DR. SERVATIUS: This is Document Number 19, in the first document book,
Page 54. Only a portion of this is reproduced. In a circular to all the
Gau labor offices and Gauleiter is the following:
“If in a Gau district the statement is still being made that ‘if
anyone in the Gau has to freeze this winter, the first ones
should be the Russians’ (that is, the Russian civilian laborers
employed for work in the Gau), such a statement shows plainly
that in that region of the Gau the contact between the
administrative labor office and the competent political offices
is as yet not close enough. It is one of the most important
tasks of the Allocation of Labor and the collaboration between
you and the Gauleiter as my deputies for the Allocation of Labor
to see to it that the foreign workers recruited for the German
armament industry and food economy are looked after in such a
manner as to enable them to give the maximum of efficiency.
There is, therefore, no question of protecting from want German
fellow countrymen only and being satisfied with inadequate
provisions for laborers of foreign origin. On the contrary, it
is imperative to bear constantly in mind the fact that, in order
to bring about victory, a maximum of efficiency must be demanded
not only of German fellow countrymen but also of the foreign
workers. It would be absurd to bring foreign workers into the
country, at considerable expense, for work for German economy
and then to allow their efficiency to be impaired or ruined
through lack of proper care.”
In conclusion there follows a reminder that Sauckel’s decree must be
observed.
[_Turning to the defendant._] What was the situation with regard to the
clothing of foreign workers?
SAUCKEL: The clothing of foreign workers from the western regions gave
us relatively little trouble for these workers were well supplied and
they were also compensated for their clothing. But the clothing of the
Eastern Workers was a problem. On behalf of the Eastern Workers I
applied to the Reich Minister of Economy for a quota of clothing and
provided 1 million Eastern Workers with all necessary under and outer
clothing. To supply this quota of clothing 10,000 workers were required
as well as 30,000 tons of raw materials. Thus, every care was given to
the question of clothing, and this clothing was actually issued.
DR. SERVATIUS: The French Delegation has submitted Document Number RF-5.
It is a propaganda brochure, _Work for Europe_. I had also submitted
this, and the Tribunal took judicial notice of it. I should like to
submit it again and refer to three pictures contained therein. The
essential thing about these pictures is that some of the workers coming
from the East arrived barefoot, and later there are pictures where these
workers are seen well dressed in Germany, and it is evident that the
situation as regards the clothing of these workers had made considerable
progress in Germany.
THE PRESIDENT: Is this Sauckel-5?
DR. SERVATIUS: No, it is a document of the French Delegation, Document
RF-5.
[_Turning to the defendant._] What was the situation with regard to
working hours? Who regulated the working hours?
SAUCKEL: The working hours were regulated on the basis of decrees by the
Führer, the Ministerial Council, and later on by Reich Minister
Goebbels. The carrying out of these decrees was my task.
DR. SERVATIUS: What was the average working time?
SAUCKEL: One can hardly talk of an average working time in Germany
during the war. There was the legal working time of 8 hours. For
anything beyond 8 hours, overtime had to be paid.
In the year 1943 the average working time per week was at first set at
54 hours; later, as far as it was necessary, at 10 hours per day. When
Reich Minister Dr. Goebbels became Reich Delegate for Total War Effort,
against my objections and against the objection of other offices but on
the basis of the authority which he had, he demanded and proclaimed a
10-hour working day for all offices and industries. However this could
not be carried through at all, for in many industries and offices work
had to be regulated according to the difficulties which were already
then appearing—difficulties of raw materials, power supply, and the
amount of work. But in exceptional cases, which were not infrequent, 11
and 12 hours of work were put in where production demanded it. German
workers as well worked longer hours. All workers were then compensated
accordingly.
DR. SERVATIUS: In the French Document Number RF-22, on Page 101 of the
German text, is the following:
“From the interrogations by the agencies of the _Ministère des
Prisonniers_ of deported workers who had returned home, it can
be seen that the average time of work per week was at least 72
hours.”
