always to refrain from using force.

During a conference with the chief of the labor allocation

staffs, it was agreed that whatever prisoners could be released

should be put at the disposal of the commissioner of the labor

office. When searching villages or when it becomes necessary to

burn down villages, the whole population will be put at the

disposal of the commissioner by force.”

THE PRESIDENT: Shouldn’t you read Number 4 which follows it?

MR. DODD: Number 4 says:

“As a rule, no more children will be shot.”

I might say to Your Honor that parts of these documents are going to be

relied on for other purposes later and it sometimes may appear to the

Tribunal that we are overlooking some of these excerpts, but

nevertheless I am grateful to have them called to our attention because

they are most pertinent to these allegations as well.

From the community of Zhitomir where the Defendant Sauckel appealed for

more workers for the Reich, the Commissioner General reported on the

brutality of the conspirator’s program, which he described as a program

of coercion and slavery. And I now refer to Document Number 265-PS,

which is Exhibit USA-191. This document is a secret report of a

conference between the Commissioner General of Zhitomir and the

Defendant Rosenberg in the community of Vinnitza on the 17th of June

1943. The report itself is dated the 30th of June 1943 and is signed by

Leyser. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, beginning with

the last paragraph; and in the German text it appears at Page 2,

Paragraph 3. Quoting it directly:

“The symptoms created by the recruiting of workers are, no

doubt, well known to the Reich Minister through reports and his

own observations. Therefore I shall not repeat them. It is

certain that a recruitment of labor in the true sense of the

word can hardly be spoken of. In most cases it is nowadays a

matter of actual conscription by force.”

Passing now to Page 2 of that same document, and to Paragraph 1, line

11—in the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 2—it says; and I

quote it directly:

“But as the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor

explained to us the gravity of the situation, we had no

alternative. I consequently have authorized the commissioners of

the areas to apply the severest measures in order to achieve the

imposed quota. That a lowering of morale is coupled with this

needs no further proof. It is nevertheless essential to win the

war on this front too. The problem of labor mobilization cannot

be handled with gloves.”

The recruitment measures which we have been discussing enslaved so many

citizens of occupied countries that whole areas were depopulated.

I now wish to refer to our Document Number 3000-PS, which is Exhibit

USA-192. This document is a partial translation of a report from the

chief of Main Office III with the High Command in Minsk, and it is dated

the 28th day of June 1943. It was sent to Ministerialdirektor Riecke,

who was a top official in the Rosenberg Ministry. I wish to read from

Page 1 of the English text, starting with the second paragraph, as

follows:

“Thus recruitment of labor for the Reich, however necessary, had

disastrous effects, for the recruitment measures in the last

months and weeks were absolute manhunts, which have an

irreparable political and economic effect . . . . From . . .

White Ruthenia approximately 50,000 people have been obtained

for the Reich so far. Another 130,000 are to be taken.

Considering the 2,400,000 total population . . . the fulfillment

of these quotas is impossible. . . . Owing to the sweeping

drives of the SS and police in November 1942, about 115,000

hectares of farmland . . . are not used, as the population is

not there and the villages have been razed. . . .”

We have already referred to the conspirators’ objective of permanently

weakening the enemy through the enslavement of labor and the breaking up

of families; and we invite the Tribunal’s attention to Document 031-PS,

which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-171, for we desire to emphasize that

the policy was applied in the Eastern Occupied Territories with the

Defendant Rosenberg’s approval of a plan for the apprehension and

deportation of 40,000 to 50,000 youths of the ages of 10 to 14. Now the

stated purpose of this plan was to prevent a reinforcement of the

enemy’s military strength and to reduce the enemy’s biological

potentialities. We have already quoted from Page 3 of the English text

of that document to establish that the Defendant Rosenberg approved that

plan, the so-called Hay Action plan. We referred to it yesterday

afternoon.

Further evidence of the conspirators’ plan to weaken their enemies, in

utter disregard of the rules of international law, is contained in

Document Number 1702-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-193. This

document is a secret order, issued by a rear area military commandant to

the district commissar at Kasatin, dated the 25th of December 1943. I

quote from Page 3 of the English text at Paragraph 1. In the German text

it appears at Page 12, Paragraph 1.

“The able-bodied male population between 15 and 65 years of age

and the live stock are to be shipped back from the district east

of the line Belilovka-Berditchev-Zhitomir (exclusive of these

places).”

This program, which we have been describing, and the brutal measures

that it employed were not limited to Poland and the Occupied Eastern

Territories but covered and cursed Western Europe as well. Frenchmen,

Dutchmen, Belgians, Italians, all came to know the yoke of slavery and

the brutality of their slavemasters.

In France these slavemasters intensified their program in the early part

of 1943, pursuant to instructions which the Defendant Speer telephoned

to the Defendant Sauckel at 8 o’clock in the evening on the 4th day of

January 1943 from Hitler’s headquarters. I now refer to Document Number

556(13)-PS, which is Exhibit USA-194. This document, incidentally, is a

note for his own files, signed by the Defendant Sauckel, dated the 5th

of January 1943. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text,

Paragraph 1 as follows:

“On 4 January 1943 at 8 p.m. Minister Speer telephones from the

Führer’s headquarters and communicates that on the basis of the

Führer’s decision, it is no longer necessary to give special

consideration to Frenchmen in the further recruiting of

specialists and helpers in France. The recruiting can proceed

with vigor and with sharpened measures.”

To overcome resistance to his slave labor program, the Defendant Sauckel

improvised new impressment measures which were applied to both France

and Italy by his own agents and which he himself labelled as grotesque.

I now refer to Document Number R-124, which is Exhibit USA-179, and

particularly Page 2 and Paragraph 2 of the English text; in the German

text it appears at Page 8, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly from that page

and that paragraph a statement made by Sauckel on 1 March 1944 at a

meeting of the Central Planning Board:

“The most abominable point against which I have to fight is the

claim that there is no organization in these districts properly

to recruit Frenchmen, Belgians, and Italians and to dispatch

them to work. So I have even proceeded to employ and train a

whole staff of French and Italian agents of both sexes who for

good pay, just as was done in olden times for ‘shanghaiing,’ go

hunting for men and dupe them, using liquor as well as

persuasion in order to dispatch them to Germany.

“Moreover, I have charged several capable men with founding a

special labor allocation organization of our own, and this by

training and arming, under the aegis of the Higher SS and Police

Führer, a number of indigenous units; but I still have to ask

the munitions ministry for arms for these men. For during the

last year alone several dozens of high-ranking labor allocation

officials of great ability have been shot. All these means must

be used, grotesque as it may sound, to refute the allegation

that there is no organization to bring labor to Germany from

these countries.”

This same slave labor hunt proceeded in Holland, as it did in France,

with terror and abduction. I now refer to Document Number 1726-PS, which

is Exhibit USA-195. This document is entitled, “Statement of the

Netherlands Government in View of the Prosecution and Punishment of the

German Major War Criminals.” I wish to quote from enclosure “h,”

entitled “Central Bureau for Statistics—The Deportation of Netherlands’

Workmen to Germany.” It is Page 1 of the English text, starting with the

first paragraph; and in the German text it appears at Page 1, also

Paragraph 1. Quoting it directly, it reads as follows:

“Many big and medium-size large business concerns, especially in

the metal industry, were visited by German commissions who

selected workmen for deportation. This combing-out was called

the ‘Sauckel action,’ so named after its leader, who was charged

with the procurement, of foreign workmen for Germany.

“The employers had to cancel the contracts with the selected

workmen; and the latter were forced to register at the labor

offices, which then took charge of the deportation under

supervision of German ‘Fachberater.’

“Workmen who refused—relatively few—were prosecuted by the

Sicherheitsdienst—the SD. If captured by this service, they

were mostly lodged for some time in one of the infamous

prisoners’ camps in the Netherlands and eventually put to work

in Germany.

“In these prosecutions the Sicherheitsdienst was supported by

the German police service, which was connected with the labor

offices and was composed of members of the NSB and the like.

“At the end of April 1942 the deportation of workers started on

a grand scale. Consequently, in the months of May and June, the

number of deportees amounted to not less than 22,000 and 24,000

respectively, of which many were metal workers.

“After that the action slackened somewhat, but in October 1942

another peak was reached (2,600). After the big concerns, the

smaller ones had, in their turn, to give up their

personnel. . . .

“This changed in November 1944. The Germans then started a

ruthless campaign for manpower, passing by the labor offices.

Without warning they lined off whole quarters of the towns,

seized people in the streets or in the houses and deported them.

“In Rotterdam and Schiedam where these raids took place on 10

and 11 November, the number of people thus deported was

estimated at 50,000 and 5,000, respectively.

“In other places where the raids were held later, the numbers

were much lower, because one was forewarned by the events. The

exact figures are not known as they have never been published by

the occupants.

“The people thus seized were put to work partly in the

Netherlands, partly in Germany.”

A document found in the OKH files furnishes further evidence of the

seizure of workers in Holland; and I refer to Document Number 3003-PS,

which is Exhibit USA-196. This document is a partial translation of the

text of a lecture, delivered by one Lieutenant Haupt of the German

Wehrmacht, concerning the situation of the war economy in the

Netherlands. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting

with the fourth line of Paragraph 1—quoting that directly, which reads

as follows:

“There had been some difficulties with the Arbeitseinsatz, that

is, during the man-catching action, which became very noticeable

because it was unorganized and unprepared. People were arrested

in the streets and taken out of their homes. It has been

impossible to carry out a uniform exemption procedure in

advance, because for security reasons the time for the action

had not been previously announced. Certificates of exemption,

furthermore, were to some extent not recognized by the officials

who carried out the action. Not only workers who had become

available through the stoppage of industry, but also those who

were employed in our installations producing things for our

immediate need were apprehended or did not dare to go into the

streets. In any case it proved to be a great loss to us.”

