The unspeakably brutal, inhumane, and degrading treatment inflicted on

Allied nationals and other victims of concentration camps, while they

were indeed being literally worked to death, is described in Document

L-159, which is not in the document book. It is an official report

prepared by a U.S. Congressional committee, U.S. Senate Document Number

47. This Congressional committee had inspected the liberated camps at

the request of General Eisenhower. It bears Exhibit Number USA-222. I

would like to quote from the document briefly, first from Page 14, the

last paragraph, and from Page 15, the first two paragraphs, of the

English text:

“The treatment accorded to these prisoners in the concentration

camps was generally as follows: They were herded together in

some wooden barracks not large enough for one-tenth of their

number. They were forced to sleep on wooden frames covered with

wooden boards in tiers of two, three, and even four, sometimes

with no covering, sometimes with a bundle of dirty rags serving

both as pallet and coverlet.

“Their food consisted generally of about one-half of a pound of

black bread per day and a bowl of watery soup for noon and

night, and not always that. Owing to the great numbers crowded

into a small space and to the lack of adequate sustenance, lice

and vermin multiplied, disease became rampant, and those who did

not soon die of disease or torture began the long, slow process

of starvation. Notwithstanding the deliberate starvation program

inflicted upon these prisoners by lack of adequate food, we

found no evidence that the people of Germany, as a whole, were

suffering from any lack of sufficient food or clothing. The

contrast was so striking that the only conclusion which we could

reach was that the starvation of the inmates of these camps was

deliberate.

“Upon entrance into these camps, newcomers were forced to work

either at an adjoining war factory or were placed ‘in commando’

on various jobs in the vicinity, being returned each night to

their stall in the barracks. Generally a German criminal was

placed in charge of each ‘block’ or shed in which the prisoners

slept. Periodically he would choose the one prisoner of his

block who seemed the most alert or intelligent or showed most

leadership qualities. These would report to the guards’ room and

would never be heard from again. The generally accepted belief

of the prisoners was that these were shot or gassed or hanged

and then cremated. A refusal to work or an infraction of the

rules usually meant flogging and other types of torture, such as

having the fingernails pulled out, and in each case usually

ended in death after extensive suffering. The policies herein

described constituted a calculated and diabolical program of

planned torture and extermination on the part of those who were

in control of the German Government . . . .”

I quote next from Page 11 of the English text beginning with the second

sentence of Paragraph 2, a description of Camp Dora at Nordhausen, Page

12, Paragraph 1 of the German text, quoting as follows:

“On the whole, we found this camp to have been operated and

administered much in the same manner as Buchenwald had been

operated and managed. When the efficiency of the workers

decreased as a result of the conditions under which they were

required to live, their rations were decreased as punishment.

This brought about a vicious circle in which the weak became

weaker and were ultimately exterminated.”

Such was the cycle of work, torture, starvation, and death for

concentration-camp labor—labor which the Defendant Göring, while

requesting that more of it be placed at his disposal, said had proved

very useful; labor which the Defendant Speer was “anxious” to use in the

factories under his control.

The policy underlying this program, the manner in which it was executed,

and the responsibility of the conspirators in connection with it has

been dwelt upon at length. Therefore, we should like, at this point, to

discuss the special responsibility of the Defendant Sauckel.

The Defendant Sauckel’s appointment as Plenipotentiary General for

manpower is explained probably first of all by his having been an old

and trusted Nazi. He certified in Document 2974-PS, dated 17 November

1945, which is already in evidence before this Tribunal as Exhibit

Number USA-15, that he held the following positions:

Starting with his membership in the NSDAP, he was thereafter a member of

the Reichstag; he was Gauleiter of Thuringia; he was a member of the

Thuringian legislature; he was Minister of Interior and head of the

Thuringian State Ministry; he was Reichsstatthalter for Thuringia; he

was an SA Obergruppenführer; he was SS Obergruppenführer; he was

administrator for the Berlin-Suhler Waffen and Fahrzeugwerke in 1935; he

was head of the Gustloff Werke Nationalsozialistische

Industrie-Stiftung, 1936, and the honorary head of the Foundation. And

from the 21st of March 1942 until 1945, he was the Plenipotentiary

General for Labor Allocation.

Sauckel’s official responsibilities are borne out by evidence. His

appointment as Plenipotentiary General for manpower was effected by a

decree of the 21st of March 1942, which we have read and which was

signed by Hitler, Lammers, and the Defendant Keitel. And by that decree

Sauckel was given authority, as well as responsibility, subordinate only

to that of Hitler and Göring, who was the head of the Four Year

Plan—subordinate only to those two for all matters relating to

recruitment, allocation, and handling of foreign and domestic manpower.

The Defendant Göring, to whom Sauckel was directly responsible,

abolished the recruitment and allocation agencies of his Four Year Plan

and delegated their powers to the Defendant Sauckel and placed his

far-reaching authority as deputy for the Four Year Plan at Sauckel’s

disposal.

In Document 1666-PS, a second 1666-PS but of another date, the 27th of

March 1942—I ask the Tribunal to take judicial notice of this original

decree, which is published in the 1942 _Reichsgesetzblatt_, Part I, at

Page 180:

“In pursuance of the Führer’s decree of 21st of March 1942, I

decree as follows:

“1. My manpower sections are hereby abolished (circular letter

of 22d of October 1936). Their duties (recruitment and

allocation of manpower, regulation of labor conditions) are

taken over by the Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of

Labor, who is directly under me.

“2. The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor will be

responsible for regulating the conditions of labor (wage policy)

employed in the Reich territory, having regard to the

requirements of labor allocation.

“3. The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor is part

of the Four Year Plan. In cases where new legislation is

required or existing laws need to be modified; he will submit

appropriate proposals to me.

“4. The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor will

have at his disposal for the performance of his task the right

delegated to me by the Führer for issuing instructions to the

highest Reich authorities and their subordinate offices, as well

as the Party offices and their sections and their affiliated

organizations, also to the Reich Protector, the Governor

General, the military commanders, and heads of the civil

administrations. In the case of ordinances and instructions of

fundamental importance, a report is to be submitted to me in

advance.”

Document Number 1903-PS is a Hitler decree of the 30th of September 1942

giving the Defendant Sauckel extraordinary powers over the civil and

military authority of the territories occupied by Germany. We ask that

judicial notice be taken by this Tribunal of the original decree, which

is published in Volume II, Page 510, of the _Verfügungen, Anordnungen,

und Bekanntgaben_, published by the Party Chancellery. This decree

states as follows:

“I herewith authorize the Plenipotentiary General for Allocation

of Labor, Reich Governor and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel to take all

necessary measures for the enforcement of my decree of 21 March

1942, concerning a Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of

Labor (_Reichsgesetzblatt_ I, Page 179), according to his own

judgment, in the Greater German Reich, in the Protectorate, and

in the Government General, as well as in the Occupied

Territories—measures which will safeguard under all

circumstances the regulated deployment of labor for the German

war economy. For this purpose he may appoint commissioners to

the bureaus of the military and civilian administration. These

are responsible directly to the Plenipotentiary General for

Allocation of Labor. In order to carry out their tasks, they are

entitled to issue directives to the competent military and

civilian authorities in charge of labor allocation and of wage

policy.

“More detailed directives will be issued by the Plenipotentiary

General for Allocation of Labor.

“Führer headquarters, 30 September 1942. The

Führer,”—signed—“Adolf Hitler.”

Within 1 month after his appointment, the Defendant Sauckel sent

Defendant Rosenberg his “Labor Mobilization Program”. This program,

Document Number 016-PS, already in evidence as Exhibit USA-168,

envisaged a recruitment by force and the maximum exploitation of the

entire labor resources of the conquered areas and of prisoners of war in

the interests of the Nazi war machine at the lowest conceivable degree

of expenditure to the German State.

The Defendant Sauckel states—and I refer now to the bottom of Page 6 of

the English text of that document. It is Page 9, Paragraph 2, of the

German text, and I quote as follows:

“It must be emphasized, however, that an additional tremendous

number of foreign laborers has to be found for the Reich. The

greatest pool for that purpose is the occupied territories of

the East. Consequently, it is an imperative necessity to use the

human reserves of the conquered Soviet territory to the fullest

extent. Should we not succeed in obtaining the necessary amount

of labor on a voluntary basis, we must immediately institute

conscription of forced labor.

“Apart from the prisoners of war still in the occupied

territories, we must, therefore, requisition skilled or

unskilled male and female labor from the Soviet territory from

the age of 15 up, for the German allocation of labor.”

Passing to Page 11 of the English text, first paragraph and Page 17,

Paragraph 4, of the German text, I quote, as follows directly:

“The complete employment of all prisoners of war as well as the

use of a gigantic number of new foreign civilian workers, men

and women, has become an indisputable necessity for the solution

of the problem of the allocation of labor in this war.”

The Defendant Sauckel proceeded to implement this plan, which he

submitted, with certain basic directives. He provided that if voluntary

recruitment of foreign workers was unsuccessful compulsory service

should be instituted.

Document Number 3044-PS is the Defendant Sauckel’s Regulation Number 4,

dated the 7th of May 1942. And we ask that the Tribunal take judicial

notice of the original regulation published in Volume II, Pages 516 to

527 of the _Verfügungen, Anordnungen, und Bekanntgaben_, to which I have

previously referred. Reading from Page 1, Paragraph 3, of the English

text:

“The recruitment of foreign labor will be done on principle on a

volunteer basis. Where, however, in the occupied territories the

appeal for volunteers does not suffice, obligatory service and

drafting must, under all circumstances, be resorted to. This is

an indisputable requirement of our labor situation.”

Sauckel provided also for the allocation of foreign labor in the order

of its importance to the Nazi war machine. We refer to Document Number

3044(a)-PS, which is the Defendant Sauckel’s Regulation Number 10, and

ask that the Court take judicial notice of the original regulation,

published in Volume II, _Verfügungen, Anordnungen, und Bekanntgaben_, at

Pages 531 to 533. Paragraph 3 of this regulation I quote as follows:

“The resources of manpower that are available in the occupied

territories are to be employed primarily to satisfy the

requirements of importance for the war in Germany itself. In

allocating the said labor resources in the Occupied Territories,

the following order of priority will be observed:

“(a) Labor required for the troops, the occupation authorities,

and the civil authorities;

“(b) Labor required for German armament;

“(c) Labor required for food and agriculture;

“(d) Labor required for industrial work in the interests of

Germany, other than armaments;

“(e) Labor required for industrial work in the interests of the

population of the territory in question.”

