“My duty towards the Führer, the Reich Marshal, Minister Speer,
and you, gentlemen, as well as towards agriculture, is clear;
and I will fulfill it. As a start we have already 262,000 new
workers; and I hope and am firmly convinced that I shall obtain
most of what has been asked. The labor will have to be
distributed, of course, according to the needs of German
armament first, and secondly, German industry as a whole; and I
shall always be prepared, gentlemen, to see to it that closest
contact is constantly maintained here and that closest
collaboration is given by the subordinated labor exchanges, as
well as by the Gau labor exchanges.”
Therefore, you do not contest the fact that the Central Planning Board
did establish collaboration among the various services which recruited
manpower, because you yourself asked for this collaboration.
SAUCKEL: I did not deny that there was collaboration. Collaboration is
necessary in every regime and in every system. Here we were not
concerned with foreign labor only, but chiefly with German labor, even
at that period. I did not dispute the fact that work was being carried
on; but final decisions were not always made there. That is what I
wanted to say.
M. HERZOG: It is correct that you appointed delegates to represent you
in the various German administrative departments?
SAUCKEL: I did not have representatives in the various administrative
departments. I had liaison men, or else the administrative departments
had liaison men in my office.
M. HERZOG: Did you not have such a liaison officer with the Defendant
Speer, Minister for Armaments and War Production?
SAUCKEL: The man who was constantly with Speer was not a liaison
officer, but the man who talked over with the Minister questions of
demand, _et cetera_, which were pending. As far as I remember it was a
Herr Berk.
M. HERZOG: And did you have a liaison officer with the Reich Minister of
Labor?
SAUCKEL: I had no liaison officer with the Reich Minister of Labor.
There were two departments in the Reich Ministry of Labor which
concerned themselves with these problems in an administrative capacity.
M. HERZOG: In your interrogatory of 12 September 1945 you said as
follows—the Tribunal will find it on Pages 6 and 7 of the
interrogatory:
“‘I had moreover two officials who acted as intermediaries
between Minister Speer and the Ministry of Labor.’
“Question: ‘Did this liaison officer establish a connection
between your Ministry, Minister Speer, and the Ministry of
Labor?’
“Answer: ‘Between me, Minister Speer, and the Ministry of
Labor...’”
SAUCKEL: Will you please tell me the page?