I might say to the Tribunal, that the hordes of people displaced in

Germany today indicate, to a very considerable extent, the length to

which the conspirators’ labor program succeeded. The best available

Allied and German data reveal that, as of January 1945, approximately

4,795,000 foreign civilian workers had been put to work for the German

war effort in the Old Reich; and among them were forced laborers of more

than 14 different nationalities. I now refer to Document Number 2520-PS,

Exhibit USA-197, which is an affidavit executed by Edward L. Deuss, an

economic analyst.

At the top of the first page there are tables setting forth the

nationality and then the numbers of the various nationals and other

groupings or prisoners of war and politicals, so-called. The workers

alone total, according to Mr. Deuss who is an expert in the field, the

4,795,000 figure to which I have just referred. In the second paragraph

of this statement of Deuss, I should like to read for the record and

quote directly:

“I, Edward L. Deuss, for 3 years employed by the Foreign

Economic Administration, Washington, as an economic analyst in

London, Paris, and Germany, specializing in labor and population

problems of Germany during the war, do hereby certify that the

figures of foreign labor employed in the Old Reich have been

compiled on the basis of the best available German and Allied

sources of material. The accompanying table represents a

combination of German official estimates of foreigners working

in Germany in January 1945, and of American, British, and French

figures of the number of foreigners actually discovered in the

Old Reich since 10 May 1945.”

Only a very small proportion of these imported laborers came to Germany

on a voluntary basis. At the March 1, 1944 meeting of this same Central

Planning Board, to which we have made reference before, the Defendant

Sauckel himself made clear the vast scale on which free men had been

forced into this labor slavery. He made the statement, and I quote from

Document Number R-124, which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-179 and from

which I have quoted earlier this morning. I wish to refer to Page 11 of

that document, the middle paragraph, Paragraph 3. In the German text it

appears at Page 4, Paragraph 2—the Defendant Sauckel speaking—and I

quote directly from that document:

“Out of 5 million foreign workers who arrived in Germany, not

even 200,000 came voluntarily.”

The Nazi conspirators were not satisfied just to tear 5 million odd

persons from their children, from their homes, from their native land.

But in addition, these defendants, who sit today in this courtroom,

insisted that this vast number of wretched human beings who were in the

so-called Old Reich as forced laborers must be starved, given less than

sufficient to eat, often beaten and maltreated, and permitted to die

wholesale for want of food, for want of even the fundamental

requirements of decent clothing, for the want of adequate shelter or

indeed sometimes just because they produced too little.

Now these conditions of deportation are vividly described in Document

Number 054-PS, which is a report made to the Defendant Rosenberg

concerning the treatment of Ukrainian labor. I wish to refer to Document

Number 054-PS, which bears the Exhibit Number USA-198. Before quoting

from it directly—according to this report the plight of these hapless

victims was aggravated because many were dragged off without opportunity

to collect their possessions. Indeed, men and women were snatched from

bed and lodged in cellars pending deportation. Some arrived in night

clothing. Brutal guards beat them. They were locked in railroad cars for

long periods without any toilet facilities at all, without food, without

water, without heat. The women were subjected to physical and moral

indignities and indecencies during medical examinations.

I refer how specifically to this Document Number 054-PS, which consists

of a covering letter to the Defendant Rosenberg, first of all, and is

signed by one Theurer, a 1st lieutenant in the Wehrmacht, to which is

attached a copy of a report by the commandant of the collecting center

for Ukrainian specialists at Kharkov; and it also consists of a letter

written by one of the specialists in the Rosenberg office—no, by one of

the workers, not in the Rosenberg office, but one of the specialists

they were recruiting, by the name of Grigori. I wish to quote from the

report at Page 2, starting at Paragraph 4 of the English text—and in

the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 4. Quoting directly from

that page of the English text:

“The _starosts_, that is village elders, are frequently

corruptible; they continue to have the skilled workers, whom

they drafted, dragged from their beds at night to be locked up

in cellars until they are shipped. Since the male and female

workers often are not given any time to pick up their luggage

and so forth, many skilled workers arrive at the collecting

center for skilled workers with equipment entirely insufficient

(without shoes or change of clothing, no eating and drinking

utensils, no blankets, _et cetera_). In particularly extreme

cases, therefore, new arrivals have to be sent back again

immediately to get the things most necessary for them. If people

do not come along at once, threatening and beating of skilled

workers by the above-mentioned local militia become a daily

occurrence and are reported from most of the communities. In

some cases women were beaten until they could no longer march.

One bad case in particular was reported by me to the commander

of the civil police here (Colonel Samek) for severe punishment

(village of Sozolinkov, district of Dergatchi). The

encroachments of the _starosts_ and the militia are of a

particularly grave nature because they usually justify

themselves by claiming that all that is done in the name of the

German Armed Forces. In reality, the latter have conducted

themselves throughout in a highly understanding manner toward

the skilled workers and the Ukrainian population. The same,

however, cannot be said of some of the administrative agencies.

To illustrate this, be it mentioned that a woman once arrived

dressed with barely more than a shirt.”

Passing now to Page 4 of this same document, starting with the 10th line

of the third paragraph, and in the German text it appears at Page 5,

Paragraph 2. Quoting directly again:

“On the basis of reported incidents, attention must be called to

the fact that it is inexcusable to keep workers locked in the

cars for many hours, so that they cannot even take care of the

calls of nature. It is evident that the people of a transport

must be given an opportunity from time to time, to get drinking

water, to wash, and to relieve themselves. Cars have been shown

in which people had made holes so that they could attend to the

calls of nature. When nearing bigger stations, persons should,

if possible, relieve themselves far from these stations.”

Turning to Page 5 of the same document, Paragraph 12—in the German text

it appears at Page 6, Paragraph 1:

“The following abuses were reported from the delousing stations:

“In the women’s and girls’ shower rooms, services were partly

performed by men, or men would mingle around or even help with

the soaping, and vice versa there were female personnel in the

men’s shower rooms. Men also for some time were taking

photographs in the women’s shower rooms. Since mainly Ukrainian

peasants were transported in the last months, as far as the

female portion of these are concerned, they were mostly of a

high moral standard and used to strict modesty; they must have

considered such a treatment as a national degradation. The

above-mentioned abuses have been, according to our knowledge,

settled by the intervention of the transport commanders. The

reports of the photographing were made from Halle; the reports

about the former were made from Kiwerce. Such incidents,

altogether unworthy of the dignity and prestige of the Greater

German Reich may still occur here or there.”

Sick and infirm people of the occupied countries were taken

indiscriminately with the rest. Those who managed to survive the trip

into Germany but who arrived too sick to work were returned like cattle

together with those who fell ill at work, because they were of no

further use to the Germans. The return trip took place under the same

terrible conditions as the initial journey, and without any kind of

medical supervision. Death came to many and their corpses were

unceremoniously dumped out of the cars, with no provision for burial.

I quote from Page 3, Paragraph 3 of Document Number 054-PS. In the

German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. Quoting directly:

“Very depressing for the morale of the skilled workers and the

population is the effect of those persons shipped back from

Germany who had become disabled or had been unfit for employment

from the very beginning.

“Several times already transports of skilled workers on their

way to Germany have crossed returning transports of such

disabled persons and have stood on the tracks alongside of each

other for a long period of time. These returning transports are

insufficiently cared for. Nothing but sick, injured, or weak

people, mostly 50 to 60 in a car usually escorted by 3 to 4 men.

There is neither sufficient care nor food. The returnees made

frequently unfavorable—if also surely exaggerated—statements

relative to their treatment in Germany and on the way. As a

result of all this and of what the people could see with their

own eyes, a psychosis of fear was evoked among the skilled

workers, that is, the whole transport to Germany. Several

transport leaders, of the 62d and 63d transports, in particular,

reported on it in detail. In one case the leader of the

transport of skilled workers observed with his own eyes how a

person who had died of hunger was unloaded from a returning

transport on the side track (1st Lieutenant Hofmann of the 63rd

Transport Station, Darniza). Another time it was reported that

three dead had to be deposited by the side of the tracks on the

way and had to be left behind unburied by the escort. It is also

regrettable that these disabled persons arrive here without any

identification. From the reports of the transport commanders,

one gets the impression that these unemployable persons are

assembled, penned into the wagons, and sent off provided only by

a few men escorts and without special care for food and medical

or other attendance. The labor office at the place of arrival as

well as the transport commanders confirm this impression.”

Incredible as it may seem, mothers in the throes of childbirth shared

cars with those infected with tuberculosis or venereal diseases. Babies,

when born, were hurled out of these car windows; and dying persons lay

on the bare floors of freight cars without even the small comfort of

straw.

I refer to Document Number 084-PS, which is Exhibit USA-199. This

document is an interdepartmental report, prepared by Dr. Gutkelch, in

the Defendant Rosenberg’s Ministry, and it is dated the 30th of

September 1942. I wish to quote from Page 10 of the English text,

starting with the fourth line from the top of the page. In the German

text it appears at Page 22, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly from that

paragraph:

“How necessary this interference was is shown by the fact that

this train with returning laborers had stopped at the same place

where a train with newly recruited Eastern Workers had stopped.

Because of the corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a

catastrophe might have been precipitated had it not been for the

mediation of Mrs. Miller. In this train women gave birth to

babies who were thrown out of the windows during the journey,

people having tuberculosis and venereal diseases rode in the

same car, dying people lay in freight cars without straw, and

one of the dead was thrown on the railway embankment. The same

must have occurred in other returning transports.”