The Defendant Sauckel, and agencies subordinate to him, exercised

exclusive authority over the recruitment of workers from every area in

Europe occupied by, controlled by, or friendly to, the German nation. He

affirmed, himself—the Defendant Sauckel did—this authority in a

decree, Document Number 3044-PS, already in evidence as Exhibit Number

USA-206. I refer to Paragraph 5 on Page 1 of the English text of that

document, and I am quoting it directly:

“The recruitment of labor in the areas occupied by Germany will

be carried out exclusively by the labor allocation offices of

the German military or civil administration in these areas.”

THE PRESIDENT: Haven’t you read that already?

MR. DODD: No, I have not, if Your Honor pleases. We have referred to

that decree before, but we have not referred to this portion of it.

I am passing to Paragraph II, 1-a on Page 2, and quoting again directly:

“For the carrying out of recruitment in allied, friendly, or

neutral foreign countries, my commissioners are solely

responsible.”

In addition, the following defendants, who were informed by Sauckel of

the quotas of foreign laborers which he required, collaborated with

Sauckel and his agents in filling these quotas: The Defendant Keitel,

Chief of the OKW—which was the Supreme Command—who collaborated with

Sauckel.

We refer to Document Number 3012(1)-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-190.

This document is the record of a telephone conversation of the Chief of

the Economic Staff East of the German Army, and it is dated March 11,

1943. I wish to quote from the first two paragraphs of the document as

follows:

“The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor, Gauleiter

Sauckel, points out to me in an urgent teletype that the

allocation of labor in German agriculture, as well as all the

most urgent armament programs ordered by the Führer, make the

most rapid procurement of approximately 1 million women and men

from the newly occupied Eastern Territories within the next 4

months an imperative necessity. For this purpose, Gauleiter

Sauckel demands the shipment of 5,000 workers daily beginning 15

March; 10,000 workers, male and female, beginning 1 April, from

the newly occupied Eastern Territories.”

I am passing down to the next paragraph:

“In consideration of the extraordinary losses of workers which

occurred in German war industry because of the developments of

the past months, it is now necessary that the recruiting of

workers be taken up again everywhere with all vigor. The

tendency momentarily noticeable in that territory, to limit

and/or entirely stop the Reich recruiting program, is absolutely

not bearable in view of this state of affairs. Gauleiter

Sauckel, who is informed about these events, because of this

applied directly to General Field Marshal Keitel on 10 March

1943, in a teletype, and emphasized on this occasion that, as in

all other occupied territories, where all other methods fail, a

certain pressure must be used, by order of the Führer.”

At this point we were prepared to offer a transcript of an interrogation

under oath of the Defendant Sauckel. Only the English of the transcript

of the interrogation has been seen by the Counsel for the Defendant

Sauckel. He has had it, however, for some time; and the excerpts on

which we intended to rely were furnished to him as well in German.

If I understood the ruling of the Tribunal correctly, it would be

necessary for us to have furnished the entire record in German.

THE PRESIDENT: I think you might use this interrogation, as the excerpts

have been submitted in German.

MR. DODD: Yes, they have, Your Honor, and the entire English text as,

well.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

MR. DODD: I refer to a transcript of an interrogation under oath of the

Defendant Sauckel, held on the morning of the 5th of October 1945

(Exhibit USA-224). That is the very last document in the document book.

I wish to quote from the bottom of Page 1 of the English text and Page

1, Paragraph 11, of the German text, as follows:

“Q: ‘Was it necessary, in order to accomplish the completion of

the quotas given, to have liaison with the OKW?’

“A: ‘I remember that the Führer had given directives to Marshal

Keitel, telling him that my task was a very important one; and

I, too, have often conferred with Keitel after such discussions

with the Führer, when I asked him for his support.’

“Q: ‘It was his task to supervise the proper performance of the

military commanders in the occupied countries in carrying but

their assigned mission, was it not?’

“A: ‘Yes, the Führer had told me that he would inform the Chief

of the OKW and the Chief of the Reich Chancellery as to these

matters. The same applies to the Foreign Minister.’”

We are also prepared to offer the transcript of an interrogation of the

Defendant Alfred Rosenberg. There is this distinction insofar as this

record is concerned. While we have supplied the counsel with the German

translation of those parts of it which we propose to use, we have not

had an opportunity to supply the whole text to counsel. However, they

have been supplied with the German of the parts which we propose to use

and to offer to this Tribunal.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, you are prepared to do it hereafter, I suppose?

MR. DODD: Yes, we will, Your Honor, as soon as we can get these papers

down to the Information Center.

THE PRESIDENT: Good.

MR. DODD: The next document is rather lengthy, and I wonder what the

Tribunal’s pleasure is. Do I understand that I may proceed with the

interrogation?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. DODD: I wish to refer to the Defendant Alfred Rosenberg, the Reich

Minister for Eastern Occupied Territories, as one who also collaborated

with the Defendant Sauckel, and specifically, to refer to a transcript

of an interrogation under oath of the Defendant Rosenberg, on the

afternoon of the 6th of October 1945 (Exhibit USA-187). That record may

be found about the third from the last of the interrogation records in

the document book, and I wish to read from Page 1 of the transcript:

“Q: ‘Isn’t it a fact that Sauckel would allocate to the various

areas under your jurisdiction the number of persons to be

obtained for labor purposes?’

“A: ‘Yes.’

“Q: ‘And that thereafter your agents would obtain that labor in

order to meet the quota which had been given. Is that right?’

“A: ‘Sauckel, normally, had very far-reaching desires, which one

could not fulfil unless one looked very closely into the

matter.’

“Q: ‘Never mind about Sauckel’s desires being far-reaching or

not being far-reaching. That has nothing to do with it. You were

given quotas for the areas over which you had jurisdiction, and

it was up to you to meet that quota?’

“A: ‘Yes. It was the responsibility of the administrative

officials to receive this quota and to distribute the allotments

over the districts in such a way, according to number and

according to the age groups, that they would be most reasonably

met.’

“Q: ‘These administrative officials were part of your

organization, isn’t that right?’

“A: ‘They were functionaries or officials of the Reich

Commissioner for the Ukraine; but, as such, they were placed in

their office by the Ministry for the Eastern Occupied

Territories.’

“Q: ‘You recognized, did you not, that the quotas set by Sauckel

could not be filled by voluntary labor; and you did not

disapprove of the impressment of forced labor. Isn’t that

right?’

“A: ‘I regretted that the demands of Sauckel were so urgent that

they could not be met by a continuation of voluntary

recruitments, and thus I submitted to the necessity of forced

impressment.’”

Then, passing a little further down on that page:

“Q: ‘The letters that we have already seen between you and

Sauckel do not indicate, do they, any disagreement on your part

with the principle of recruiting workers against their will?

They indicate, as I remember, that you were opposed to the

treatment that was later accorded these workers, but you did not

oppose their initial impressment.’”

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, I think you ought to read the next two answers

in fairness to the Defendant Rosenberg, after the one where he said he

submitted to the necessity of forced impressment.

MR. DODD: Very well, I shall read those, Your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: “‘Did you ever argue with Sauckel . . .’”

MR. DODD: Yes.

“Q: ‘Did you ever argue with Sauckel that perhaps in view of the

fact that the quotas could not be met by voluntary labor, the

labor recruiting program be abandoned, except for what recruits

could be voluntarily enrolled?’

“A: ‘I could not do that because the numbers or allotments that

Sauckel had received from the Führer to meet were absolutely

binding for him, and I couldn’t do anything about that.’”

And then, referring again to the question which I had just read, the

answer is as follows:

“‘That is right. In those matters I mostly discussed the

possibility of finding the least harsh methods of handling the

matter, whereas in no way did I place myself in opposition to

the orders that he was carrying out for the Führer.’”

THE PRESIDENT: I think the Tribunal might adjourn now.

MR. DODD: Very well, Your Honor.

[_The Tribunal adjourned until 13 December 1945 at 1000 hours._]

NINETEENTH DAY

Thursday, 13 December 1945

_Morning Session_

MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, at the close of yesterday’s

session we were discussing and had just completed reading the excerpts

from the interrogation of 6 October 1945, wherein the Defendant Alfred

Rosenberg was questioned.

There have already been introduced Documents 017-PS and 019-PS and I

have read excerpts from them. The Tribunal will recall that they are

letters written by the Defendant Sauckel to the Defendant Rosenberg

requesting the assistance of the Defendant Rosenberg in the recruitment

of additional foreign laborers. I refer to them in passing, by way of

recapitulation, with respect to the Defendant Sauckel’s participation in

this slave-labor program and also the assistance of the Defendant

Rosenberg. Also the Defendant Sauckel received help from the Defendant

Seyss-Inquart who was the Reich Commissioner for the occupied

Netherlands.

I refer again to the transcript of the interrogation under oath of the

Defendant Sauckel, which was read from yesterday; and I now refer to

another part of it. The transcript of this interrogation will be found

in the rear of the document book. It is the very last document and I

wish to quote particularly from it. It is the first question:

“Q: For a moment, I want to turn our attention to Holland. It is

my understanding that the quotas for the workers from Holland

were agreed upon, and then the numbers given to the Reich

Commissioner Seyss-Inquart to fulfill, is that correct?

“A: Yes, that is correct.

“Q: After the quota was given to Seyss-Inquart, it was his

mission to fulfill it with the aid of your representatives; was

it not?

“A: Yes. This was the only possible thing for me to do and the

same applied to other countries.”

And the Defendant Hans Frank, who was the Governor General of the

Government General of Poland, also participated in the filling of

Defendant Sauckel’s quota requirements.