Then the source of this information is mentioned, but that does not
interest us here.
“Sixty-four-hour weeks were not infrequent. Cases of 100-hour
weeks with 30 to 38 consecutive hours were mentioned.”
What can you tell us about this? Did such cases come to your attention?
SAUCKEL: I cannot comment on these reports, because I do not know
whether they concern people who were being used in concentration camps
or those who were used as civilian workers in the other sector for which
I was responsible. It is correct that in very exceptional cases there
were periods in which long hours of work were put in. That was decided
by the factory and applied also to the German workers. But in such cases
appropriate rest periods had to be interspersed. These long hours were
worked only for the completion of important contracts. Where these
people actually worked, I cannot determine from the interrogation and,
therefore, I cannot give you a precise answer.
DR. SERVATIUS: What were the provisions for free time?
SAUCKEL: Free time was at the disposal of the workers.
DR. SERVATIUS: Who was responsible for regulating free time?
SAUCKEL: The regulation of free time was the responsibility of the DAF
as far as the arrangements of details for free time were concerned.
DR. SERVATIUS: What was the situation regarding the employment of
children and young people?
SAUCKEL: By German Reich law children under 12 years of age are not
permitted to work. Children under 14 are only permitted to work a few
hours on the land.
DR. SERVATIUS: Did you issue decrees about working hours for children?
SAUCKEL: I issued decrees or confirmed the laws which were already in
existence insofar as they applied to this work.
DR. SERVATIUS: Now I shall show you Document Number 345-PS, which is a
letter written by Reich Minister Rosenberg to Lammers, dated 20 July
1944.
[_The document was handed to the defendant._]
THE PRESIDENT: Has this been put in before? Has this been offered in
evidence before?
DR. SERVATIUS: This document was submitted in cross-examination. I
myself have just received it. It deals with the recruitment of young
people of 15 to 20 years of age for employment in the Reich during the
war. Then the document refers to the transfer to the Reich of young
people aged 10 to 14 years; that is the “Hay Action.” And it goes on to
say:
“The object of this action is the further care of young people
through the Reich Youth Leadership and the training of
apprentices for German economy in a manner similar to that which
has already been successfully carried out with the White
Ruthenia Youth Service in co-operation with the GBA”—which
means you.
Please comment on whether you had use made of these young people.
SAUCKEL: No, I had nothing whatever to do with this action; and in the
index of addresses my name is not mentioned. I do not know of this
matter.
DR. SERVATIUS: So you did not violate your own rules by issuing special
directives?
SAUCKEL: No. This was a transaction with which I did not concern myself.
DR. SERVATIUS: Then I should like to submit another letter to you, which
was also submitted by the Prosecution in connection with the Schirach
case. It is Document Number 1137-PS, a letter dated 19 October 1944. On
Page 3 of this document, the following appears:
“In addition to this, other labor was supplied to the German
armament industry earlier—namely, first of all, 3,500 boys and
500 girls to the Junkers Works; secondly, 2,000 boys and 700
girls to the OT...
“The agency under the Hitler Youth has procured from the
Occupied Eastern Territories for the armament industry”—I leave
out what does not interest us—“5,500 boys and 1,200 girls.”
Did you authorize the use of this labor, or did this matter pass through
your hands?
SAUCKEL: No.
DR. SERVATIUS; How was this labor brought into the armament industry?
SAUCKEL: Well, I personally am unable to explain that in detail.
Apparently this took place on the basis of an agreement between offices
of the Ministry for the Eastern Occupied Territories or those of
Hauptbannführer Nickel. I have heard only during the proceedings here
that the young people involved were of an age at which work is
prohibited for them. I understood that it was more in the nature of
pre-employment care, but...
DR. SERVATIUS: That is known.
SAUCKEL: It did not go through me or through my office.
DR. SERVATIUS: What about the use of foreign women?
SAUCKEL: Women from foreign countries were used in exactly the same way
as German women. No other conditions.