Some aspects of the Nazi transport were described by the Defendant

Sauckel himself in a decree which he issued on the 20th of July 1942;

and I refer specifically to Document Number 2241(2)-PS, which is Exhibit

USA-200. I ask that the Tribunal take judicial notice of the original

decree, which is published in Section BIa, at Page 48e of a book

entitled _Die Beschäftigung von ausländischen Arbeitskräften in

Deutschland_. I quote from Page 1, Paragraph 2, of the English text; and

I am quoting directly:

“According to reports of transportation

commanders”—Transportleiter—“presented to me, the special

trains provided by the German railway have frequently been in a

really broken-down condition. Numerous window panes have been

missing in the coaches. Old French coaches without lavatories

have been partly employed so that the workers had to fit up an

emptied compartment as a lavatory. In other cases, the coaches

were not heated in winter so that the lavatories quickly became

unusable because the water system was frozen and the flushing

apparatus was therefore without water.”

The Tribunal will unquestionably have noticed or observed that a number

of the documents which we have referred to—and which we have

offered—consist of complaints by functionaries of the Defendant

Rosenberg’s Ministry, or by others, concerning the conditions under

which foreign workers were recruited and lived. I think it is

appropriate to say that these documents have been presented by the

Prosecution really for two purposes, or for a dual purpose; to

establish, first, the facts recited therein, of course, but also to show

that these conspirators had knowledge of these conditions and that

notwithstanding their knowledge of these conditions, these conspirators

continued to countenance and assist in this enslavement program of a

vast number of citizens of occupied countries.

Once within Germany, slave laborers were subjected to almost

unbelievable brutality and degradation by their captors; and the

character of this treatment was in part made plain by the conspirators’

own statements, as in Document Number 016-PS, which is in evidence as

Exhibit USA-168; and I refer to Page 12, Paragraph 2 of the English

text. In the German text it appears at Page 17, Paragraph 4. Quoting

directly:

“All the men must be fed, sheltered, and treated in such a way

that they produce to the highest possible extent at the lowest

conceivable degree of expenditure.”

Force and brutality as instruments of production found a ready adherent

in the Defendant Speer who, in the presence of the Defendant Sauckel,

said at a meeting of the Central Planning Board—and I refer to Document

Number R-124, which is already in evidence and which has been referred

to previously. It bears the Exhibit Number USA-179. I refer particularly

to Page 42 of that Document R-124, and Paragraph 2 of that Page 42. The

Defendant Speer, speaking at that meeting, stated:

“We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the

side list decreased at once to one-fourth or one-fifth in

factories where doctors are on the staff who examine the sick

men. There is nothing to be said against SS and police taking

drastic steps and putting those known as slackers into

concentration camps. There is no alternative. Let it happen

several times and the news will soon go around.”

At a later meeting of the Central Planning Board, Field Marshal Milch

agreed that so far as workers were concerned—and again I refer to

Document Number R-124 and to Page 26, Paragraph 2, in the English text,

and in the German text at Page 17, Paragraph 1. Field Marshal Milch,

speaking at a meeting of the Central Planning Board when the Defendant

Speer was present, stated; and I am quoting directly:

“The list of the shirkers should be entrusted to Himmler

. . . .”

Milch made particular reference to foreign workers again in this

Document Number R-124 at Page 26, Paragraph 3—in the German text it

appears at Page 18, Paragraph 3—when he said; and I am quoting him

directly:

“It is therefore not possible to exploit fully all the

foreigners unless we compel them by piece-work wages and have

the possibility of taking measures against foreigners who are

not doing their bit.”

The policy as actually executed was even more fearful than the policy as

expressed by the conspirators. Indeed, these impressed workers were

underfed and overworked; and they were forced to live in grossly

overcrowded camps where they were held as virtual prisoners, and were

otherwise denied adequate shelter, adequate clothing, adequate medical

care and treatment. As a consequence, they suffered from many diseases

and ailments. They were generally forced to work long hours, up to and

beyond the point of exhaustion. They were beaten and subjected to all

manner of inhuman indignities.

An example of this maltreatment is found in the conditions which

prevailed in the Krupp factories. Foreign laborers at the Krupp works

were given insufficient food to enable them to perform the work required

of them.

I refer to Document Number D-316, which is Exhibit USA-201. This

document was found in the Krupp files. It is a memorandum upon the Krupp

stationery to a Herr Hupe, a director of the Krupp locomotive factory in

Essen, Germany, dated the 14th of March 1942. I wish to refer to Page 1

of the English text, starting with Paragraph 1, as follows; and I am

quoting directly:

“During the last few days we established that the food for the

Russians employed here is so miserable that the people are

getting weaker from day to day.

“Investigations showed that single Russians are not able to

place a piece of metal for turning into position, for instance,

because of lack of physical strength. The same conditions exist

in all other places of work where Russians are employed.”

The condition of foreign workers in Krupp workers’ camps is described in

detail in an affidavit executed in Essen, Germany, by Dr. Wilhelm Jäger,

who was the senior camp doctor. It is Document Number D-288, which is

Exhibit USA-202.

“I, Dr. Wilhelm Jäger, am a general practitioner in Essen,

Germany, and its surroundings. I was born in Germany on 2

December 1888 and now live at Kettwig, Sengenholz 6, Germany.

“I make the following statement of my own free will. I have not

been threatened in any way and I have not been promised any sort

of reward.

“On the 1st of October 1942, I became senior camp doctor in the

Krupp’s workers’ camps for foreigners and was generally charged

with the medical supervision of all Krupp’s workers’ camps in

Essen. In the course of my duties it was my responsibility to

report upon the sanitary and health conditions of the workers’

camps to my superiors in the Krupp works.

“It was a part of my task to visit every Krupp camp which housed

foreign civilian workers, and I am therefore able to make this

statement on the basis of my personal knowledge.

“My first official act as senior camp doctor was to make a

thorough inspection of the various camps. At that time, in

October 1942, I found the following conditions:

“The Eastern Workers and Poles who worked in the Krupp works at

Essen were kept at camps at Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse,

Spenlestrasse, Heegstrasse, Germaniastrasse,

Kapitän-Lehmannstrasse, Dechenschule, and Krämerplatz.”—When

the term “Eastern Workers” is hereinafter used, it is to be

taken as including Poles.—“All of the camps were surrounded by

barbed wire and were closely guarded.

“Conditions in all of these camps were extremely bad. The camps

were greatly overcrowded. In some camps there were twice as many

people in a barrack as health conditions permitted.

“At Krämerplatz the inhabitants slept in treble-tiered bunks,

and in the other camps they slept in double-tiered bunks. The

health authorities prescribed a minimum space between beds of 50

centimeters, but the bunks in these camps were separated by a

maximum of 20 to 30 centimeters.

“The diet prescribed for the Eastern Workers was altogether

insufficient. They were given 1,000 calories a day less than the

minimum prescribed for any German. Moreover, while German

workers engaged in the heaviest work received 5,000 calories a

day, the Eastern Workers with comparable jobs received only

2,000 calories. The Eastern Workers were given only two meals a

day and their bread ration. One of these two meals consisted of

a thin, watery soup. I had no assurance that the Eastern

Workers, in fact, received the minimum which was prescribed.

Subsequently, in 1943, I undertook to inspect the food prepared

by the cooks; I discovered a number of instances in which food

was withheld from the workers.

“The plan for food distribution called for a small quantity of

meat per week. Only inferior meats rejected by the veterinary,

such as horse meat or tuberculin-infested, was permitted for

this purpose. This meat was usually cooked into a soup . . . .

“The percentage of Eastern Workers who were ill was twice as

great as among the Germans. Tuberculosis was particularly

widespread among the Eastern Workers. The tuberculosis rate

among them was four times the normal rate (Eastern Workers, 2

percent; German, 0.5 percent). At Dechenschule approximately 2.5

percent of the workers suffered from open tuberculosis. The

Tartars and Kirghises suffered most; as soon as they were

overcome by this disease they collapsed like flies. The cause

was bad housing, the poor quality and insufficient quantity of

food, overwork, and insufficient rest.

“These workers were likewise afflicted with spotted fever. Lice,

the carrier of this disease, together with countless fleas,

bugs, and other vermin, tortured the inhabitants of these camps.

As a result of the filthy conditions of the camps nearly all

Eastern Workers were afflicted with skin disease. The shortage

of food also caused many cases of Hunger-Oedema, Nephritis and

Shiga-Kruse.

“It was the general rule that workers were compelled to go to

work unless a camp doctor had certified that they were unfit for

work. At Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse, Germaniastrasse,

Kapitän-Lehmannstrasse, and Dechenschule there was no daily sick

call. At these camps the doctors did not appear for 2 or 3 days.

As a consequence workers were forced to go to work despite

illness.

“I undertook to improve conditions as much as I could. I

insisted upon the erection of some new barracks in order to

relieve the overcrowded conditions of the camps. Despite this,

the camps were still greatly overcrowded but not as much as

before. I tried to alleviate the poor sanitary conditions in

Krämerplatz and Dechenschule by having some emergency toilets

installed; but the number was insufficient, and the situation

was not materially altered . . . .

“With the onset of heavy air raids in March 1943, conditions in

the camps greatly deteriorated. The problem of housing, feeding,

and medical attention became more acute than ever. The workers

lived in the ruins of their former barracks. Medical supplies

which were used up, lost, or destroyed were difficult to

replace. At times the water supply at the camps was completely

shut off for periods of 8 to 14 days. We installed a few

emergency toilets in the camps, but there were far too few of

them to cope with the situation.