I refer again to the interrogation of the Defendant Sauckel and to Page

1 of the excerpts from the transcript of this interrogation as it

appears in the document book:

“Q: Was the same procedure substantially followed of allocating

quotas in the Government General of Poland?

“A: Yes. I have principally to repeat that the only possibility

I had in carrying through these missions was to get in touch

with the highest German military authority in the respective

country and to transfer to them the orders of the Führer and ask

them very urgently, as I have always done, to fulfill these

orders.

“Q: Such discussions in Poland, of course, were with the

Governor General Frank?

“A: Yes. I spent a morning and an afternoon in Kraków twice or

three times and I personally spoke to Governor General Frank.

Naturally, there was also present Secretary Dr. Goebbels.”

The SS, as in most matters involving the use of force and brutality,

also extended its assistance. We refer to Document Number 1292-PS, which

is Exhibit USA-225. This Document, 1292-PS, is the report of the chief

of the Reich Chancellery, Lammers, of a conference with Hitler, which

was attended by, among others, the Defendant Sauckel, the Defendant

Speer, and Himmler, the Reichsführer SS. I turn to Page 2 of the

document, beginning with the third line from the top of the page of the

English text; and it is Page 4, Paragraph 2 of the German text. The

quotation reads as follows:

“The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor, Sauckel,

declared that he will attempt with fanatical determination to

obtain these workers. Until now he has always kept his promises

as to the number of workers to be furnished. With the best of

intentions, however, he is unable to make a definite promise for

1944. He will do everything in his power to furnish the

requested manpower in 1944. Whether it will succeed depends

primarily on what German executive agents will be made

available. His project cannot be carried out with indigenous

executive agents.”

There are additional quotations, as the Tribunal may observe, in this

very part from which I have been reading, but I intend to refer to them

again a little further on.

The Defendant Sauckel participated in the formulation of the over-all

labor requirements for Germany and passed out quotas to be filled by and

with the assistance of the individuals and agencies referred to, in the

certain knowledge that force and brutality were the only means whereby

his demands could be met. Turning to Document 1292-PS again, and quoting

from Page 1:

“1. A conference took place with the Führer today which was

attended by:

“The Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor,

Gauleiter Sauckel; the Secretary for Armament and War

Production, Speer; the Chief of the Supreme Command of the Army,

General Field Marshal Keitel; General Field Marshal Milch; the

acting Reich Minister for Food and Agriculture, State Secretary

Backe; the Minister of the Interior, Reichsführer of the SS,

Himmler; and myself. (The Minister for Foreign Affairs and the

Minister of National Economy had repeatedly asked to be

permitted to participate prior to the conference, but the Führer

did not wish their attendance.)”

Continuing the quotation:

“The Führer declared in his introductory remarks:

“‘I want a clear picture:

“‘(1) How many workers are required for the maintenance of

German war economy?

“‘(a) For the maintenance of present output?

“‘(b) To increase its output?

“‘(2) How many workers can be obtained from occupied countries,

or how many can still be gained in the Reich by suitable means

(increased output)? For one thing, it is a matter of making up

for losses of labor by death, infirmity, the constant

fluctuation of workers, and so forth; and further it is a matter

of procuring additional workers.’

“The Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor,

Sauckel, declared that, in order to maintain the present amount

of workers he would have to add at least 2½ but probably 3

million new workers in 1944. Otherwise production would fall

off.

“Reich Minister Speer declared that he needed an additional

1,300,000 laborers. However, this would depend on whether it

will be possible to increase production of iron ore. Should this

not be possible, he would need no additional workers.

Procurement of additional workers from occupied territory would,

however, be subject to the condition that these workers will not

be withdrawn from armament and auxiliary industries already

working there. For this would mean a decrease of production of

these industries which he could not tolerate. Those, for

instance, who are already working in France in industries

mentioned above must be protected against being sent to work in

Germany by the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of

Labor.

“The Führer agreed with the opinions of Reich Minister Speer and

emphasized that the measures taken by the Plenipotentiary

General for the Allocation of Labor should create no

circumstances which would lead to the withdrawal of workers from

armament and auxiliary industries working in occupied

territories, because such a shifting of workers would only cause

disturbance of production in occupied countries.

“The Führer further called attention to the fact that at least

250,000 laborers will be required for preparations against air

attacks in the field of civilian air raid protection. For Vienna

alone 2,000-2,500 are required immediately. The Plenipotentiary

General for the Allocation of Labor will need at least 4 million

workers considering that he requires 2½ million workers for

maintenance of the present level, that Reich Minister Speer

needs 1,300,000 additional workers, and that the above-mentioned

preparations for security measures against air attacks call for

250,000 laborers.”

Referring again to Page 2, the first full paragraph of the English text

of this document, and Page 5, Paragraph 1, of the German text:

“The Reichsführer SS explained that the executive agents put at

his disposal are extremely few, but that he would try helping

the Sauckel project to succeed by increasing them and working

them harder. The Reichsführer SS made immediately available

2,000 to 2,500 men from concentration camps for air raid

preparations in Vienna.”

Passing the next paragraph of this document and continuing with the

paragraph entitled “Results of the Conference” and quoting it directly

after the small figure 1:

“The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor shall

procure at least 4 million new workers from occupied

territories.”

Moreover, as Document 3012-PS, which has already been offered as Exhibit

USA-190, revealed, the Defendant Sauckel, in requesting the assistance

of the Army for the recruitment of 1 million men and women from the

Occupied Eastern Territories, informed the Defendant Keitel that prompt

action was required and that, as in all other occupied countries,

pressure had to be used if other measures were not successful. Again, as

revealed by Document 018-PS, which has been offered and from which

excerpts have been read, the Defendant Sauckel was informed by the

Defendant Rosenberg that the enslavement of foreign labor was achieved

by force and brutality. Notwithstanding his knowledge of these

conditions, the Defendant Sauckel continued to request greater supplies

of manpower from the areas in which the most ruthless methods had been

applied. Indeed, when German field commanders on the Eastern Front

attempted to resist or restrain the Defendant Sauckel’s demands, because

forced recruitment was swelling the ranks of the partisans and making

the Army’s task more difficult, Sauckel sent a telegram to Hitler, in

which he implored him, Hitler, to intervene.

I make reference to Document Number 407(II)-PS, which bears Exhibit

Number USA-226. This document is a telegram from the Defendant Sauckel

to Hitler dated 10 March 1943. It is a rather long message, but I wish

to call particularly to the attention of the Tribunal the last paragraph

on Page 1 of the English text. It is Page 2, Paragraph 5 of the German

text. Quoting the last paragraph of the English text:

“Therefore, my Führer, I ask you to abolish all orders which

oppose the obligation of foreign workers for labor and kindly to

report to me whether my conception of the mission presented here

is still right.”

Turning to Paragraph 5 on the first page of this English text, we find

these words, quoting them directly:

“If the obligation for labor and the forced recruiting of

workers in the East is not possible any more, then the German

war industries and agriculture cannot fulfill their tasks to the

full extent.”

The next paragraph:

“I myself have the opinion that our Army leaders should not give

credence, under any circumstances, to the atrocity and

defamatory propaganda campaign of the partisans. The generals

themselves are greatly interested that the support for the

troops is made possible in time. I should like to point out that

hundreds of thousands of excellent workers going into the field

as soldiers now cannot possibly be replaced by German women not

used to work, even if they are trying to do their best.

Therefore, I have to use the people of the Eastern Territories.”

THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the next paragraph.

MR. DODD: “I myself report to you that the workers belonging to

all foreign nations are treated humanely, and correctly, and

cleanly; are fed and housed well and are even clothed. On the

basis of my own services with foreign nations I go as far as to

state that never before in the world were foreign workers

treated as correctly as they are now, in the hardest of all

wars, by the German people.”

In addition to being responsible for the recruitment of foreign civilian

labor by force, Defendant Sauckel was responsible for the conditions

under which foreign workers were deported to Germany and for the

treatment to which they were subjected within Germany.

We have already referred to the conditions under which these imported

persons were transported to Germany and we have read from Document

2241(3)-PS to show that Sauckel knew of these conditions. Yesterday we

referred at length to the brutal, degrading, and inhumane conditions

under which these laborers worked and lived within Germany. We again

invite the attention of the Tribunal to Document 3044-PS, already

offered as Exhibit USA-206. It is Regulation Number 4 of 7 May 1942,

issued by Sauckel as the Plenipotentiary General for the mobilization of

labor, concerning recruitment, care, lodging, feeding, and treatment of

foreign workers of both sexes. By this decree Defendant Sauckel

expressly directed that the assembly and operation of rail transports

and the supplying of food therefor was the responsibility of his agents

until the transports arrived in Germany. By the same regulation

Defendant Sauckel directed that within Germany the care of foreign

industrial workers was to be carried out by the German Labor Front and

that the care of foreign agricultural workers was to be carried out by

the Reich Food Administration. By the terms of the regulation, Sauckel

reserved for himself ultimate responsibility for all aspects of care,

treatment, lodging, and feeding of foreign workers while in transit to

and within Germany.

I refer particularly to the English text of this Document 3044-PS,

Exhibit USA-206; and the part of it that I make reference to is at the

bottom of Page 1 in the English text, and it appears at Page 518 of the

volume in the German text. Quoting directly from the English text:

“The care of foreign labor will be carried out:

“(a) Up to the Reich border by my commissioners or, in the

occupied areas, by competent military or civil labor allocation

agencies; care of the workers will be carried out in

co-operation with the respective, competent foreign

organization;

“(b) Within the area of the Reich (1) by the German Labor Front

in the cases of non-agricultural workers, (2) by the Reich Food

Administration in the case of agricultural workers.

“The German Labor Front and the German Food Administration are

bound by my directives in the carrying out of their tasks of

caring for the workers.

“The administrative agencies for the Allocation of Labor are to

give far-reaching support to the German Labor Front and the

German Food Administration in the fulfillment of their assigned

tasks.

“My competence for the execution of the care for foreign labor

is not prejudiced by the assignment of these tasks to the German

Labor Front and the Reich Food Administration.”

