The High Command of the German Armed Forces and the Defendant Keitel
took a direct part in the execution of this system of forced slave
labor. For the realization of this criminal objective they used on a
large scale from bottom to top, the entire machinery of the military
administration.
Your Honors, I beg to refer to the next document which I am now
presenting as Exhibit Number USSR-381 (Document Number USSR-381).
THE PRESIDENT: General, was that last order that you gave us Keitel’s
order? It is signed apparently by the Chief of the General Staff of the
Military Command.
GEN. ZORYA: This is not an order of Keitel. This document which was
submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-381 is entitled “Instruction to the
Economic Offices, ‘Section Labor,’ on the Organization of Labor
Allocation in the East.”
THE PRESIDENT: I thought you said that was by Keitel.
GEN. ZORYA: The preceding document which was submitted to the Tribunal
was actually one of Keitel’s orders, but now I wish to speak of this
instruction. I beg Your Honors to pay attention to the date on which
this instruction was issued, namely 26 January 1942. In this
instruction, on Page 150 of the document book, it is stated that the
hopes which the Reich Marshal had placed in the office for the
allocation of labor must be justified at all costs:
“The task of the economic organizations and the office for the
allocation of labor in the East consists in bridging, during the
coming months, the gaps in the economy which arose owing to the
departure into the army of men of younger conscription age due
to the universal enlistment of Russian manpower. This is of
decisive importance for the war and must therefore be achieved.
If the number of volunteers does not come up to expectations,
then the enlistment measures already ordered should be
reinforced by all available means.”
The United States Prosecution has submitted to the Tribunal a document
of the Soviet Prosecution, Exhibit Number USSR-381 (Document Number
USSR-381), entitled, “Memo on the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Workers
in the Reich.”
I do not wish to quote this document again, but consider it necessary
only to show. . .
DR. OTTO NELTE (Counsel for Defendant Keitel): The President has just
now asked about the Document Number USSR-407 and the prosecutor has
presented it here as a document of Keitel. I have only just now found
this document. If it is a question of the same document that I have
marked as USSR-407, then it is signed by a local commander and by a
chief of the labor office.
Is this document the same as that presented to you as USSR-407?
THE PRESIDENT: I have already pointed out, have I not, that it was not
by Keitel?
DR. NELTE: Yes, Sir. But the Prosecutor has thereupon repeatedly said
that this Document 407 represents an order by Keitel. That is why I
wanted to clarify it.
GEN. ZORYA: Perhaps the Tribunal will allow me to clarify this matter.
Apparently a misunderstanding arose through faulty translation. I said
that troops of the Red Army had seized a German order, and added that
the order had been issued by the German occupational authorities—you
can verify this by looking up the stenographic record—which referred to
an order of Keitel regarding forced labor in the combat zones. This
order begins with the following words, “In accordance with the
regulations of the Chief of the OKW, dated 6 February 1943, transfer for
labor in the combat zone,” and so forth. I shall not quote any further.
If I may beg the Tribunal to consider once more a document which I have
already submitted previously, that is, the document of the High Command
of the Army, Number II/3210/42, it is because this order refers to
corresponding orders of the General Staff of the Army on questions of
allocation of labor in the East. This order of the occupational
authorities, which I submitted as Exhibit Number USSR-407, refers to one
of these orders. It states quite clearly, “In accordance with the
regulations of the Chief of the OKW.” That is why I submitted this
document.
THE PRESIDENT: I am afraid I really don’t understand you. What I have
got in the translation before me is this, “The units of the Red Army
captured a copy of the German decree which mentioned Keitel’s order on
forced labor in the combat zone,” and continues further that those
persons refusing to work shall be apprehended as saboteurs. This
document is submitted as Exhibit USSR something or other.
It may be useful to read a few excerpts of it, “By order of the Chief of
the General Staff of the Military Command, of 6 February 1943,
concerning the compulsory labor service . . . in the combat zone”—and
then it goes on to deal with persons who don’t present themselves being
considered saboteurs.
Well, I thought you were saying that the Chief of the General Staff of
the Military Command was Keitel. He was the Chief of the OKW. Are you
still saying that he was the Chief of the Military Command?
GEN. ZORYA: I quote only that which is in the document: “In accordance
with the regulations of the Chief of the General Staff of the Military
Command.” That is in the document, and I do not wish to add anything.
THE PRESIDENT: I don’t think it is worth taking any more time over it.
GEN. ZORYA: I will now go back to that document which was submitted to
the Tribunal by the United States Prosecution and which was entitled,
“Memo for the Treatment of Foreign Civilian Laborers in the Reich.” I
will not quote this document in detail; I would like to stress only that
it established a special regime for Eastern Workers. They lived in camps
surrounded by guards and under supervision of a camp commander. The
latter forbade a normal life for workers from the East. They were thus
forbidden to visit churches or public places and they were obliged to
wear special insignia—a rectangle with pale blue edges, and in the
middle the word “Ost” in white letters on the dark blue background.
In the memorandum to housewives regarding the employment of women from
the East in town and rural households it was stated that—Page 131 of
the document book:
“Every foreigner judges the standard of our entire people by the
personal and political conduct of the individual. The foreign
workers must see in the housewife and the members of her family
worthy representatives of the German people.”