DR. SERVATIUS: Document Number 025-PS has been submitted here. That is
Exhibit Number USA-698, which was also submitted only now and is not
contained in the books. This is the record of a conference which took
place in your office and in which you spoke at length on the use of
female labor. In the third paragraph it says:
“To this end, the Führer has ordered the use of 400,000 to
500,000 female Eastern Workers from the Ukraine, between the
ages of 15 to 35, for domestic purposes; and the Plenipotentiary
General for the Allocation of Labor”—that is you—“has been
charged with the carrying through of this action, which is to be
concluded in approximately 3 months.”
It goes on:
“It is the specific wish of the Führer that as many girls as
possible shall be germanized if they prove satisfactory.”
Will you please comment on this?
SAUCKEL: Yes, this concerns a decree of the Führer to bring 400,000 to
500,000 female Eastern Workers into the Reich for German households, but
especially in order to lighten the work of the German farmers’ wives. I
should like to mention, in connection with this document, that I did not
compile it and that my office did not compile it either. Most likely
these minutes were written on the basis of notes which somebody had
taken. With reference to these proposed 400,000 to 500,000 domestic
servants, it must be said that they were to be brought into the Reich
only on a voluntary basis. Actually some 13,000 to 15,000 only, I
believe, came into the Reich. The idea of “Germanization,” as used here,
also refers only to their free will or wish to remain in Germany.
DR. SERVATIUS: What medical attention did the foreign workers receive?
Various things have been mentioned here, for instance: “If the worker
can no longer work, he is no longer a concern of ours,” which is
supposed to have been a principle of yours. Then it is further said that
work, food, and pay must be brought into relationship with each other.
If the worker can no longer work, he is just a dead weight. What can you
say with regard to these accusations?
SAUCKEL: Would you show me where I said that? I am not familiar with it.
DR. SERVATIUS: This is in the transcript of a court session; I have the
page here, in the German transcript, 2789 (Volume V, Pages 394, 395). It
says there that if the worker can no longer work, no concern should be
given to his fate. Did you advocate this principle?
SAUCKEL: On the contrary; there exist hundreds of precise decrees and
orders which I issued. They were published in the _Reichsgesetzblatt_,
in special issues sent to the factories and to the labor exchanges and
in special collections, in which it is set down most clearly that the
foreign workers who were brought into the Reich through the Allocation
of Labor had to be treated in accordance with German laws, regulations,
and directives as far as medical treatment and care, including
insurance, were concerned. There were also...
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, were you putting to the defendant a
document where it was alleged he had said that after they were unfit to
work, that it is no more his concern? Was it the document you were
putting to him?
DR. SERVATIUS: This document was submitted to him with regard to the
female workers of whom he is alleged to have said that they were to be
germanized. I am no longer dealing with that document, but have turned
to the question of medical care.
THE PRESIDENT: You mean that was in Document 025-PS, Exhibit USA-698?
DR. SERVATIUS: That document, Number 025-PS, refers only to female
workers. This question has already been dealt with. I have turned to the
question of medical care in general and am no longer dealing with the
question of female workers.
[_Turning to the defendant._] Did you receive reports about abominable
conditions regarding the health and the medical care of foreign workers?
SAUCKEL: No. Not only German physicians were employed as official
physicians in the factories and camps to deal with the hygiene and
health of the workers, but also numerous physicians and medical
assistants from the home countries of the foreign workers were engaged
and assigned to these camps.
DR. SERVATIUS: How did you supervise the execution of your decrees, and
what other controlling agencies existed?
SAUCKEL: There were the following controlling agencies: first of all...