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, don’t you think that that sort of passage is

the sort of passage which might be summarized and not read, because all

that it is really stating is that Sauckel, his department and

commissioners, were responsible and that is what he is saying.

MR. DODD: Yes, indeed, Your Honor, we spelled it out, thinking that

perhaps under the rule of getting it into the record it must be read

fully. I quite agree.

THE PRESIDENT: A summary will be quite sufficient, I think.

MR. DODD: In the same document, I should like to make reference to the

data on Page 3, Paragraph III, of the English text, which indicate,

under the title of “Composition and Operation of the Transports” that

this function is the obligation of the representatives of the Defendant

Sauckel; and in Paragraph “c,” on Page 5 of the English text, under the

title of “Supply for the Transport,” after setting out some

responsibility for the Office of the German Workers Front, the Defendant

Sauckel states that for the rest his offices effect the supply for the

transport.

The Defendant Sauckel had an agreement with the head of the German Labor

Front, Dr. Robert Ley, and in this agreement the Defendant Sauckel

emphasized his ultimate responsibility by creating a central

inspectorate charged with examining the working and living conditions of

foreign workers. We refer to Document 1913-PS, Exhibit USA-227. This

agreement between the Defendant Sauckel and the then Chief of the German

Labor Front is published in the 1943 edition of the

_Reichsarbeitsblatt_, Part I, at Page 588. It is a rather lengthy

agreement; and I shall not read it all or any great part of it except

such part as will indicate the basic agreements between the Defendant

Sauckel and Ley with respect to the foreign workers and their living

conditions and working conditions.

On the first page of the English text:

“The Reichsleiter of the German Labor Front, Dr. Ley, in

collaboration with the Plenipotentiary General for the

Allocation of Labor, Gauleiter Sauckel, will establish a

‘Central Inspection’ for the continuous supervision of all

measures concerning the care of the foreign workers mentioned

under 1. This will have the designation: Central Inspection for

Care of Foreign Workers.”

Paragraph 4 marked with the Roman numeral IV, in the same text, states:

“The offices for the administration of the Allocation of Labor

will be constantly informed by the ‘Central Inspection for the

Care of Foreign Workers’ of its observations, in particular,

immediately in each case in which action of state organizations

seems to be necessary.”

I should also like to call the attention of the Tribunal to this

paragraph, which is quoted on the same page. It is the fourth paragraph

down after the small number 2 and it begins with the words:

“The authority of the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation

of Labor to empower the members of his staff and the presidents

of the state employment offices to get direct information on the

conditions regarding the employment of foreigners in the

factories and camps will remain untouched.”

We have already offered to the Court proof that the Defendant Sauckel

was responsible for compelling citizens of the occupied countries,

against their will, to manufacture arms and munitions and to construct

military fortifications for use in war operations against their own

country and its allies. He was, moreover, responsible for having

compelled prisoners of war to produce arms and munitions for use against

their own countries and their actively resisting allies.

The decree appointing Sauckel indicates that he was appointed

Plenipotentiary General for manpower for the express purpose, among

others, of integrating prisoners of war into the German war industry;

and in a series of reports to Hitler, Sauckel described how successful

he had been in carrying out that program. One such report states that in

a single year the Defendant Sauckel had incorporated 1,622,829 prisoners

of war into the German economy.

I refer to Document Number 407(V)-PS, which is Exhibit USA-228. It is a

letter from the Defendant Sauckel to Hitler on the 14th of April 1943.

Although the figures in the document have been contained in another

document, this is the first introduction of this particular document.

Quoting from Paragraphs 1 and 2 of the English text, it begins:

“My Führer:

“. . . after having been active as Plenipotentiary for the

Allocation of Labor for one year, I have the honor to report to

you that 3,638,056 new foreign workers have been added to the

German war economy between April 1st of the last year and March

31st of this year.”

Passing on a little bit, with particular reference to the prisoners of

war, we find this statement:

“Besides the foreign civilian workers another 1,622,829

prisoners of war are employed in the German economy.”

A later report states that 846,511 additional foreign laborers and

prisoners of war were incorporated into the German war industry; and

quoting from Document 407(IX)-PS, Exhibit USA-229, which is also a

letter from the Defendant Sauckel to Hitler, I read in part from Page 1,

Paragraphs 1 and 2:

“My Führer:

“I beg to be permitted to report to you on the situation of the

Arbeitseinsatz for the first 5 months of 1943. For the first

time the following number of new foreign laborers and prisoners

of war were employed in the German war industry . . . Total:

846,511.”

This use of prisoners of war in the manufacture of armaments allocated

by the Defendant Sauckel was confirmed by the Defendant Speer, who

stated that 40 percent of all prisoners of war were employed in the

production of weapons and munitions and in subsidiary industries. I wish

to refer briefly to Paragraphs 6, 7, and 8 on Page 15 of the English

text of an interrogation of the Defendant Speer, on the 18th of October

1945, which was offered and referred to yesterday and has the Exhibit

Number USA-220. Quoting from Paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 on Page 15—Paragraph

1 on Page 19 of the German text—there are two questions which will

establish the background for this answer:

“Q: Let me understand; when you wanted labor from prisoners of

war did you requisition prisoners of war separately, or did you

ask for a total number of workers?

“A: Only Schmelter can answer that directly. As far as the

commitment of prisoners of war for labor goes, it was effected

through employment officers of the Stalags. I tried several

times to increase the total number of prisoners of war that were

occupied in production, at the expense of the other demands.

“Q: Will you explain that a little more?

“A: In the last phase of production, that is, in the year 1944

when everything collapsed, I had 40 percent of all prisoners of

war employed in production. I wanted to have this percentage

increased.

“Q: And when you say ‘employed in production’, you mean in these

subsidiary industries that you have discussed and also in the

production of weapons and munitions, is that right?

“A: Yes. That was the total extent of my task.”

THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): What do you mean by “subsidiary industries,”

Mr. Dodd? Is that war industries?

MR. DODD: Yes, Sir; war industries, as we understand it. It was referred

to many times by these defendants as the component parts of the plans.

I also would like to call the attention of the Tribunal again to the

“Minutes of the 36th Meeting of the Central. Planning Board,” Document

R-124, from which we read a number of excerpts yesterday, and remind the

Tribunal that in the report of the minutes of that meeting the Defendant

Speer stated that, “Ninety thousand Russian prisoners of war employed in

the whole of the armament industry are for the greater part skilled

men.”

We should like, at this point, to turn to the special responsibility of

the Defendant Speer and to discuss the evidence of the various crimes

committed by Defendant Speer in planning and participating in the vast

program of forcible deportation of the citizens of occupied countries.

He was the Reich Minister of Armaments and Munitions and Chief of the

Organization Todt, both of which positions he acquired on the 15th of

February 1942; and by virtue of his later acquisition of control over

the armament offices of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the

production offices of the Ministry of Economics, the Defendant Speer was

responsible for the entire war production of the Reich as well as for

the construction of fortifications and installations for the Wehrmacht.

Proof of the positions held by the Defendant Speer is supplied in his

own statement as contained in Document 2980-PS, which has already been

offered to the Tribunal and which bears Exhibit Number USA-18.

The industries under the Defendant Speer’s control were really the most

important users of manpower in Germany; and thus, according to the

Defendant Sauckel, Speer’s labor requirements received unconditional

priority over all other demands for labor. We refer to the transcript of

the interrogation of the Defendant Sauckel on the 22d of September 1945.

It is Exhibit USA-230. It is next to the last document in the document

book. I wish to refer to Page 1 of that document, Paragraph 4. It is a

brief reference, the last answer on the page. The question was asked of

the Defendant Sauckel:

“Q: Except for Speer, they would give the requirements in

general for the whole field; but in Speer’s work you would get

them allocated by industry, and so on—is that right?

“A: The others only got whatever was left. Because Speer told me

once in the presence of the Führer that I am here to work for

Speer and that, mainly, I am his man.”

The Defendant Speer has admitted under oath that he participated in the

discussions during which the decision to use foreign forced labor was

made. He has also said that he concurred in the decision and that it was

the basis for the program of bringing foreign workers into Germany by

compulsion. I make reference to the interrogation of the Defendant Speer

of the 18th of October 1945. It bears the Exhibit Number USA-220. We

have already read from it; and I particularly refer to the bottom of

Page 12 and the top of Page 13 of the English text:

“Q: But is it clear to you, Mr. Speer, that in 1942 when the

decisions were being made concerning the use of forced foreign

labor, that you participated in the discussions yourself?

“A: Yes.

“Q: So that I take it that the execution of the program of

bringing foreign workers into Germany by compulsion under

Sauckel was based on earlier decisions that had been made with

your agreement?

“A: Yes, but I must point out that only a very small part of the

manpower that Sauckel brought into Germany was made available to

me; a far larger part of it was allocated to other departments

that demanded them.”

This admission is confirmed by the minutes of Speer’s conferences with

Hitler on 10, 11, and 12 August 1942 in Document R-124, which has been

offered here and from which excerpts have been read. Page 34 of that

document, Paragraph 1 of the English text, has already been quoted, and

those excerpts have been read before the Tribunal yesterday. The

Tribunal will recall that the Defendant Speer related the outcome of his

negotiations concerning the forcible recruitment of 1 million Russian

laborers for the German armaments industry; and this use of force was

again discussed by Hitler and Defendant Speer on the 4th of January 1943

as shown by the excerpts read from the Document 556(13)-PS, where it was

decided that stronger measures were to be used to accelerate the

conscription of French civilian workers.

We say the Defendant Speer demanded foreign workers for the industries

under his control and used those workers with the knowledge that they

had been deported by force and were being compelled to work. Speer has

stated under oath in his interrogation of 18 October 1945, Page 5,

Paragraph 9, of the English text, quoting it directly:

“I do not wish to give the impression that I want to deny the

fact that I demanded manpower and foreign labor from Sauckel

very energetically.”

He has admitted that he knew he was obtaining foreign labor, a large

part of which was forced labor; and referring again to that same

interrogation of the 18th of October 1945, and to Pages 8 and 9 of the

English text and Page 10 of the German text:

“Q: So that during the period when you were asking for labor, it

seems clear, does it not, that you knew you were obtaining

foreign labor as well as domestic labor in response to your

requests and that a large part of the foreign labor was forced

labor?