“During the period immediately following the March 1943 raids

many foreign workers were made to sleep at the Krupp factories

in the same rooms in which they worked. The day workers slept

there at night, and the night workers slept there during the

day, despite the noise which constantly prevailed. I believe

that this condition continued until the entrance of American

troops into Essen.

“As the pace of air raids was stepped up, conditions became

progressively worse. On 28 July 1944 I reported to my superiors

that:

“‘The sick barracks in camp Rabenhorst are in such a bad

condition one cannot speak of a sick barracks any more. The rain

leaks through in every corner. The housing of the sick is

therefore impossible. The necessary labor for production is in

danger because those persons who are ill cannot recover.’

“At the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944—I am not

completely sure of the exact date—I obtained permission for the

first time to visit the prisoner-of-war camps. My inspection

revealed that conditions at these camps were worse than those I

had found at the camps of the Eastern Workers in 1942. Medical

supplies at such camps were virtually non-existent. In an effort

to cure this intolerable situation, I contacted the Wehrmacht

authorities whose duty it was to provide medical care for the

prisoners of war. My persistent efforts came to nothing. After

remonstrating with them over a period of 2 weeks, I was given a

total of 100 aspirin tablets for over 3,000 prisoners of war.

“The French prisoner-of-war camp in Nöggerathstrasse had been

destroyed in an air raid attack and its inhabitants were kept

for nearly half a year in dog kennels, urinals, and in old

bakehouses. The dog kennels were 3 feet high, 9 feet long, and 6

feet wide. Five men slept in each of them. The prisoners had to

crawl into these kennels on all fours. The camp contained no

tables, chairs, or cupboards. The supply of blankets was

inadequate. There was no water in the camp. Such medical

treatment as there was, was given in the open. Many of these

conditions were reported to me in a report by Dr. Stinnesbeck,

dated 12 June 1944, in which he said:

“‘. . . There are still 315 prisoners in the camp. One hundred

seventy of these are no longer in barracks but in the tunnel in

Grunertstrasse under the Essen-Mülheim railway line. This tunnel

is damp and is not suitable for continued accommodation of human

beings. The rest of the prisoners are accommodated in 10

different factories in the Krupp works. The medical attention is

given by a French military doctor who takes great pains with his

fellow countrymen. Sick people from Krupp factories must be

brought to sick call. This inspection is held in the lavatory of

a burned-out public house outside the camp. The sleeping

accommodation of the four French orderlies is in what was the

men’s room. In the sick bay there is a double-tier wooden bed.

In general the treatment takes place in the open. In rainy

weather it is held in the above-mentioned small room. These are

insufferable conditions. There are no chairs, tables, cupboards,

or water. The keeping of a register of sick people is

impossible. Bandages and medical supplies are very scarce,

although the badly wounded from the factory are very often

brought here for first aid and have to be bandaged here before

being transported to the hospital. There are many loud and

lively complaints about food which the guard personnel confirms

as being justified. Illness and loss of manpower must be

reckoned with under these conditions . . . .’

“In my report to my superiors at Krupps, dated 2 September 1944,

I stated . . . .

“Camp Humboldtstrasse has been inhabited by Italian military

internees. After it had been destroyed by an air raid, the

Italians were removed and 600 Jewish females from Buchenwald

concentration camp were brought to work at the Krupp factories.

Upon my first visit at Camp Humboldtstrasse, I found these

persons suffering from open festering wounds and other ailments.

“I was the first doctor they had seen for at least a fortnight.

There was no doctor in attendance at the camp. There were no

medical supplies in the camp. They had no shoes and went about

in their bare feet. The sole clothing of each consisted of a

sack with holes for their arms and head. Their hair was shorn.

The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and closely guarded by SS

guards.

“The amount of food in the camp was extremely meager and of very

poor quality. The houses in which they lived consisted of the

ruins of former barracks and they afforded no shelter against

rain and other weather conditions. I reported to my superiors

that the guards lived and slept outside their barracks as one

could not enter them without being attacked by 10, 20, and up to

50 fleas. One camp doctor employed by me refused to enter the

camp again after he had been bitten very badly. I visited this

camp with Mr. Gröne on two occasions and both times we left the

camp badly bitten. We had great difficulty in getting rid of the

fleas and insects which had attacked us. As a result of this

attack by insects of this camp I got large boils on my arms and

the rest of my body. I asked my superiors at the Krupp works to

undertake the necessary steps to delouse the camp so as to put

an end to this unbearable vermin-infested condition. Despite

this report, I did not find any improvement in sanitary

conditions at the camp on my second visit a fortnight later.

“When foreign workers finally became too sick to work or were

completely disabled, they were returned to the labor exchange in

Essen and from there they were sent to a camp at Friedrichsfeld.

Among persons who were returned to the labor exchange were

aggravated cases of tuberculosis, malaria, neurosis, cancer

which could not be treated by operation, old age, and general

feebleness. I know nothing about conditions at this camp because

I have never visited it. I only know that it was a place to

which workers were sent who were no longer of any use to Krupp.

“My colleagues and I reported all of the foregoing matters to

Mr. Ihn, director of Friedrich Krupp AG.; Dr. Wiele, personal

physician of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach; senior camp

leader Kupke; and sometimes to the Essen health department.

Moreover, I know that these gentlemen personally visited the

camps.”—signed—“Dr. Wilhelm Jäger.”

THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now until 2 o’clock.

[_A recess was taken until 1400 hours._]

_Afternoon Session_

MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, we had just completed the reading

of the affidavit executed by Dr. Wilhelm Jäger at the noon recess. The

conditions which were described in this affidavit were not confined to

the Krupp factories alone but existed throughout Germany; and we turn to

a report of the Polish Main Committee made to the Administration of the

General Government of Poland, Document Number R-103, Exhibit Number

USA-204. This document is dated the 17th of May 1944 and describes the

situation of the Polish workers in Germany, and I wish to refer

particularly to Page 2 of the English translation, starting with

Paragraph 2; in the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 2 also.

In quoting from the document, it reads:

“The state of cleanliness of many overcrowded camp rooms is

contrary to the most elementary requirements. Often there is no

opportunity to obtain warm water for washing; therefore, the

cleanest parents are unable to maintain even the most primitive

standard of hygiene for their children or often even to wash

their only set of underclothing. A consequence of this is the

spreading of scabies which cannot be eradicated . . . .

“We receive imploring letters from the camps of Eastern Workers

and their prolific families beseeching us for food. The quantity

and quality of camp rations mentioned therein—the so-called

class 4—is absolutely insufficient to compensate the energy

spent in heavy work. Three and one half kilograms of bread

weekly and a thin soup at lunch time, cooked with kohlrabi or

other vegetables without any meat or fat, with a meager addition

of potatoes now and then, is a starvation ration for a heavy

worker.

“When, on top of that, starvation is sometimes inflicted as

punishment—for refusal to wear the badge ‘East’, for

example—the result is that workers faint at their work

(Klosterteich Camp, Grünheim, Saxony). The consequence is

complete exhaustion, an ailing state of health, and

tuberculosis. The spreading of tuberculosis among the Polish

factory workers is due to the deficient food rations meted out

in the community camps which are insufficient to restore the

energy spent in heavy work . . . .

“The call for help which reaches us brings to light privation

and hunger, severe stomach and intestinal trouble, especially in

the case of children, resulting from the insufficiency of food

which does not take into consideration the needs of children.

Proper medical treatment or care for the sick is not available

in the mass camps.”

We now refer to Page 3 of this same document and particularly to the

first paragraph. In the German text it appears at Page 5, Paragraph 1:

“In addition to these bad conditions, there is lack of

systematic occupation for and supervision of these hosts of

children which affects the life of prolific families in the

camps. The children, left to themselves without schooling or

religious care, must run wild and grow up illiterate. Idleness

in rough surroundings may and will create undesirable results in

these children . . . . An indication of what these awful

conditions may lead to is given by the fact that in the camps

for Eastern Workers (‘Waldlust,’ Lauf, post office, Pegnitz)

there are cases of 8-year-old, delicate, and undernourished

children put to forced labor and perishing from such treatment

. . . .

“The fact that these bad conditions dangerously affect the state

of health and the vitality of the workers is proved by the many

cases of tuberculosis found in very young people returning from

the Reich to the General Government as unfit for work. Their

state of health is usually so bad that recovery is out of the

question. The reason is that a state of exhaustion resulting

from overwork and a starvation diet is not recognized as an

ailment until the illness betrays itself by high fever and

fainting spells.

“Although some hostels for unfit workers have been provided as a

precautionary measure, one can only go there when recovery may

no longer be expected (Neumarkt in Bavaria). Even there the

incurables waste away slowly, and nothing is done even to

alleviate the state of the sick by suitable food and medicines.

There are children there with tuberculosis whose cure would not

be hopeless and men in their prime who, if sent home in time to

their families in rural districts, might still be able to

recover . . . . No less suffering is caused by the separation of

families when wives and mothers of small children are away from

their families and sent to the Reich for forced labor.”

And finally, from Page 4 of the same document, starting with the first

paragraph—in the German text it appears at Page 7, Paragraph 4:

“If, under these conditions, there is no moral support such as

is normally based on regular family life, then at least such

moral support which the religious feelings of the Polish

population require should be maintained and increased. The

elimination of religious services, religious practices, and

religious care from the life of the Polish workers, the

prohibition of church attendance when there is a religious

service for other people, and other measures show a certain

contempt for the influence of religion on the feelings and

opinions of the workers.”

THE PRESIDENT: Can you tell us who the Polish Central Committee

were—or, I mean, how they were founded?