DR. SERVATIUS: Just a moment. I should like to refer to Document
Sauckel-2. In it I have made a survey of the control and inspection
agencies concerned with supervision. I shall explain this diagram
briefly:
In the center, there is the Reich Ministry of Labor, under Seldte;
underneath that, the trade inspection boards, including the police
department for trade and town planning. That was the only department
which had police powers—that is, it could take action against any
resistance on the part of those recruited for work. Besides this,
several other official agencies were created to handle the difficult
problem of welfare. There is, first of all, if you look at the
right-hand side, the German Labor Front, an agency encompassing the
interests of the employers, the industry, and the workers, and in some
respects taking the place occupied in the past by the trade unions. From
there matters of welfare were turned over to the factories. A special
inspection board was created, the Reich Inspection Office of the German
Labor Front, with a department for foreign workers which had its own
liaison men in the factories to hear complaints. In the factories
themselves there were also foreign workers who were able to report on
conditions there.
Then, turning further to the right, is the Reich Ministry for Food and
Agriculture which, through the regional food offices, also had direct
insight into questions pertaining to food and welfare. The reports which
went to the Reich Foreign Minister through diplomatic channels were
eventually also passed on to Sauckel, as we shall see later.
Then there is a special department for Eastern Workers under the
Rosenberg Ministry—that is the central agency for the peoples of the
East—and this last letter which we had here, apparently came from one
of the gentlemen in this agency. This central agency for the peoples of
the East in turn also had its agents in the factories and works, and
they made reports directly. All these reports were turned over to
Sauckel.
Now, I turn to the left part of the diagram. Sauckel himself instituted
for inspectional purposes a personal staff which was sent around to
visit factories. We heard from several witnesses that these inspectors
appeared and saw to it that everything was in order. Then he established
a special office, the Reich Inspectorate. Complaints which came from the
German Labor Front and other sources were sent to this inspectorate.
When Sauckel says that he immediately passed on these complaints, they
were sent first to the Reich Inspectorate, which in turn advised the
necessary offices and, if need be, applied the compulsory measures of
the Reich Labor Ministry. Then also the Gauleiter were given the task of
supervision, and the witnesses who have appeared here—witnesses who
were Gauleiter in their time—have confirmed that they exercised control
as plenipotentiaries for the Allocation of Labor. Further to the left is
shown the care and control exercised by the Reich Ministry for
Propaganda which had taken over a supervisory function concerning the
direction of the camps and the workers. Then, finally on the far left,
comes the Wehrmacht which had its own supervisory machinery through its
inspectors, who were entrusted with the prisoners of war and who saw to
it that the conventions were observed.
The reports of all these agencies were sent to Sauckel, and he testified
here that abominable conditions were not reported to him, that he could
make his influence felt only through directives, and that he gave his
instructions.
THE PRESIDENT: Dr. Servatius, will you ask the defendant whether that
was a correct statement on the meaning of the chart?
DR. SERVATIUS: Witness, this explanation, which I have given, and this
diagram, which you have seen, are they correct?
SAUCKEL: Yes.
DR. SERVATIUS: They are correct?
SAUCKEL: Yes.
DR. SERVATIUS: Would you comment now on the activity of the Gauleiter as
plenipotentiaries? How did you supervise the Gauleiter?
SAUCKEL: I could not supervise the Gauleiter themselves, as I had no
disciplinary or official control over them. But I had the Gaue visited
by members of my staff at intervals of about 3 months. On the occasion
of these visits the complaints of the Gauleiter were heard and then
factories and camps were inspected jointly and a check was made to see
how far my directives were, or were not, carried out. I should like to
remark that these inspectors naturally were not allowed any control in
concentration camps and the work in the concentration camps; that was a
different field which was under the control of Obergruppenführer Pohl
and in which I had no authority and no insight.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now.
[_The Tribunal recessed until 1400 hours._]
_Afternoon Session_
DR. EGON KUBUSCHOK (Counsel for Defendant Von Papen): I ask permission
for the Defendant Von Papen to be absent from the court sessions
tomorrow morning and afternoon. I need a fairly long consultation with
him for the preparation of his defense which I would not be able to have
otherwise. Dr. Flexner will represent him during the session.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
MARSHAL (Colonel Charles W. Mays): If it please the Tribunal, a report
is made that the Defendant Göring is absent.