“A: Yes.

“Q: So that, simply by way of illustration, suppose that on

January 1, 1944 you require 50,000 workers for a given purpose;

would you put in a requisition for 50,000 workers, knowing that

in that 50,000 there would be forced foreign workers?

“A: Yes.”

The Defendant Speer has also stated under oath that he knew at least as

early as September of 1942 that workers from the Ukraine were being

forcibly deported for labor into Germany. Likewise he knew that the

great majority of the workers of the western occupied countries were

slave laborers forced against their will to come to Germany; and again

referring to his interrogation of this 18th day of October 1945, and

beginning with the fourth Paragraph from the bottom of Page 5 of the

English text, Paragraph 10 on Page 6 of the German text, we find this

series of questions and answers:

“Q: When did you first find out then that some of the manpower

from the Ukraine was not coming voluntarily?

“A: It is rather difficult to answer this here, that is, to name

a certain date to you. However, it is certain that I knew that

at some particular point of time the manpower from the Ukraine

did not come voluntarily.

“Q: And does that apply also to the manpower from other occupied

countries; that is, did there come a time when you knew that

they were not coming voluntarily?

“A: Yes.

“Q: When, in general, would you say that time was without

placing a particular month of the year?

“A: As far as the Ukraine situation goes, I believe that they

did not come voluntarily any more after a few months, because

immense mistakes were made in their treatment by us. I should

say offhand that this time was either in July, August, or

September of 1942.”

Turning to Paragraph 11 on Page 6 of the English text of this same

interrogation and Page 7 and Paragraph 8 of the German text, we find

this series of questions and answers—quoting:

“Q: But many workers actually did come from the west to Germany,

did they not?

“A: Yes.

“Q: That means then, that the great majority of the workers that

came from the western countries—the western occupied

countries—came against their will to Germany?

“A: Yes.”

These admissions are borne out, of course, by other evidence, for as

Document R-124 shows and as we have shown by the readings from it, in

all countries conscription for work in Germany could be carried out only

with the active assistance of the police; and the prevailing methods of

recruitment had provoked such violence that many German recruiting

agents had been killed.

And again, at a meeting with Hitler to discuss the manpower requirements

for 1944, which is reported in Document 1292-PS, Speer was informed by

the Defendant Sauckel that the requirements—including Speer’s

requirement for 1,300,000 additional laborers—could be met only if

German enforcement agents were furnished to carry out the enslavement

program in the occupied countries.

Now we say that notwithstanding this knowledge that these workers were

conscripted and deported to Germany against their will, Speer

nevertheless continued to formulate requirements for the foreign workers

and requested their allocation to these industries which were subject to

his control. This is borne out by the minutes of the Central Planning

Board as contained in Document R-124, and particularly Page 13,

Paragraph 4 of the English text; and that is Page 6 and Paragraph 4 of

the German text. Speer speaking:

“Now the labor problem in Germany. I believe it is still

possible to transfer some from the western territories. Only

recently the Führer stated he wishes to dissolve these foreign

volunteers as he had the impression that the army groups were

carting around with them a lot of ballast. Therefore, if we

cannot settle this matter ourselves, we shall have to call a

meeting with the Führer to clear up the whole coal situation.

Keitel and Zeitzler will be invited to attend in order to

determine the number of Russians from the rear army territories

who must be sent to us. However, I see another possibility: We

might organize another drive to pick out workers for the mines

from the Russian prisoners of war in the Reich. But this

possibility is none too promising.”

At another meeting of the Central Planning Board the Defendant Speer

rejected a suggestion that labor for industries under his control be

furnished from German sources instead of from foreign sources. And again

in this Document R-124, on Page 16, Paragraphs 3, 4, and 5 of the

English text, and Page 12, Paragraphs 6 and 7 of the German text—I

quote the Defendant Speer:

“We do it that way: Kehrl collects the demands for labor

necessary to complete the coal-and-iron plan and communicates

the numbers to Sauckel. Probably there will be a conference at

the Reich Marshal’s in the next week, and an answer from Sauckel

should have arrived by then. The question of recruitment for the

armaments industry will be solved together with Weger.”

Kehrl speaking:

“I wish to urge that the allotments to the mines should not be

made dependent on the possibility of recruitment of men abroad.

We were completely frustrated these last 3 months because this

principle had been applied. We ended December with a deficit of

25,000 and we never get replacements. The number must be made up

by men from Germany.

“Speer: ‘No, nothing doing.’”

We say also that, the Defendant Speer is guilty of advocating terror and

brutality as a means of maximizing, production by slave laborers. And

again I refer to this Document R-124. At Page 42 there is a discussion

concerning the supply and exploitation of labor. That excerpt has been

read to the Tribunal before, and I simply refer to it in passing. It is

the excerpt wherein Speer said it would be a good thing; the effect of

it was that nothing could be said against the SS and the police taking a

hand and making these men work and produce more.

We say he is also guilty of compelling allied nationals and prisoners of

war to engage in the production of armaments and munitions and in direct

military operations against their own country.

We say that as Chief of the Organization Todt he is accountable for its

policies, which were in direct conflict with the laws of war; for the

Organization Todt, in violation of the laws of war, impressed allied

nationals into its service.

Document L-191, Exhibit USA-231, is an International Labor Office study

of the exploitation of foreign labor by Germany. We have only one copy

of this document, this International Labor Office study, printed at

Montreal, Canada, in 1945. We ask that the Tribunal take judicial notice

of it as an official publication of the International Labor Office.

I might say to the Tribunal, with some apology, that this arrived at a

time when we were not able even to have the excerpt mimeographed and

printed to place in your document book, so this is the one document

which is missing from the document book which is in your hands. However,

I should like to quote from Page 73, Paragraph 2, of this study by the

International Labor Office. It is not long; it is very brief. I am

quoting directly. It says:

“The methods used for the recruitment of foreign workers who

were destined for employment in the Organization did not greatly

differ from the methods used for the recruitment of foreigners

for deportation to Germany.”

“The Organization,” by the way, is the Organization Todt. Going on with

the quotation:

“The main difference was that, since the principal activities of

the Organization lay outside the frontiers of Germany,

foreigners were not transported to Germany but had either to

work in their own country or in some other occupied country.

“In the recruitment drives for foreign workers for the

Organization, methods of compulsion as well as methods of

persuasion were used, the latter usually with very little

result.”

Moreover, conscripted allied nationals were compelled by this same

Organization Todt actually to engage in operations of war against their

country.

Document 407(VIII)-PS discloses that the foreign workers who were

impressed into the Organization Todt through the efforts of the

Defendant Sauckel did participate in the building of the Atlantic Wall

fortifications.

As chief of German war production, this Defendant Speer sponsored and

approved the use of these prisoners of war in the production of

armaments and munitions. This has been made plain by the evidence

already discussed.

To sum it up briefly finally we say that it shows first that after Speer

assumed the responsibility for the armament production, his concern, in

his discussions with his co-conspirators, was to secure a larger

allocation of prisoners of war for his armament factories. That has been

shown by the quotations from the excerpts of Document R-124, the minutes

of the meeting of the Central Planning Board; and in this same meeting

the Tribunal will recall that Speer complained because only 30 percent

of the Russian prisoners of war were engaged in the armaments industry.

We referred to a speech of Speer, Document 1435-PS—we quoted from

it—in which he said that 10,000 prisoners of war were put at the

disposal of the armaments industry upon his orders.

And finally, Speer advocated the returning of escaped prisoners of war

to factories as convicts. That is shown again by Document R-124, Page

13, Paragraph 5, of the English text, where the Defendant Speer says

that he has come to an arrangement . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, don’t you think that we have really got this

sufficiently now?

MR. DODD: Yes, Sir; I just . . .

THE PRESIDENT: We have Speer’s own admission and any number of documents

which prove the way in which these prisoners of war and other laborers

were brought into Germany.

MR. DODD: Well I just wanted to refer briefly to that passage in that

document, R-124, as showing that this defendant advocated having escaped

prisoners of war returned to the munitions factories.

THE PRESIDENT: What page?

MR. DODD: Thirteen. I don’t want to labor this responsibility of the

Defendant Speer. I was anxious—or perhaps I should say we are all

overanxious—to have the documents in the record, and before the

Tribunal.

THE PRESIDENT: Which is the passage you want to refer to on Page 13?

MR. DODD: I just referred in passing to the statement which begins with

the words, “We have to come to an arrangement with the Reichsführer SS.”

And in the next to the last sentence it says: “The men should be put

into the factories as convicts.”

Finally, with reference to the Defendant Speer, I should like to say to

the Tribunal that he visited the concentration camp at Mauthausen and he

also visited factories such as those conducted by the Krupp industries,

where concentration camp labor was exploited under degrading conditions.

Despite this first-hand knowledge of these conditions, both in

Mauthausen and in the places where these forced laborers were at work in

factories, he continued to direct the use of this type of labor in

factories under his own jurisdiction.

THE PRESIDENT: How do you intend to prove it as to these concentration

camps?

MR. DODD: I was going to refer the Tribunal to Page 9 of the

interrogation of the 18th of October 1945; and I refer to Page 11,

Paragraph 5, of the German text and Page 9, beginning with Paragraph 9,

of the English text:

“Q: But, in general, the use of concentration camp labor was

known to you and approved by you as a source of labor?

“A: Yes.

“Q: And you knew also, I take it, that among the inmates of the

concentration camps there were both Germans and foreigners?

“A: I didn’t think about it at that time.

“Q: As a matter of fact, you visited the Austrian concentration

camp personally, did you not?

“A: I did not—well, I was in Mauthausen once, but at that time

I was not told just to what categories the inmates of the

concentration camps belonged.

“Q: But in general everybody knew, did they not, that foreigners

who were taken away by the Gestapo or arrested by the Gestapo,

as well as Germans, found their way into the concentration

camps?

“A: Of course, yes. I didn’t mean to imply anything like that.”