MR. DODD: Well, insofar as we are aware, it was a committee apparently

set up by the Nazi State when it occupied Poland to work in some sort of

co-operation with it during the days of the occupation. We don’t know

the names of the members, and we haven’t any more specific information.

THE PRESIDENT: Is it a captured document?

MR. DODD: It is a captured document, yes, Sir. All of the documents that

I am presenting in connection with this case are, excepting the

Netherlands Government’s report and one or two other official reports,

the Deuss affidavit and such other matters, are captured documents. That

particular document, it has just been called to my attention, was

captured by the United States 3rd Army.

Particularly harsh and brutal treatment was reserved for workers

imported from the conquered Eastern territories. As we have illustrated,

they did indeed live in bondage, and they were subjected to almost every

form of degradation, quartered in stables with animals, denied the right

of free worship and the ordinary pleasures of human society.

Illustrative of this treatment is Document EC-68, bearing Exhibit Number

USA-205. This document, EC-68, bears the title, “Directives on the

Treatment of Foreign Farm Workers of Polish Nationality,” issued by the

Minister for Finance and Economy of Baden, Germany, on the 6th of March

1941. And we don’t know his name, nor have we been able to ascertain it.

Quoting from the English text of this document from the beginning:

“The agencies of the Baden State Peasant Association of the

Reich Food Administration, have received the result of the

negotiations with the Higher SS and Police Führer in Stuttgart

on 14 February 1941 with great satisfaction. Appropriate

memoranda have already been turned over to the District Peasants

Associations. Below I promulgate the individual regulations as

they have been laid down during the conference and the manner in

which they are now to be applied:

“1. On principle, farm workers of Polish nationality are no

longer granted the right to complain, and thus no complaints may

be accepted by any official agency.

“2. The farm workers of Polish nationality may no longer leave

the localities in which they are employed, and have a curfew

from 1 October to 31 March from 2000 hours to 0600 hours and

from 1 April to 30 September from 2100 hours to 0500 hours.

“3. The use of bicycles is strictly prohibited. Exceptions are

possible for riding to the place of work in the field if a

relative of the employer or the employer himself is present.

“4. The visit to churches, regardless of faith, is strictly

prohibited, even when there is no service in progress.

Individual spiritual care by clergymen outside of the church is

permitted.

“5. Visits to theaters, motion pictures, or other cultural

entertainment are strictly prohibited for farm workers of Polish

nationality.

“6. The visit to restaurants is strictly prohibited to farm

workers of Polish nationality, except for one restaurant in the

village, which will be selected by the Regional Commissioner’s

Office”—Landratsamt—“and then only 1 day per week. The day

which is allowed for visiting the restaurant will also be

determined by the Landratsamt. This regulation does not change

the curfew regulation mentioned above under ‘2’.

“7. Sexual intercourse with women and girls is strictly

prohibited; and wherever it is discovered, it must be reported.

“8. Gatherings of farm workers of Polish nationality after work

is prohibited, whether it is on other farms, in the stables, or

in the living quarters of the Poles.

“9. The use of railroads, buses, or other public conveyances by

farm workers of Polish nationality is prohibited.

“10. Permits to leave the village may be granted only in very

exceptional cases by the local police authority (mayor’s

office). However, in no case may it be granted if a Pole wishes

to visit a public agency on his own authority, whether it is a

labor office or the District Peasants Association, or if he

wants to change his place of employment.

“11. Unauthorized change of employment is strictly prohibited.

The farm workers of Polish nationality have to work daily as

long as it is to the interests of the enterprise and is demanded

by the employer. There are no limits to the working hours.

“12. Every employer has the right to give corporal punishment to

farm workers of Polish nationality if persuasion and reprimand

fail. The employer may not be held accountable in any such case

by an official agency.

“13. Farm workers of Polish nationality should, if possible, be

removed from the household; and they can be quartered in stables

_et cetera_. No consideration whatever should restrict such

action.

“14. Report to the authorities of all crimes committed by farm

workers of Polish nationality which sabotage industry or slow

down work—for instance, unwillingness to work, impertinent

behavior—is compulsory even in minor cases. An employer who

loses a Pole sentenced to a long prison sentence because of such

a compulsory report will upon request, have preference for the

assignment of another Pole from the competent labor office.

“15. In all other cases, only the State Police is still

competent. For the employer himself, severe punishment is

provided if it is established that the necessary distance has

not been kept from farm workers of Polish nationality. The same

applies to women and girls. Extra rations are strictly

prohibited. Noncompliance with the Reich tariffs for farm

workers of Polish nationality will be punished by the competent

labor office by the taking away of the workers.”

The women of the conquered territories were led away against their will

to serve as domestics, and the Defendant Sauckel described this program

in his own words, which appear in Document Number 016-PS, already

offered in evidence as Exhibit USA-168, 016-PS, and particularly Page 7,

fourth paragraph of the English text. In the German text it appears on

Page 10, Paragraph 1, and I quote directly:

“In order to relieve considerably the German housewife,

especially the mother with many children and the extremely busy

farmwoman, and in order to avoid any further danger to their

health, the Führer also has charged me with the procurement of

400,000 to 500,000 selected, healthy, and strong girls from the

territories of the East for Germany.”

Once captured, once forced to become laborers in Germany, or workers in

Germany, these Eastern women, by order of the slavemaster, Defendant

Sauckel, were bound to the household to which they were assigned,

permitted at the most 3 hours of freedom a week, and denied the right to

return to their homes.

I now refer to Document Number 3044(b)-PS. That is Exhibit Number

USA-206. The document is a decree issued by the Defendant Sauckel

containing instructions for housewives concerning Eastern household

workers; and I ask that the Court take judicial notice of the original

decree which appears on Pages 592 and 593 of the second volume of a

publication of the Zentralverlag of the NSDAP, entitled _Verfügungen,

Anordnungen und Bekanntgaben_, and I quote from the first paragraph of

the English translation of a portion of the decree as follows:

“There is no claim for free time. Female domestic workers from

the East may, on principle, leave the household only to take

care of domestic tasks. As a reward for good work, however, they

may be given the opportunity to stay outside the home without

work for 3 hours once a week. This leave must end with the onset

of darkness, at the latest at 2000 hours. It is prohibited to

enter restaurants, movies or other theaters, and similar

establishments provided for German or foreign workers. Attending

church is also prohibited. Special events may be arranged for

Eastern domestics in urban homes by the German Workers’ Front,

for Eastern domestics in rural homes by the Reich Food

Administration in cooperation with the German Women’s League.

Outside the home, the Eastern domestic must always carry her

work card as a personal pass.

“Vacations and return to homes are not granted as yet. The

recruiting of Eastern domestics is for an indefinite period.”

Always over these enslaved workers was the shadow of the Gestapo and the

concentration camps. Like other major programs of the Nazi conspirators,

the guards of the SS and Himmler’s methods of dealing with people were

the instruments employed for enforcement.

On the subject of the slave laborers, a secret order dated 20 February

1942 issued by Reichsführer SS Himmler to SD and Security Police

officers concerning Eastern Workers spells out the violence which was

applied against them. It is our Document 3040-PS, which is Exhibit

Number USA-207, and I ask this Court to take judicial notice of the

original order, which is published in the _Allgemeine Erlass-Sammlung_

Part II, Section 2-A, III, f, Pages 15 to 24. I wish to quote from Page

3 of the English text, starting with Paragraph III—in the German text

it appears in Section 2-A, III, f, at Page 19 of the publication—as

follows:

“III. Combatting violations against discipline. (1) In keeping

with the equal status of laborers from the original Soviet

Russian territory with prisoners of war, a strict discipline

must be maintained in quarters and in workshops. Violations

against discipline, including refusal to work and loafing at

work, will be dealt with exclusively by the secret state police.

The less serious cases will be settled by the leader of the

guard according to instructions from the state police

headquarters with measures as provided for in the appendix. To

break acute resistance, the guards shall be permitted to use

also physical compulsion against the laborers. But this may be

done only for a cogent reason. The laborers should always be

informed that they will be treated decently when conducting

themselves with discipline and accomplishing good work. In

serious cases, that is, in such cases where the measures at the

disposal of the leader of the guard do not suffice, the state

police is to step in. In such instances, as a rule, severe

measures will be taken, that is, transfer to a concentration

camp or special treatment. The transfer to a concentration camp

is made in the usual manner. In especially serious cases special

treatment is to be recommended at the Reich Security Main

Office; personal data and the exact facts must be given. Special

treatment is hanging. It should not take place in the immediate

vicinity of the camp. A certain number of laborers from the

original Soviet Russian territory should attend the special

treatment; at that time they are to be advised of the

circumstances which lead to this special treatment. Should

special treatment be required within the camp for exceptional

reasons of camp discipline, this must be applied for.”

And I turn now to Page 4 of the text, Paragraph VI; in the German text

it appears at Section 2-A, III, f, on Page 20:

“VI. Sexual intercourse. Sexual intercourse is forbidden to

laborers of the original Soviet Russian territory. Owing to

their closely confined quarters they have no opportunity for it

. . . For every case of sexual intercourse with German men or

women application for special treatment is to be made for male

labor from the original Soviet Russian territory, transfer to a

concentration camp for female labor.”

And finally from Page 5 of the same document, Paragraph VIII; and in the

German text it appears at Section 2-A, III, f, at Page 21:

“VIII. Search. Fugitive workers from the original Soviet Russian

territory are to be announced on principle in the German search

book. Furthermore, search measures are to be decreed locally.

When caught the fugitive must in principle be proposed for

special treatment.”

