“Secret. Concerning conditions in the Government General...
“The German administration in the Government General has to
accomplish the following tasks: 1) To increase agricultural
production for the purpose of securing food for the German
people and seize as much of it as possible, to allot sufficient
rations to the native population occupied with work essential to
the war effort, and to remove the rest for the Armed Forces and
the homeland.”
I leave out the following points and pass to the letter “B”, where
Krüger or his assistant criticized the measures of the Governor General.
I quote:
“German administration in the Government General has failed
grossly with respect to the tasks listed under “A”. Even if a
relatively high percentage, namely, over 90 percent, of the
delivery quota of agricultural products for the Armed Forces and
the homeland was successfully met in the year 1942 and if the
labor procurement requirements of the homeland were generally
satisfied, nevertheless, on the other hand, two things must be
made clear: First, these accomplishments were not achieved until
the year 1942. Before that, for example, only 40,000 tons of
bread grain had been delivered for the Wehrmacht. Secondly, and
above all, there was the omission to create for the attainment
of such performances those prerequisites of an organizational,
economic, and political character which are indispensable if
such performances are not to lead to a breakdown in the
situation as a whole, from which chaotic conditions in every
respect could eventually come about. This failure of the German
administration can be explained in the first place by the system
of the German administrative and governmental activity in the
Government General as embodied in the Governor General himself,
and secondly by the misguided principles of policy in all
questions decisive for conditions in the Government General.
“I) The spirit of the German administration in the Government
General.
“From the beginning it has been the endeavor of the Governor
General to make a state organization out of the Government
General which was to lead its own existence in complete
independence of the Reich.”
Then I pass to Page 22 of the report, Paragraph 3 and I quote:
“3) The treatment of the native population can only be led in
the right direction on the basis of clean and orderly
administrative and economic leadership. Only such a foundation
makes it possible to handle the native population firmly and if
necessary even severely, on the one hand; and, on the other
hand, to act generously with them and cause a certain amount of
satisfaction among the population by allowing certain liberties,
especially in the cultural field. Without such a foundation
severity strengthens the resistance movement, and meeting the
population halfway only undermines respect for the Germans. The
above-mentioned facts prove that this foundation is lacking.
Instead of trying to create this foundation, the Governor
General inaugurates a policy of encouraging the individual
cultural life of the Polish population, which in itself is
already overshooting the goal but which, under the existing
conditions and viewed in connection with our military situation
during the past winter, can only be interpreted as weakness, and
must achieve the opposite of the aim intended.
“4) The relationship between racial Germans and the
Polish-Ukrainian population in the Government General.
“The cases are numerous in which the German administration has
permitted the requirements of racial Germans in the Government
General to be put into the background in favor of the interests
of the Poles and Ruthenians, in its endeavor to win over the
latter. The opinion was advanced that racial Germans resettled
from somewhere else were not to be installed immediately as
settlers, but for the duration of the war were only to be
employed as farm workers. A legal foundation for the
expropriation of Polish property has not been created so far.
Bad treatment of racial Germans by their Polish employers was
not stopped. German citizens and racial German patients were
allowed to be treated in Polish hospitals by Polish physicians,
badly and at great expense. In German spas in the Government
General the sheltering of children of German citizenship from
territories threatened with bombing, and of veterans of
Stalingrad was hampered, while foreigners took convalescent
vacations there, and so on.
“The big plans for resettlement in the Lublin district for the
benefit of racial Germans could have been carried out with less
friction if the Reich Commissioner for the Preservation of
German Nationality had found the administration willing to
co-operate and assist in the proper manner.”