And on Page 15 of this same interrogation, beginning with the 13th

Paragraph of the English text and Page 20 in the German text, we find

this question:

“Q: Did you ever discuss, by the way, the requirements of Krupp

for foreign labor?

“A: It is certain that it was reported to me what lack Krupp had

in foreign workers.

“Q: Did you ever, discuss it with any of the members of the

Krupp firm?

“A: I cannot say that exactly; but during the time of my

activities I visited the Krupp factory more than once and it is

certain that this was discussed, that is, the lack of manpower.”

Before closing I should like to take 2 minutes of the time of the

Tribunal to refer to what we consider to be some of the applicable laws

of the case for the assistance of the Tribunal in considering these

documents which we have offered.

We refer, of course, first of all, to Sections 6 (b) and 6 (c) of the

Charter of this Tribunal. We also say that the acts of the conspirators

constituted a flagrant violation of Articles 46 and 52 of the

Regulations annexed to the Hague Convention Number IV of 1907.

Article 46 seeks to safeguard the family honor, the rights and the lives

of persons in areas under belligerent occupation.

Article 52 provides in part that:

“Requisitions in kind and services shall not be demanded from

municipalities or inhabitants except for the needs of the army

of occupation. They shall be in proportion to the resources of

the country.”

We say that these conspirators violated this article because the labor

which they conscripted was not used to satisfy the needs of the army of

occupation, but on the contrary, was forcibly removed from the occupied

areas and exploited in the interest of the German war effort.

Finally, we say that these conspirators—and particularly the Defendants

Sauckel and Speer—by virtue of their planning, of their execution, and

of their approval of this program, which we have been describing

yesterday and today, the enslavement and the misuse of the forced labor

of prisoners of war—that for this they bear a special responsibility

for their Crimes against Humanity and their War Crimes.

THE PRESIDENT: Are you finishing, Mr. Dodd?

MR. DODD: Yes, I have concluded.

THE PRESIDENT: I should like to ask you why you have not read Document

3057-PS, which is Sauckel’s statement.

MR. DODD: Yes. We had intended to offer that document. Counsel for the

Defendant Sauckel informed me a day or two ago that his client

maintained that he had been coerced into making the statement. Because

we had not ample time to ascertain the facts of the matter, we preferred

to withhold it, rather than to offer it to the Tribunal under any

question of doubt.

THE PRESIDENT: He objects to it, and therefore you have not put it in?

MR. DODD: No, we did not offer it while there was any question about it.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well.

MR. DODD: Might I suggest to the Tribunal that a recess be taken at this

time? I am sorry to have to say that I am due to be before the Tribunal

for a little while—that is, I am sorry for the Tribunal—with the

matters on the concentration camps.

THE PRESIDENT: You mean a recess now?

MR. DODD: If Your Honor pleases.

THE PRESIDENT: Certainly, yes; 10 minutes.

[_A recess was taken._]

MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, we propose to offer additional

evidence at this time concerning the use of Nazi concentration camps

against the people of Germany and allied nationals. We propose to

examine the purposes and the role of the concentration camp in the

larger Nazi scheme of things. We propose to show that the concentration

camp was one of the fundamental institutions of the Nazi regime, that it

was a pillar of the system of terror by which the Nazis consolidated

their power over Germany and imposed their ideology upon the German

people, that it was really a primary weapon in the battle against the

Jews, against the Christian church, against labor, against those who

wanted peace, against opposition or non-conformity of any kind. We say

it involved the systematic use of terror to achieve the cohesion within

Germany which was necessary for the execution of the conspirators’ plans

for aggression.

We propose to show that a concentration camp was one of the principal

instruments used by the conspirators for the commission, on an enormous

scale, of Crimes against Humanity and War Crimes; that it was the final

link in a chain of terror and repression which involved the SS and the

Gestapo and which resulted in the apprehension of victims and their

confinement without trial, often without charges, generally with no

indication of the length of their detention.

My colleagues will present full evidence concerning the criminal role of

the SS and the Gestapo in this phase of Nazi terrorism, the

concentration camp; but at this point I wish simply to point out that

the SS, through its espionage system, tracked down the victims, that the

criminal police and the Gestapo seized them and brought them to the

camps, and that the concentration camps were administered by the SS.

This Tribunal, we feel, is already aware of the sickening evidence of

the brutality of the concentration camp from the showing of the moving

picture. More than that, individual prosecutions are going on, going

forward before other courts which will record these outrages in detail.

Therefore, we do not propose to present a catalogue of individual

brutalities but, rather, to submit evidence showing the fundamental

purposes for which, the camps were used, the techniques of terror which

were employed, the large number of victims, and the death and the

anguish which they caused.

The evidence relating to concentration camps has been assembled in a

document book bearing the letter “S.” I might say that the documents in

this book have been arranged in the order of presentation, rather than,

as we have been doing, numerically. In this book we have put them in as

they occur in the presentation. One document in this book, 2309-PS, is

cited several times, so we have marked it with a tab with a view to

facilitating reference back to it. It will be referred to more than

once.

The Nazis realized early that without the most drastic repression of

actual and potential opposition they could not consolidate their power

over the German people. We have seen that, immediately after Hitler

became Chancellor, the conspirators promptly destroyed civil liberties

by issuing the Presidential Emergency Decree of February 28, 1933. It is

Document 1390-PS of the document book; and it sets forth that decree

which has already been introduced in evidence before the Tribunal and is

included in USA Exhibit B. It was this decree, which was the basis for

the so-called “Schutzhaft,” that is, protective custody—the terrible

power to imprison people without judicial proceedings. This is made

clear by Document Number 2499-PS, which is a typical order for

protective custody. We offer it for that purpose, as a typical order for

protective custody which has come into the possession of the

Prosecution. It bears Exhibit Number USA-232. I should like to quote

from the body of that order:

“Order of Protective Custody.

“Based on Article 1 of the Decree of the Reich President for the

Protection of People and State of 28 February 1933

(_Reichsgesetzblatt_ I, Page 83), you are taken into protective

custody in the interest of public security and order.

“Reason: Suspicion of activities inimical toward the State.”

The Defendant Göring in a book entitled _Aufbau einer Nation_, published

in 1934, sought to give the impression, it appears, that the camps were

originally directed at those whom the Nazis considered Communists and

Social Democrats. We refer to Document 2324-PS, Exhibit USA-233. This

document is an excerpt from Page 89 of the German book. We refer to the

third and fourth paragraphs of the document, which I read as follows:

“We had to deal ruthlessly with these enemies of the State. It

must not be forgotten that at the moment of our seizure of

power, over 6 million people officially voted for communism and

about 8 million for Marxism in the Reichstag elections in March.

“Thus the concentration camps were created to which we had to

send first thousands of functionaries of the Communist and

Social Democratic Parties.”

In practical operation the power to order confinement in these camps was

almost without limit. The Defendant Frick, in an order which he issued

on the 25th day of January 1938 as Minister of the Interior, made this

quite clear. An extract from this order is set forth in Document

1723-PS, to which we make reference. It bears Exhibit Number USA-206. I

wish to read Article 1, beginning at the bottom of Page 5 of the English

translation of this order:

“Protective custody can be decreed as a coercive measure of the

Secret State Police to counter all hostile efforts of persons

who endanger the existence and security of the people and the

State through their attitude.”

I wish also to read into the record the first two paragraphs of that

order, which are found at the top of Page 1 of the English translation:

“In a summary of all the previously issued decrees on the

co-operation between the Party and the Gestapo I refer to the

following and ordain:

“1. To the Gestapo has been entrusted the mission by the Führer

to watch over and to eliminate all enemies of the Party and the

National State, as well as all disintegrating forces of all

kinds directed against both. The successful solution of this

mission forms one of the most essential prerequisites for the

unhampered and frictionless work of the Party. The Gestapo, in

its extremely difficult task, is to be granted support and

assistance in every possible way by the NSDAP.”

The conspirators then were directing their apparatus of terror against

the “enemies of the State,” against “disintegrating forces,” against

those people who endangered the State “through their attitude.” Whom did

they consider as belonging in these broad categories? Well, first, there

were the men in Germany who wanted peace. We refer to Document L-83

(Exhibit USA-234).

THE PRESIDENT: What was the date of that document that you have been

referring to, Number 1723-PS?

MR. DODD: January 25, 1938. It has already been introduced and is

included in USA Exhibit B. This document consists of an affidavit of

Gerhart H. Seger, and I wish only to read from Page 1, Paragraph 2 of

that affidavit:

“2. During the period after World War I, until I was committed

to the Leipzig jail and Oranienburg Concentration Camp, in the

spring of 1933 following the Nazi accession to power in January

of that year, my business and political affiliations exposed me

to the full impact of the Nazi theories and practice of violent

regimentation and terroristic tactics. My conflict with the

Nazis by virtue of my identification with the peace movement and

as duly elected member of the Reichstag representing a political

faith (Social Democratic Party) hostile to National Socialism,

clearly demonstrated that even in the period prior to 1933 the

Nazis considered crimes and terrorism a necessary and desirable

weapon in overcoming democratic opposition.”

Passing to Page 5 of the same document and the paragraph marked “(e)”:

“That the Nazis had already conceived the device of the

concentration camp as a means of suppressing and regimenting

opposition elements was forcefully brought to my attention

during the course of a conversation which I had with Dr. Wilhelm

Frick in December 1932. Frick at that time was chairman of the

Foreign Affairs Committee of the Reichstag of which I was a

member. When I gave an emphatic answer to Frick concerning the

particular matter discussed, he replied, ‘Don’t worry, when we

are in power we shall put all of you guys into concentration

camps.’ When the Nazis came into power, Frick was appointed

Reich Minister of Interior and promptly carried out his threat

in collaboration with Göring, as Chief of the Prussian State

Police, and Himmler.”

This paragraph shows that even before the Nazis had seized power in

Germany they had conceived the plan to repress any potential oppositions

by terror, and Frick’s statement to Seger is completely consistent with

an earlier statement which he made on the 18th of October 1929. We refer

to Document Number 2513-PS (Exhibit USA-235), which has also been

received in evidence and has been included in USA Exhibit B. We refer to

the first page of the English translation, Page 48 of the German text.