We have said to this Tribunal more than once that the primary purpose of

the entire slave labor program was, of course, to compel the people of

the occupied countries to work for the German war economy. The decree by

which Defendant Sauckel was appointed Plenipotentiary General for the

Allocation of Labor reveals that the purpose of the appointment was to

facilitate acquisition of the manpower required for German war

industries, and in particular the armaments industry, by centralizing

under Sauckel responsibility for the recruitment and allocation of

foreign labor and prisoners of war in these industries. I refer to the

document bearing our Number 1666-PS—Exhibit USA-208. This document is a

decree signed by Hitler, Lammers, and the Defendant Keitel—and it is

dated 21 March 1942—appointing the Defendant Sauckel the

Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor. I ask that the

Court take judicial notice of the original decree, which is published at

Page 179, Part I, of the 1942 _Reichsgesetzblatt_; referring to the

English text starting at Paragraph 1, as follows, and quoting directly:

“In order to secure the manpower requisite for war industries as

a whole and particularly for armaments, it is necessary that the

utilization of all available manpower, including that of workers

recruited abroad and of prisoners of war, should be subject to a

uniform control directed in a manner appropriate to the

requirements of war industry, and further that all still

incompletely utilized manpower in the Greater German Reich,

including the Protectorate as well as in the Government General

and in the Occupied Territories, should be mobilized.

Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel will carry out

this task within the framework of the Four Year Plan, as

Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor. In that

capacity he will be directly responsible to the Delegate for the

Four Year Plan. Section III (Wages) and Section V (Utilization

of Labor) of the Reich Labor Ministry together with their

subordinate authorities, will be placed at the disposal of the

Plenipotentiary General for the accomplishment of his task.”

Sauckel’s success can be measured from a letter which he himself wrote

to Hitler on 15 April 1943 and which contained his report on 1 year of

his activities. We refer to the Document as Number 407(VI)-PS, which

bears Exhibit Number USA-209. I wish to quote from Paragraphs 6 and 9 on

Page 1 of the English text; in the German text it appears at Page 2,

Paragraphs 1 and 2:

“After 1 year’s activity as Plenipotentiary for the Allocation

of Labor, I can report that 3,638,056 new foreign workers were

given to the German war economy from 1 April of last year to 31

March of this year . . . .

“The 3,638,056 are distributed amongst the following branches of

the German war economy: Armament, 1,568,801 . . . .”

Still further evidence of this steady use of enslaved foreign labor is

found again in a report of the Central Planning Board, to which we have

referred so many times this morning and yesterday. Another meeting of

this Central Planning Board was held on the 16th day of February 1944;

and I refer to our Document Number R-124, which contains the minutes of

this meeting of the Central Planning Board and which has been offered in

evidence already as Exhibit Number USA-179. And I want, to refer

particularly to Page 26, Paragraph 1 of the English text of Document

Number R-124. It is at Page 16, in Paragraph 2, of the German text:

“The armament industry employs foreign workmen to a large

extent; according to the latest figures—40 percent.”

Moreover, our Document Number 2520-PS, which is in evidence as Exhibit

Number USA-197, records that, according to Speer Ministry tabulations,

as of 31 December 1944, approximately 2 million civilian foreign workers

were employed directly in the manufacture of armaments and munitions

(finished products or parts). That, the bulk of these workers had been

forced to come to Germany against their will is made clear by Sauckel’s

statement, which I previously quoted from Paragraph 3 of Page 11 of

Document Number R-124. We quoted it this morning, the statement being

that of 5 million foreign workers only 200,000, or less than 200,000,

came voluntarily.

The Defendants Sauckel, Speer, and Keitel succeeded in forcing foreign

labor to construct military fortifications. Thus, citizens of France,

Holland, and Belgium were compelled against their will to engage in the

construction of the “Atlantic Wall”; and we refer to our Document Number

556(2)-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-194. This is a Hitler order dated

the 8th of September 1942, and it is initialled by the Defendant Keitel.

Quoting the order directly:

“The extensive coastal fortifications which I have ordered to be

erected in the area of Army Group West make it necessary that in

the occupied territory all available workers be assigned and

give the fullest extent of their productive capacities to this

task. The previous allotment of workers originating from these

countries is insufficient. In order to increase it I order the

introduction of compulsory labor and the prohibition of changing

the place of employment without permission of the authorities in

the occupied territories. Furthermore, the distribution of food

and clothing ration cards to those subject to labor draft should

in the future depend on the possession of a certificate of

employment. Refusal to accept an assigned job, as well as

leaving the place of work without the consent of the authorities

in charge, will result in the withdrawal of the food and

clothing ration cards. The GBA”—Deputy General for

Arbeitseinsatz—“in agreement with the military commander, as

well as the Reich Commissioner, will issue the appropriate

decrees.”

Indeed, the Defendant Sauckel boasted to Hitler concerning the

contribution of the forced labor program to the construction of the

Atlantic Wall by the Defendant Speer’s Organization Todt. And we refer

to Document 407(VIII)-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-210. This document

is a letter from the Defendant Sauckel to Hitler, dated the 17th day of

May 1943. And I refer to the second and last paragraph:

“In addition to the labor allotted to the total German economy

by the Arbeitseinsatz since I took office, the Organization Todt

was supplied with new labor continually . . . . Thus the

Arbeitseinsatz has done everything to help make possible the

completion of the Atlantic Wall.”

Similarly, Russian civilians were forced into labor battalions and

compelled to build fortifications to be used against their own

countrymen. In Document 031-PS, in evidence as Exhibit Number USA-171,

which is a memorandum of the Rosenberg Ministry, it is stated in

Paragraph 1 at Page 1 of that document:

“The men and women in the theaters of operations have been and

will be conscripted into labor battalions to be used in the

construction of fortifications.”

In addition, the conspirators compelled prisoners of war to engage in

operations of war against their own country and its allies. At a meeting

of the Central Planning Board, again held on February 19, 1943, attended

by the Defendant Speer and the Defendant Sauckel and Field Marshal

Milch, the following conversation occurred and is recorded in our

Document R-124, at Page 32, Paragraph 5, of the English text. It is Page

20, the last paragraph, of the German text. And I quote it, the

Defendant Sauckel speaking:

“Sauckel: ‘If any prisoners are taken, they will be needed

there.’

“Milch: ‘We have made a request for an order that a certain

percentage of men in the antiaircraft artillery must be

Russians. Fifty thousand will be taken altogether, thirty

thousand are already employed as gunners. It is an amusing thing

that Russians must work the guns.’”

We refer now to Documents Numbers 3027-PS and 3028-PS. They are,

respectively, Exhibit USA-211 for 3027 and USA-212 for 3028. They will

be found at the very back, I believe, of the document book, in a

separate manila folder. They are official German Army photographs; and,

if Your Honors will examine Document 3027-PS, the caption states that

Russian prisoners of war are acting as ammunition bearers during the

attack upon Tschedowo. Document 3028-PS consists of a series of official

German Army photographs taken in July and August 1941 showing Russian

prisoners of war in Latvia and the Ukraine being compelled to load and

unload ammunition trains and trucks and being required to stack

ammunition, all, we say, in flagrant disregard of the rules of

international law, particularly Article 6 of the regulations annexed to

the Hague Convention Number IV of 1907, which provides that the tasks of

prisoners of war shall have no connection with the operations of war.

The use of prisoners of war in the German armament industry was as

widespread and as extensive almost as the use of the forced foreign

civilian labor. We refer to Document Number 3005-PS, which is Exhibit

USA-213. This document is a secret letter from the Reich Minister of

Labor to the presidents of the regional labor exchange offices, which

refers to an order of the Defendant Göring to the effect that—I quote

now from Paragraph 1 of that document—I am quoting it directly:

“Upon personal order of the Reich Marshal, 100,000 men are to be

taken from among the French prisoners of war not yet employed in

armament industry and are to be assigned to the armament

industry (airplane industry). Gaps in manpower supply resulting

therefrom will be filled by Soviet prisoners of war. The

transfer of the above-named French prisoners of war is to be

accomplished by 1 October.”

The Reich Marshal referred to in that quotation is of course the

Defendant Göring.

A similar policy was followed with respect to Russian prisoners of war.

The Defendant Keitel directed the execution of Hitler’s order to use

prisoners of war in the German war economy. And I now make reference to

our Document EC-194, which has Exhibit Number USA-214. This document is

also a secret memorandum, according to its label, issued from Hitler’s

headquarters on the 31st of October 1941; and I read from Page 1,

Paragraphs 1 and 2, quoting it directly as follows:

“The lack of workers is becoming an increasingly dangerous

hindrance for the future German war and armament industry. The

expected relief through releases from the Armed Forces is

uncertain as to the extent and date; its probable extent will by

no means correspond to expectations and requirements in view of

the great demand.

“The Führer has now ordered that even the manpower of the

Russian prisoners of war should be utilized to a large extent by

large-scale assignments for the requirements of the war

industry. The prerequisite for production is adequate

nourishment. Also very small wages to provide a few every-day

necessities must be offered with additional premiums for special

effort, as the case may be.”

And quoting now from the same document, Paragraph 2, II and III—I am

quoting directly:

“II. Construction and armament industry.

“(a) Work units for construction of all kinds, particularly for

the fortification of coastal defenses (concrete workers,

unloading units for essential war plants).

“(b) Suitable armament factories which are to be selected in

such a way that their personnel will consist in the majority of

prisoners of war under guidance and supervision (upon withdrawal

and other employment of the German workers).

“III. Other war industries.

“(a) Mining as under II (b).

“(b) Railroad construction units for building tracks, _et

cetera_.