THE PRESIDENT: As I said this morning, the Tribunal will rise at 4 this
afternoon.
DR. SERVATIUS: This morning we got as far as the inspections, but I
should like to go back to one question.
You said that the head of the factory was responsible for the workers.
Did that also apply to the prisoner-of-war and concentration camps?
SAUCKEL: No. The Army, or that part of the Armed Forces under the
authority of which these prisoners of war were kept, was responsible for
the prisoner-of-war camps. In the same way, as far as I know, the
concentration camps alone were responsible for their inmates, even if
they worked.
DR. SERVATIUS: You had formed a Department 9 as a Reich inspection
department in the Reich Ministry of Labor. What were the special tasks
of this inspection department?
SAUCKEL: I had set up that inspection department, which had not existed
before in the Ministry of Labor, because I wanted to ascertain the
uniformity and execution of contracts throughout the entire area of the
Reich, as well as in the occupied territories where German undertakings
and German labor contracts were being carried out; also to examine and
control the unified administrative regulations; and, moreover, to see
whether my orders concerning food, lodging, treatment, and care were
being observed and to what extent they were in need of change. All this
was also contained in a directive which I gave to the inspection
department.
DR. SERVATIUS: What was the position of the Central Inspection
Department in the German Labor Front—the Central Inspection Department
for the care of foreign workers?
SAUCKEL: The Central Inspection Department of the DAF had the task of
supervising the welfare of foreign workers in the camps in Germany to
see whether they were being fed, and so on, in the prescribed way.
DR. SERVATIUS: If there were any abuses, did the Inspection Department
report that to you; or who received the report?
SAUCKEL: An agreement between the Führer, the German Labor Front, Dr.
Ley, and myself, was added as a supplement to the decree concerning the
formation of the Central Inspection Department, and it stated that where
it was a question of conditions in camps the Central Inspection
Department had to deal directly with the Reich offices concerned, or
with the industrial inspection office in the Reich Labor Ministry, in
order to remedy the conditions; whereas cases of shortage or surplus of
manpower, _et cetera_, were to be reported to me.
DR. SERVATIUS: By this agreement, therefore, your rights were limited?
SAUCKEL: Yes.
DR. SERVATIUS: That is Document 1913-PS, which has been submitted. It is
an agreement between Sauckel and Dr. Ley of 20 September 1943. It is
Exhibit USA-227. It is Document Number 41 in the English document book.
I shall only refer to it, without quoting from it.
[_Turning to the defendant._] What other kinds of supervisory offices
existed? I am thinking about the French.
SAUCKEL: Well, after I took office, men were appointed to act as liaison
agents with the foreign workers. These men, in agreement with the German
Labor Front, had the right to visit camps, talk to the workers
themselves, and hear their complaints. A special agreement had been
reached with the French Government in collaboration with the Reich
Foreign Minister.
DR. SERVATIUS: That is Document Sauckel-31. It is on Page 79 of the
English text in the Sauckel Document Book Number 1, “French Agency for
the Care of the French Employed in the Reich.” That is a circular from
Sauckel dated 30 April 1942. I submit the document itself, which is in
this collection. I quote:
“I communicate the following letter from the Foreign Office of
10 April 1942:
“The Government of the Reich has notified the French Government
that it agrees to the following regulations regarding the care
of French voluntary workers in Germany:
“Besides the already existing office for prisoners of war, an
agency for French civilian workers will be established in Berlin
under the direction of Ambassador Scapini. The Reich Government
will furnish a building to house this agency. The agency may
establish branch offices in four other German cities.
“The agency is charged with the care of the French workers in
Germany. It will supervise the fulfillment of the contracts made
by the workers engaged. It may accept proposals from the workers
and transmit them to the competent offices, and see that
unsatisfactory conditions are remedied. It is entitled to issue
certificates and references to the workers for submission to the
French authorities.”