On Page 1 the quotation begins:

“This fateful struggle will first be taken up with the ballot;

but this cannot continue indefinitely, for history has taught us

that in a battle blood must be shed and iron broken. The ballot

is the beginning of the fateful struggle. We are determined to

promulgate by force that which we preach. Just as Mussolini

exterminated the Marxists in Italy, so must we also succeed in

accomplishing the same through dictatorship and terror.”

THE PRESIDENT: This is the defendant, is it?

MR. DODD: Yes, the Defendant Frick.

There are many additional cases of the use of the concentration camp

against the men who wanted peace. There was, for example, a group called

the Bibelforscher, that is, Bible research workers, most of whom were

known as Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were pacifists, and so the

conspirators provided not only for their prosecution in the regular

courts but also for their confinement in concentration camps after they

had served the judicial sentences; and we refer to Document Number D-84,

Exhibit USA-236.

This document is dated the 5th day of August 1937; and it is an order by

the Secret State Police at Berlin, and I refer particularly to the first

and last paragraphs of this order, as follows:

“The Reich Minister of Justice had informed me that he does not

share the opinion voiced by subordinate departments on various

occasions according to which the arrest of the Bibelforscher

after they have served a sentence is supposed to jeopardize the

authority of the law courts. He is fully aware of the necessity

for measures by the State Police after the sentence has been

served. He asks, however, not to bring the Bibelforscher into

protective custody under circumstances detrimental to the

respect of the law courts.”

And then, the Paragraph numbered “(2)”:

“If information regarding the impending release of a

Bibelforscher from arrest is received from the authorities

carrying out the sentence, my decision regarding the ordering of

measures by the State Police will be asked for without delay in

accordance with my circular decree dated 22. 4. 37, so that

transfer to a concentration camp can take place immediately

after the sentence has been served. Should a transfer into

concentration camp immediately after the serving of the sentence

not be possible, Bibelforscher will be detained in police

prisons.”

The labor unions, of which I think it is safe to say the majority are

traditionally opposed to wars of aggression, also felt the full force of

Nazi terror. A member of the American staff, Major Wallis, has already

submitted evidence before this Tribunal concerning the conspirators’

campaign against the trade unions. But the concentration camp was an

important weapon in this campaign; and the Tribunal will recall that in

Document Number 2324-PS, to which I made reference this morning, the

Defendant Göring made it plain that members of the Social Democratic

Party were to be confined in concentration camps. Now labor leaders were

very largely members of that party, and they soon learned the horrors of

protective custody. We refer to Document Number 2330-PS (Exhibit

USA-237), which has already been received as part of USA Exhibit G,

which consists of an order that one Joseph Simon should be placed in

protective custody. We refer to the middle of the first page of the

English translation of that order, beginning with the material under the

word “reasons.”

THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the sentence before that—the two

lines before it. The words are, “The arrestee has no right to appeal

against the decree of protective custody.”

MR. DODD: “The arrestee has no right to appeal against the application

of protective custody.” Then comes a title: “Reasons”:

“Simon was for many years a member of the Socialist Party and

temporarily a member of the Union Socialiste Populaire. From

1907 to 1918 he was Landtag deputy of the Socialist Party; from

1908 to 1930 Social Democratic City Counsellor (Stadtrat) in

Nuremberg. In view of the decisive role which Simon played in

the international trade unions and in regard to his connection

with international Marxist leaders and central agencies, which

he continued after the national recovery, he was placed under

protective custody on the 3rd day of May 1933 and was kept,

until 25 January 1934, in the Dachau Concentration Camp. Simon

is under the grave suspicion that even after this date he played

an active part in the illegal continuation of the Socialist

Party. He took part in meetings which aimed at the illegal

continuation of the Socialist Party and propagation of illegal

Marxist printed matter in Germany. Through this radical

attitude, which is hostile to the State, Simon directly

endangers public security and order.”

We do not wish to burden these proceedings with a multiplication of such

instances, but we refer the Tribunal to documents which have already

been offered in connection with the presentation of the evidence

concerning the destruction of the trade unions. In particular, we wish

to refer to Document Number 2334-PS and Document Number 2928-PS,

(Exhibits USA-238 and 239) both of which are included within USA Exhibit

G.

Thousands of Jews, as the world so well knows, were, of course, confined

in these concentration camps. The evidence on this point will be

developed in a later presentation by another member of the prosecuting

staff of the United States. But among the wealth of evidence available

on this point showing the confinement of Germans only because they were

Jews, we wish to offer a document, Number 3051-PS, which bears Exhibit

Number USA-240. This is a copy of a teletype from SS Gruppenführer

Heydrich, and it is dated the 10th of November 1938. It was sent to all

headquarters of the State Police and all districts and subdistricts of

the SD. We refer to Paragraph 5 of this teletype. Paragraph 5 is found

on Page 3 of the English translation. It begins at the bottom of Page 2

and runs over to Page 3. Quoting from Paragraph 5:

“As soon as the course of events of this night allows the use of

the officials employed for this purpose, as many Jews,

especially rich ones, as can be accommodated in the existing

prisons are to be arrested in all districts. For the time being

only healthy men, not too old, are to be arrested. Upon their

arrest, the appropriate concentration camps should be contacted

immediately, in order to confine them in these camps as fast as

possible.

“Special care should be taken that the Jews arrested in

accordance with these instructions are not ill-treated.”

Himmler in 1943 indicated that use of the concentration camp against the

Jews had been motivated not simply by Nazi racialism. Himmler indicated

that this policy had been motivated by a fear that the Jews might have

been an obstacle to aggression. There is no necessity to consider

whether this fear was justified. The important consideration is that the

fear existed; and with reference to it we refer to Document 1919-PS,

which bears Exhibit Number USA-170. The document is a speech delivered

by Himmler at the meeting of the SS major generals at Posen on 4 October

1943, in the course of which he sought to justify the Nazi anti-Jewish

policy. We refer to a portion of this document or this speech, which is

found on Page 4, Paragraph 3, of the English translation, starting with

the words, “I mean the clearing out of the Jews”:

“I mean the clearing out of the Jews, the extermination of the

Jewish race. It’s one of those things it is easy to talk about.

‘The Jewish race is being exterminated’, says one Party member,

‘that’s quite clear; it’s in our program; elimination of the

Jews, and we’re doing it, exterminating them.’ And then there

come 80 million worthy Germans and each one has his decent Jew.

Of course, the others are vermin, but this one is an A-l Jew.

Not one of all those who talk this way has witnessed it, not one

of them has been through it. Most of you must know what it means

when 100 corpses are lying side by side, or 500 or 1,000. To

have stuck it out and at the same time—apart from exceptions

caused by human weakness—to have remained decent fellows, that

is what has made us hard. This is a page of glory in our history

which has never been written and is never to be written, for we

know how difficult we should have made it for ourselves,

if—with bombing raids, the burden and deprivations of war—we

still had Jews today in every town as secret saboteurs,

agitators, and trouble-mongers.”

It is clear, we say, from the foregoing that prior to the launching of

the aggression, the concentration camp had been one of the principal

weapons by which the conspirators achieved the social cohesion which was

needed for the execution of their plans for aggression. After they

launched their aggression and their armies swept over Europe, they

brought the concentration camp to occupied countries; and they also

brought the citizens of the occupied countries to Germany and subjected

them to the whole apparatus of Nazi brutality.

Document Number R-91 is Exhibit USA-241. This document consists of a

communication dated the 16th day of December 1942 sent by Müller to

Himmler, for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, and deals with the

seizure of Polish Jews for deportation to concentration camps in

Germany. I am beginning with the first paragraph. It says, quoting

directly:

“In connection with the increase in the transfer of labor to the

concentration camps ordered to be completed by 30 January 1943,

the following procedure may be applied in the Jewish section:

“1. Total number: 45,000 Jews.

“2. Start of transportation: 11 January 1943. End of

transportation: 31 January 1943. (The Reich railroads are unable

to provide special trains for the evacuation during the period

from 15 December 1942 to 10 January 1943 because of the

increased traffic of Armed Forces leave trains.)

“3. Composition: The 45,000 Jews are to consist of 30,000 Jews

from the district of Bialystok; 10,000 Jews from the Ghetto of

Theresienstadt, 5,000 of whom are Jews fit for work who

heretofore had been used for smaller jobs required for the

ghetto and 5,000 Jews who are generally incapable of working,

also Jews over 60-years old.”

And passing the next sentence:

“As heretofore only such Jews would be taken for the evacuation

who do not have any particular connections and who are not in

possession of any high decorations. Three thousand Jews from the

occupied Dutch territories, 2,000 Jews from Berlin—45,000. The

figure of 45,000 includes those unfit for work (old Jews and

children). By use of a practical standard, the screening of the

arriving Jews in Auschwitz should yield at least 10,000 to

15,000 people fit for work.”

The Jews of Hungary suffered the same tragic fate. Between 19 March 1944

and the 1st of August 1944, more than 400,000 Hungarian Jews were

rounded up. Many of these were put in wagons and sent to extermination

camps, and we refer to Document Number 2605-PS, Exhibit USA-242. This

document is an affidavit made in London by Dr. Rudolph Kastner, a former

official of the Hungarian Zionist Organization. We refer to Page 3 of

the document, the third full paragraph. In March 1944, quoting:

“Together with the German military occupation, there arrived in

Budapest a ‘Special Section Commando’ of the German Secret

Police with the sole object of liquidating the Hungarian Jews.

It was headed by Adolf Aichmann, SS Obersturmbannführer, Chief

of Section IV B of the Reich Security Head Office. His immediate

collaborators were: SS Obersturmbannführer Hermann Krumey,

Hauptsturmführer Wisliczeny, Hunsche, Novak, Dr. Seidl, and

later Danegger, Wrtok. They arrested and later deported to

Mauthausen all the leaders of Jewish political and business life

and journalists, together with, the Hungarian democratic and

anti-fascist politicians; taking advantage of the ‘interregnum’

following upon the German occupation lasting 4 days, they have

placed their Quislings in the Ministry of the Interior.”