“(c) Agriculture and forestry in closed units. The utilization

of Russian prisoners of war is to be regulated on the basis of

the above examples:

“To I. The Armed Forces.

“To II. The Reich Minister for Armament and Munitions and the

Inspector General for the German Road System in agreement with

the Reich Minister for Labor and Supreme Commander of the Armed

Forces (Economic Armament Office). Deputies of the Reich

Minister for Armament and Munitions are to be admitted to the

prisoner-of-war camps to assist in the selection of skilled

workers.”

The Defendant Göring, at a conference at the Air Ministry on the 7th day

of November 1941, also discussed the use of prisoners of war in the

armament industry. And we refer now to our Document Number 1206-PS,

which bears Exhibit Number USA-215. This document consists of top-secret

notes on Göring’s instructions as to the employment and treatment of

prisoners of war in many phases of the German war industry. And I wish

to quote from Paragraph 1 of Page 1 and Paragraph 4 of Page 2 of the

English text and from Paragraph 1, Page 1, and Paragraph 1, Page 3 of

the German text, as follows:

“The Führer’s point of view as to employment of prisoners of war

in war industries has changed basically. So far a total of 5

million prisoners of war—employed so far 2 million.”

And on Page 2:

“In the interior and the Protectorate it would be ideal if

entire factories could be manned by Russian prisoners of war

except the employees necessary for directing. For employment in

the interior and the Protectorate the following are to have

priority:

“(a) At the top, the coal mining industry. Order by the Führer

to investigate all mines as to suitability for employment of

Russians, in some instances manning the entire plant with

Russian laborers.

“(b) Transportation (construction of locomotives and cars,

repair shops, _et cetera_). Railroad-repair and factory workers

are to be sought out from the prisoners of war. Rail is the most

important means of transportation in the East.

“(c) Armament industries. Preferably factories of armor and

guns. Possibly also construction of parts for aircraft engines.

Suitable complete sections of factories to be manned exclusively

by Russians if possible. For the remainder, employment in

groups. Use in factories of tool machinery, production of farm

tractors, generators, _et cetera_. In emergency, erect in some

places barracks for casual workers who are used in unloading

units and for similar purposes. (Reich Minister of the Interior

through communal authorities.)

“OKW/AWA is competent for procuring Russian prisoners of war.

Employment through Planning Board for employment of all

prisoners of war. If necessary, offices of Reich commissariats.

“No employment where danger to men or supply exists, that is,

factories exposed to explosives, waterworks, powerworks, _et

cetera_. No contact with German population, especially no

‘solidarity.’ German worker as a rule is foreman of Russians.

“Food is a matter of the Four Year Plan. Procurement of special

food (cats, horses, _et cetera_).

“Clothes, billeting, messing somewhat better than at home where

part of the people live in caves.

“Supply of shoes for Russians; as a rule wooden shoes, if

necessary install Russian shoe repair shops.

“Examination of physical fitness in order to avoid importation

of diseases.

“Clearing of mines as a rule by Russians; if possible by

selected Russian engineer troops.”

The Defendant Göring was not the only one of these defendants who

sponsored and applied the policy of using prisoners of war in the

armament industry. The Defendant Speer also sponsored and applied this

same policy of using prisoners of war in the armament industry. And we

refer to the document bearing our Number 1435-PS, which also carries

Exhibit Number USA-216. This document is a speech to the Nazi Gauleiter

delivered by the Defendant Speer on the 24th day of February of 1942,

and I wish to read from Paragraph 2 of that document, and I quote as

follows:

“I therefore proposed to the Führer at the end of December that

all my labor force, including specialists, be released for mass

employment in the East. Subsequently the remaining prisoners of

war, about 10,000, were put at the disposal of the armament

industry by me.”

He also reported at the 36th meeting of the Central Planning Board, held

on the 22d day of April 1943, that only 30 percent of the Russian

prisoners of war were engaged in the armament industry. This the

Defendant Speer found unsatisfactory. And referring again to Document

R-124, the minutes of the Central Planning Board, and particularly to

Page 17 of that document, Paragraph 10 of the English text, and Page 14,

Paragraph 7 of the German text, we find this statement by the Defendant

Speer, quoting directly:

“There is a detailed statement showing in what sectors the

Russian prisoners of war have been distributed. This statement

is quite interesting. It shows that the armaments industry

received only 30 percent. I constantly complained about this.”

And at Page 20 of the same document, R-124—Paragraph 1 on Page 20 of

the English text and Page 14, the last paragraph of the German text—the

Defendant Speer stated, and I quote from the paragraph directly:

“The 90,000 Russian prisoners of war employed in the whole of

the armament industry are for the greatest part skilled men.”

The Defendant Sauckel, who was appointed Plenipotentiary General for the

utilization of labor for the express purpose, among others, of

integrating prisoners of war into the German war industry, made it plain

that prisoners of war were to be compelled to serve the German armament

industry. His labor mobilization program, which is Document 016-PS,

already marked Exhibit USA-168, contains this statement on Page 6,

Paragraph 10 of the English text and Page 9, Paragraph 1, of the German

text:

“All prisoners of war now in Germany, from the territories of

the West as well as of the East, must be completely incorporated

into the German armament and food industries. Their production

must be brought to the highest possible level.”

I wish to turn now from the exploitation of foreign labor in general to

a rather special point of the Nazi program which appears to us to have

combined the brutality and the purposes of the slave labor program with

those of the concentration camp. The Nazis placed all Allied nationals

in concentration camps and forced them, along with the other inmates of

the concentration camps, to work under conditions which were set

actually to exterminate them. This was what we call the Nazi program of

extermination through work.

In the spring of 1942 these conspirators turned to the concentration

camps as a further source of slave labor for the armament industry. I

refer to a new Document Number R-129, bearing Exhibit Number USA-217.

This document is a letter to Himmler, the Reichsführer SS—and it is

dated the 30th day of April 1942—from one of his subordinates, an

individual named Pohl, SS Obergruppenführer and General of the

Waffen-SS; and I wish to quote from the first page of that document.

Quoting directly:

“Today I report about the present situation of the concentration

camps and about measures I have taken to carry out your order of

the 3rd of March 1942.”

Then moving on from paragraphs numbered 1, 2, and 3 on Page 2 of the

English text and at Page 1 of the German text, I quote as follows:

“1. The war has brought about a marked change in the structure

of the concentration camps and has changed their duties

fundamentally with regard to the employment of the prisoners.

The custody of prisoners for the sole reasons of security,

education, or as a preventive measure is no longer the main

consideration. The importance now lies in the economic side. The

mobilization of all prisoner labor for purposes of the war

(increase of armament) now, and for purposes of construction in

the forthcoming peace, is coming more and more to the

foreground.

“2. From this knowledge necessary measures result which require

a gradual transformation of the concentration camps from their

former one-sided political character into an organization

adapted to economic tasks.

“3. For this reason I called together all the leaders of the

former inspectorate of concentration camps, all camp commanders,

and all managers and supervisors of work, on the 23rd and 24th

of April 1942 and explained personally to them this new

development. I have compiled, in the order attached, the

essential points which have to be brought into effect with the

utmost urgency if the commencement of work for the purposes of

the armament industry is not to be delayed.”

Now the order referred to in that third paragraph set the framework for

a program of relentless exploitation, providing in part as follows—and

I now refer to the enclosure appended to the quoted letter which is also

a part of Document R-129, found at Page 3, Paragraphs numbered 4, 5, and

6 of the English text, and Page 3 of the German text:

“4. The camp commander alone is responsible for the utilization

of the manpower available. This utilization must be, in the true

meaning of the word, complete, in order to obtain the greatest

measure of performance. Work is allotted only centrally and by

the Chief of the Department D. The camp commanders themselves

may not accept on their own initiative work offered by third

parties and may not negotiate about it.

“5. There is no limit to working hours. Their duration depends

on the kind of working establishments in the camps and the kind

of work to be done. They are fixed by the camp commanders alone.

“6. Any circumstances which may result in a shortening of

working hours (for example, meals, roll-calls, _et cetera_),

have therefore to be restricted to an irreducible minimum.

Time-wasting walks and noon intervals, only for the purpose of

taking meals, are forbidden.”

The armament production program we have just described was not merely a

scheme for mobilizing the manpower potential of the camps. It actually

was integrated directly into the larger Nazi program of extermination;

and I wish to refer, at this point, to our document bearing Number

654-PS and Exhibit Number USA-218.

THE PRESIDENT: Do you think it will be convenient to break off now for a

few minutes?

MR. DODD: Very well.

[_A recess was taken._]

MR. DODD: At the recess time I had made reference to Document Number

654-PS, which has the Exhibit Number USA-218. This document is a

memorandum of an agreement between Himmler, Reichsführer SS, and the

Minister of Justice, Thierack. It is dated the 18th of September 1942.

The concept of extermination to which I referred shortly before the

recess was embodied in this document and I wish to quote from Page 1,

Paragraph 2:

“2. Transfer of asocial elements from prison to the Reichsführer

SS for extermination through work. To be transferred without

exception are persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies,

Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than 3-year sentences,

Czechs, and Germans with more than 8-year sentences, according

to the decision of the Reich Minister for Justice. First of all

the worst asocial elements amongst those just mentioned are to

be handed over. I shall inform the Führer of this through

Reichsleiter Bormann.”

Now this agreement further provided, in Paragraph 12 on Page 2 of the

English text and Page 3, Paragraph 14, of the German text, as follows:

“14. It is agreed that, in consideration of the intended aims of

the Government for the clearing up of the Eastern problems, in

the future, Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians are

no longer to be tried by the ordinary courts, so far as

punishable offenses are concerned; but are to be dealt with by

the Reichsführer SS. This does not apply to civil lawsuits, nor

to Poles whose names are reported or entered in the German

racial lists.”

Now, in September of 1942, the Defendant Speer made arrangements to

bring this new source of labor within his jurisdiction. Speer convinced

Hitler that significant production could be obtained only if the

concentration camp prisoners were employed in factories under the

technical control of the Speer Ministry instead of the control in the

camps. In fact, without Defendant Speer’s cooperation, we say it would

have been most difficult to utilize the prisoners on any large scale for

war production, since he would not allocate to Himmler the machine tools

and other necessary equipment. Accordingly, it was agreed that the

prisoners were to be exploited in factories under the Defendant Speer’s

control. To compensate Himmler for surrendering this jurisdiction to

Speer, the Defendant Speer proposed and Hitler agreed, that Himmler

would receive a share of the armaments output, fixed in relation to the

man-hours contributed by his prisoners. In the minutes of the Defendant

Speer’s conference with Hitler on the 20th, 21st, and the 22d September

1942—Document Number R-124, which is Exhibit Number USA-179—I wish to

refer particularly to Page 34 of the English text. These are the

Defendant Speer’s minutes on this conference. I am quoting from Page 34,

Paragraph 36, beginning at the middle of the page; and it is at the top

of Page 26 in the German text:

“I pointed out to the Führer that, apart from an insignificant

amount of work, no possibility exists of organizing armament

production in the concentration camps, because: (1) the machine

tools required are missing; (2) there are no suitable premises.

Both these assets would be available in the armament industry,

if use could be made of them by a second shift.

“The Führer agrees to my proposal that the numerous factories

set up outside towns for reasons of air raid protection should

release their workers to supplement the second shift in town

factories and should in return be supplied with labor from the

concentration camps—also two shifts.

“I pointed out to the Führer the difficulties which I expect to

encounter if Reichsführer SS Himmler should be able, as he

requests, to exercise authoritative influence over these

factories. The Führer, too, does not consider such an influence

necessary.

“The Führer, however, agrees that Reichsführer SS Himmler should

derive advantage from making his prisoners available; he should

get equipment for his division.

“I suggest giving him a share in kind (war equipment) in ratio

to the man-hours contributed by his prisoners. A 3 to 5 percent

share is being discussed, the equipment also being calculated

according to man-hours. The Führer would agree to such a

solution.

“The Führer is prepared to order the additional allocation of

this equipment and weapons to the SS, upon submission of a

list.”

After a demand for concentration-camp labor had been created and after a

mechanism had been set up by the Defendant Speer for exploiting this

labor in armament factories, measures were evolved for increasing the

supply of victims for extermination through work. A steady flow was

assured by an agreement between Himmler and the Minister of Justice

mentioned above, which was implemented by such programs as the

following—and I refer to Document L-61, Exhibit Number USA-177; and I

wish to quote from Paragraph 3. That document, the Tribunal will recall,

is the Defendant Sauckel’s letter, dated the 26th of November 1942, to

the presidents of the Länder employment offices; and I wish to quote

from Paragraph 3 of that letter:

“The Poles who are to be evacuated as a result of this measure

will be put into concentration camps and put to work insofar as

they are criminal or asocial elements.”

General measures were supplemented by special drives for persons who

would not otherwise have been sent to concentration camps.

THE PRESIDENT: Didn’t you read that this morning?

MR. DODD: Yes, I did, Your Honor. I was reading it again with particular

reference to this feature of the proof.

For example, for “reasons of war necessity” Himmler ordered that at

least 35,000 prisoners qualified for work should be transferred to

concentration camps. I now offer in evidence Document Number 1063(d)-PS,

which is Exhibit Number USA-219. This document is a Himmler order dated

the 17th of December 1942. The order provides, and I quote in part,

beginning with the first paragraph of that document:

“For reasons of war necessity not to be discussed further here,

the Reichsführer SS and Chief of the German Police, on the 14th

of December 1942, has ordered that by the end of January 1943 at

least 35,000 prisoners fit for work are to be sent to the

concentration camps. In order to reach this number, the

following measures are required:

“(1) As of now, to begin with, until 1 February 1943, all

Eastern Workers or foreign workers who have been fugitives or

who have broken contracts and who do not belong to allied,

friendly, or neutral states . . . are to be brought by the

quickest means to the nearest concentration camps . . . .

“(2) The commanders and the commandants of the Security Police

and the Security Service, and the chiefs of the state police

headquarters will check immediately on the basis of a close and

strict rule: (a) the prisons, and (b) the labor reformatory

camps.

“All prisoners fit for work, if it is practically and humanly

possible, will be committed at once to the nearest concentration

camp, according to the following instructions, even for example,

those who are about to be brought to trial. Only such prisoners

can be left there who, in the interest of further

investigations, are to remain absolutely in solitary

confinement.

“Every single laborer counts!”

Measures were also adopted to insure that this extermination through

work was practiced with maximum efficiency. Subsidiary concentration

camps were established near important war plants. The Defendant Speer

has admitted that he personally toured Upper Austria and selected sites

for concentration camps near various munitions factories in the area. I

am about to refer to the transcript of an interrogation under oath of

the Defendant Albert Speer.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, do you understand the last document you read,

1063-PS, to refer to prisoners of war, or prisoners in ordinary prisons,

or what?

MR. DODD: We understood it to refer to prisoners in ordinary prisons.

In view of the Tribunal’s ruling this morning, I think I should state

that, with respect to this interrogation of Defendant Speer, we had

provided the defendants’ counsel with the entire text in German. It

happens to be a brief interrogation, and so we were able to complete

that translation, and it has been placed in their Information Center.

DR. HANS FLÄCHSNER (Counsel for Defendant Speer): In reference to the

transcript of the interrogation, the reading of which the prosecutor has

just announced, I should like to say the following:

It is true that we have received the German transcript of the English

protocol, if one may call it a protocol. A comparison of the English

text with the German transcript shows that there are, both in the

English text and in the German transcript, mistakes which change the

meaning and which I believe are to be attributed to misunderstandings on

the part of the certifying interpreter. I believe, therefore, that the

so-called protocol and the English text do not actually give the

contents of what Defendant Speer tried to express during the

interrogation. It would, therefore, not further the establishment of the

truth should this protocol ever be used.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, when was the German translation given to

counsel for the defendant?

MR. DODD: About 4 days ago, Your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, is there any certification by the interrogator

as to the English translation?

MR. DODD: There is, Your Honor. There is a certification at the end of

the interrogation by the interrogator and by the interpreter and by the

reporter as well. There are three certifications.

THE PRESIDENT: I think the best course will be, in these circumstances,

to receive the interrogation now. You will have an opportunity, by

calling the defendant, to show in what way he alleges, or you allege,

that the interrogation is inaccurately translated.

DR. FLÄCHSNER: Thank you, Sir.

MR. DODD: May I respectfully refer, Your Honor, to the last document in

the document book, 4 pages from the end?

THE PRESIDENT: Which page do you refer to?

MR. DODD: I refer to the page bearing the Number 16 of the English text

of the transcript of the interrogation and Page 21 of the German text.

The answer quoted is:

“The fact was that we were anxious to use workers from

concentration camps in factories and to establish small

concentration camps near factories, in order to use the manpower

that was then available there. But it did not come up only in

connection with this trip . . . .”

That is, Speer’s trip to Austria. (Exhibit USA-220)

THE PRESIDENT: I think I ought to say to defendant’s counsel that if he

had waited until he heard that piece of evidence read, he would have

seen that it was quite unnecessary to make any objection.

MR. DODD: Defendant Göring endorsed this use of concentration camp labor

and asked for more. We refer to our Document 1584-PS, Part 1, which is

Exhibit Number USA-221. This document is a teletype message from Göring

to Himmler, dated 14th of February 1944. I quote from the document

beginning with the second sentence:

“At the same time, I ask you to put at my disposal as great a

number of KZ”—concentration-camp—“convicts as possible for air

armament, as this kind of manpower proved to be very useful

according to previous experience. The situation of the air war

makes subterranean transfer of industry necessary. For work of

this kind KZ convicts can be especially well concentrated at

work and in the camp.”

Defendant Speer subsequently assumed responsibility for this program;

and Hitler promised Speer that if the necessary labor for the program

could not be obtained, a hundred thousand Hungarian Jews would be

brought in by the SS.

Speer recorded his conferences with Hitler on April 6 and April 7, 1944

in Document R-124, which is Exhibit Number USA-179, already in evidence.

I quote from Page 36 of the English text, Page 29 of the German text as

follows:

“Suggested to the Führer that, due to lack of builders and

equipment, the second big building project should not be set up

in German territory but in close vicinity to the border on a

suitable site (preferably on gravel base and with transport

facilities) in French, Belgian, or Dutch territory. The Führer

agrees to this suggestion if the works could be set up behind a

fortified zone. The strongest argument for setting up this plant

in French territory is the fact that it would be much easier to

procure the necessary workers. Nevertheless, the Führer asks

that an attempt be made to set up the second factory in a safer

area, namely the Protectorate. If it should prove impossible

there, too, to get hold of the necessary workers, the Führer

himself will contact the Reichsführer SS and will give an order

that the required 100,000 men are to be made available by

bringing in Jews from Hungary. Stressing the fact that in the

case of the Industriegemeinschaft Schlesien the building

organization was a failure, the Führer demands that these works

must be built by the OT exclusively, and that the workers should

be made available by the Reichsführer SS. He wants to hold a

meeting shortly in order to discuss details with all the men

concerned.”