On Page 7 of that same document, the 8th paragraph, beginning with the

words “Commanders of the death camps” and quoting:

“Commanders of the death camps gassed only on direct or indirect

instructions of Aichmann. The particular officer of IV B who

directed the deportations from some particular country had the

authority to indicate whether the train should go to a death

camp or not and what should happen to the passengers. The

instructions were usually carried by the SS non-commissioned

officers escorting the train. The letters ‘A’ or ‘M’”—capital

letters “A” or “M”—“on the escorting instruction documents

indicated Auschwitz (Oswieczim) or Majdanek; it meant that the

passengers were to be gassed.”

And passing over the next sentence, we come to these words:

“Regarding Hungarian Jews the following general ruling was laid

down in Auschwitz: Children up to the age of 12 or 14, older

people over 50, as well as the sick, or people with criminal

records (who were transported in specially marked wagons) were

taken immediately on their arrival to the gas chambers.

“The others passed before an SS doctor who, on sight, indicated

who was fit for work and who was not. Those unfit were sent to

the gas chambers, while the others were distributed in various

labor camps.”

In the so-called “Eastern Territories” these victims were apprehended

for extermination . . .

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, don’t you want Page 5 for the numbers which you

have stated “up to the 27th of June 1944”? You haven’t yet given us any

authority for the numbers that you have stated.

MR. DODD: Oh, yes. On Page 5 of that same document, 2605-PS, quoting:

“Up to the 27th of June 1944, 475,000 Jews were deported.”

In the so-called “Eastern Territories” these victims were apprehended

for extermination in concentration camps without any charges having been

made against them. In the western occupied territories charges seemed to

have been made against some of the victims. Some of the charges which

the Nazi conspirators considered sufficient basis for confinement to the

concentration camps are shown by reference to Document Number L-215,

which bears Exhibit Number USA-243. This document is the summary of the

file, the dossier, of 25 persons arrested in Luxembourg for commitment

to various concentration camps and sets forth the charges made against

each person. Beginning with the paragraph after the name “Henricy,” at

the bottom of the first page, and quoting:

“Name: Henricy; charge: . . . by associating with members of

illegal resistance movements and making money for them,

violating legal foreign exchange rates, by harming the interests

of the Reich and being expected in the future to disobey

official administrative regulations and act as an enemy of the

Reich; place of confinement—Natzweiler.”

Next comes the name of “Krier” and the charge:

“. . . by being responsible for continuous sabotage of labor and

causing fear because of his political and criminal past—freedom

would only further his anti-social urge; place of

confinement—Buchenwald.”

Passing to the middle of Page 2, after the name “Monti”:

“Charge:. . . by being strongly suspected of aiding desertion;

place of confinement—Sachsenhausen.”

Next, after the name “Junker”:

“Charge:. . . because as a relative of a deserter he is expected

to endanger the interests of the Greater German Reich if allowed

to go free; place of confinement—Sachsenhausen.”

“Jaeger” is the next name and the charge against Jaeger, quoting:

“. . . because as a relative of a deserter he is expected, to

take advantage of every occasion to harm the Greater German

Reich if allowed to go free; place of

confinement—Sachsenhausen.”

And down to the name “Ludwig” and the charge against Ludwig:

“. . . for being strongly suspected of aiding desertion; place

of confinement—Dachau.”

Not only civilians of the occupied countries but also prisoners of war

were subjected to the horrors and the brutality of the concentration

camps; and we refer to Document Number 1165-PS, which bears Exhibit

Number USA-244. This document is a memorandum to all officers of the

State Police signed by Müller, the Chief of the Gestapo, dated the 9th

of November 1941. The memorandum has the revealing title of—and I

quote—“Transportation of Russian Prisoners of War, destined for

Execution, into the Concentration Camps.”

I wish to quote also from the body of this memorandum, which is found on

Page 2 of the English translation, and I quote directly:

“The commandants of the concentration camps are complaining that

5 to 10 percent of the Soviet Russians destined for execution

are arriving in the camps dead or half dead. Therefore the

impression has arisen that the Stalags are getting rid of such

prisoners in this way.

“It was particularly noted that when marching, for example, from

the railroad station to the camp a rather large number of PW’s

collapsed on the way from exhaustion, either dead or half dead,

and had to be picked up by a truck following the convoy.

“It cannot be prevented that the German people take notice of

these occurrences.

“Even if the transportation to the camps is generally taken care

of by the Wehrmacht, the population will attribute this

situation to the SS.

“In order to prevent, if possible, similar occurrences in the

future, I therefore order that, effective from today on, Soviet

Russians declared definitely suspect and obviously marked by

death (for example with hunger-typhus) and therefore not able to

withstand the exertions of even a short march on foot shall in

the future, as a matter of basic principle, be excluded from the

transport into the concentration camps for execution.”

More evidence of the confinement of Russian prisoners of war in

concentration camps is found in an official report of the investigation

of the Flossenbürg Concentration Camp by the Headquarters of the United

States Third Army, the Judge Advocate Section, and particularly the War

Crimes Branch, under the date of the 21st day of June 1945. It is our

Document Number 2309-PS and bears Exhibit Number USA-245. At the bottom

of Page 2 of the English text the last two sentences of that last

paragraph say, and I quote:

“In 1941 an additional stockade was added at the Flossenbürg

camp to hold 2,000 Russian prisoners. Of these 2,000 prisoners

only 102 survived.”

Soviet prisoners of war found their allies in the concentration camps

too; and at Page 4 of this same Document Number 2309-PS, it will show,

particularly Paragraph 5 on Page 4, and I quote it:

“The victims of Flossenbürg included among them: Russian

civilians and prisoners of war, German nationals, Italians,

Belgians, Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, British, and American

prisoners of war. No practical means was available to complete a

list of victims of this camp; however, since the foundation of

the camp in 1938 until the day of liberation, it is estimated

that more than 29,000 inmates died.”

Escaped prisoners of war were sent to concentration camps by the

conspirators, and these camps were specially set up as extermination

centers; and we refer to Document Number 1650-PS, bearing Exhibit Number

USA-246. This document is a communication from the Secret State Police

of Cologne and it is dated the 4th day of March 1944. At the very top of

the English text it says, “To be transmitted in secret—to be handled as

a secret Government matter.”

In the third paragraph, quoting:

“Concerns: Measures to be taken against captured escaped

prisoners of war who are officers or non-working noncommissioned

officers, except British and American prisoners of war. The

Supreme Command of the Army has ordered as follows:

“1. Every captured escaped prisoner of war who is an officer or

a non-working noncommissioned officer, except British and

American prisoners of war, is to be turned over to the Chief of

the Security Police and of the Security Service under the

classification Step III regardless of whether the escape

occurred during a transport, whether it was a mass escape, or an

individual one.

“2. Since the transfer of the prisoners of war to the Security

Police and Security Service may not become officially known to

the outside under any circumstances, other prisoners of war may

by no means be informed of the capture. The captured prisoners

are to be reported to the Army Information Bureau as ‘escaped

and not captured.’ Their mail is to be handled accordingly.

Inquiries of representatives of the protective power, of the

International Red Cross, and of other aid societies will be

given the same answer.”

The same communication carried a copy of an order of SS General Müller,

acting for the Chief of the Security Police and SD, directing the

Gestapo to transport escaped prisoners directly to Mauthausen; and I

quote the first two paragraphs of Müller’s order, which begins on the

bottom of Page 1 and runs over to Page 2 of the English text. Quoting:

“The State Police directorates will accept the captured escaped

officer prisoners of war from the prisoner-of-war camp

commandants and will transport them to the Concentration Camp

Mauthausen following the procedure previously used, unless the

circumstances render a special transport imperative. The

prisoners of war are to be put in irons on the transport—not on

the way to the station if it is subject to view by the public.

The camp commandant at Mauthausen is to be notified that the

transfer occurs within the scope of the action ‘Kugel.’ The

State Police directorates will submit semi-yearly reports on

these transfers giving merely the figures, the first report

being due on 5 July 1944.”

Passing the next three sentences, we come to this line:

“For the sake of secrecy the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces

has been requested to inform the prisoner-of-war camps to turn

the captured prisoners over to the local State Police office

concerned and not to send them directly to Mauthausen.”

It is no coincidence that the literal translation for the German word

“Kugel” is the English word “bullet,” since Mauthausen, where the

escaped prisoners were sent, was an extermination center.

Nazi conquest was marked by the establishment of concentration camps

over all of Europe. In this connection we refer to Document Number

R-129. It is a report on the location of concentration camps signed by

Pohl, who was an SS general who was in charge of concentration camp

labor policies. Document Number R-129 bears our Exhibit Number USA-217.

I wish to refer particularly to Section 1, Paragraphs numbered 1 and 2

of this document, which are found on Page 1 of the English translation.

It is addressed to the Reichsführer SS and bears the stamp “secret”:

“Reichsführer:

“Today I report about the present situation of the concentration

camps and about measures I have taken in order to carry out your

order of 3 March 1942:

“1. At the outbreak of war there existed the following

concentration camps:

“a. Dachau—1939, 4,000 prisoners; today, 8,000.

“b. Sachsenhausen—1939, 6,500 prisoners; today, 10,000.

“c. Buchenwald—1939, 5,300 prisoners; today, 9,000.

“d. Mauthausen—1939, 1,500 prisoners; today, 5,500.

“e. Flossenbürg—1939, 1,600 prisoners; today, 4,700.

“f. Ravensbrück—1939, 2,500 prisoners; today, 7,500.”

And then it goes on to say in Paragraph Number 2, quoting:

“In the years 1940 and 1942 nine additional camps were erected:

“a. Auschwitz, b. Neuengamme, c. Gusen, d. Natzweiler, e.

Gross-Rosen, f. Lublin, g. Niederhagen, h. Stutthof, i.

Arbeitsdorf.”

In addition to the camps in the occupied territory mentioned in this

Document R-129, from which I have just read these names and figures,

there were many, many others. I refer to the official report by the

United States Third Army Headquarters, to which we have already made

reference, Document Number 2309-PS, on Page 2 in the English text,