Morning Session
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will adjourn this morning at 12:30 for a closed session and sit again at 2:00 o’clock.
MR. DODD: May it please the Tribunal, I should like to report to the Tribunal this morning with reference to the questions which arose yesterday afternoon concerning three documents.
After adjournment we found that Document 2220-PS was in the defendants’ Information Center in photostatic form, and that the two other documents, being respectively two entries from the Frank diary, were also there but in a different form. The Frank diary consists of some 40-odd volumes which we, of course, were not able to photostat, so we had placed instead in the defendants’ room the excerpts. As a matter of fact, we had placed the entire document book there.
DR. ALFRED SEIDL (Counsel for the Defendant Frank): Yesterday the Prosecution submitted documents concerning the Defendant Frank; the numbers are 2233(a)-PS and 2233(b)-PS, which were presented as Exhibits USA-173 and USA-174. These are not ordinary documents, but excerpts from the diary of Frank. Six weeks ago I applied in writing to have this diary, which consists of 42 heavy, thick volumes, submitted to me. I made this request for the first time on the 2d of September, the second time on the 16th of November, the third time on the 18th of November, and the fourth time on the 3rd of December.
Unfortunately, I have not so far received this diary, and I should like to ask the Tribunal that it be submitted to me as soon as possible, not least because this material was surrendered by the Defendant Frank himself to the officers who arrested him and was to be used as evidence for his defense.
I am of course not in a position to work through all this material in a few days, and I should like to ask the Tribunal that this diary be put at my disposal without delay.
In this connection I should like to call the attention of the Tribunal to another matter. The Tribunal has already approved that the four long speeches which the Defendant Frank delivered in Germany in 1942 and which led to his dismissal by Hitler from all his offices should be put at my disposal as evidence. The General Secretary of the Tribunal informed me of this on the 4th of December, but unfortunately I have not so far received copies of these speeches. I should be very grateful, therefore, if the Tribunal will ensure that its decisions are carried out and that the documents are submitted to me without delay.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will look into these matters with the General Secretary of the Tribunal, and doubtless it will be able to arrange that you should have these documents submitted to you in the defendants’ counsel Information Center.
DR. SEIDL: Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Mr. Dodd.
MR. DODD: May I refer briefly to the discussion that we were engaged in yesterday in order to take up the train of thought.
I wish to remind the Tribunal that we were discussing or had just completed a discussion of Document L-61, which had to do with a letter written by the Defendant Sauckel to the presidents of the “Länder” labor offices. I had read two excerpts from that letter.
Referring to the letter, we say that the Nazi campaign of force and terror and abduction was described in another letter to the Defendant Frank, which we wish to refer to as Document Number 1526-PS.
THE PRESIDENT: Before you pass from that, Mr. Dodd, has either the original or the photostatic copy been shown to Sauckel’s counsel?
MR. DODD: Oh, yes, Sir. A photostatic copy was in the defendants’ Information Center, and after adjournment yesterday we got the original and handed it to him here in this room.
THE PRESIDENT: And he saw it?
MR. DODD: Yes, Sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: This document, Number 1526-PS, USA-178, is a letter written by the chairman of the Ukrainian Main Committee at Kraków in February 1943. I wish to read from the third page of the English text, beginning with the second paragraph; the same passage in the German text at Page 2, Paragraph 5. I quote:
“The general nervousness is still further increased by the wrong methods of labor mobilization which have been used more and more frequently in recent months.
“The wild and ruthless manhunt as practiced everywhere in towns and country, in streets, squares, stations, even in churches, as well as at night in homes, has shaken the feeling of security of the inhabitants. Every man is exposed to the danger of being seized suddenly and unexpectedly, anywhere and at any time, by the police, and brought into an assembly camp. None of his relatives knows what has happened to him, and only weeks or months later one or another gives news of his fate by a postcard.”
I wish to turn to Enclosure 5 on Page 8 of this document, which I quote:
“In November of last year an inspection of all males of the age-classes born 1910 to 1920 was ordered in the area of Zaleszczyti (district of Czortkow). After the men had appeared for inspection, all those who were selected were arrested at once, loaded into trains, and sent to the Reich. Similar recruitment of laborers for the Reich also took place in other areas of this district. Following some interventions, the action was then stopped.”
The resistance of the Polish people to this enslavement program and the necessity for increased force were described by the Defendant Sauckel’s deputy, one Timm, at a meeting of the Central Planning Board, which was, by the way, Hitler’s wartime planning agency. It was made up of the Defendant Speer, Field Marshal Milch, and State Secretary Körner. The Central Planning Board was the highest level economic planning agency, exercising production controls by allocating raw materials and labor to industrial users.
Now, Document R-124, Exhibit USA-179. This document consists of excerpts from minutes of the meetings of this Central Planning Board and minutes of conferences between the Defendant Speer and Hitler. Only the excerpts, of course, from these minutes upon which we rely are being offered in evidence. I would say to the Tribunal, however, that the balance of the minutes are available—can be made available—if the Tribunal so desires.
This deputy of Sauckel, his name being Timm, made a statement at the 36th conference of the Central Planning Board; and it appears on Page 14, Paragraph 2 of the English text of Document R-124, and on Page 10, Paragraph 2 of the German text:
“Especially in Poland the situation at the moment is extraordinarily serious. It is known that violent battles have occurred just because of these actions. The resistance against the administration established by us is very strong. Quite a number of our men have been exposed to increased dangers; and just in the last 2 or 3 weeks some of them have been shot dead, for example, the head of the Labor Office of Warsaw, who was shot in his office 14 days ago, and yesterday another man again. This is how matters stand at present; and the recruiting itself even if done with the best will, remains extremely difficult unless police reinforcements are at hand.”
Deportation and enslavement of civilians reached unprecedented levels in the so-called Eastern Occupied Territories. These wholesale deportations resulted directly from labor demands made by the Defendant Sauckel on the Defendant Rosenberg, who was the Reich Minister for the Eastern Occupied Territories, and his subordinates, and also on the Armed Forces—a demand made directly on the Armed Forces by the Defendant Sauckel.
On the 5th of October 1942, for example, the Defendant Sauckel wrote to the Defendant Rosenberg, stating that 2 million foreign laborers were required and that the majority of these would have to be drafted from the recently occupied Eastern territories and especially from the Ukraine.
I wish to refer at this point to Document 017-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-180. This letter from the Defendant Sauckel to the Defendant Rosenberg I wish to quote in full. It begins by saying:
“The Führer has worked out new and most urgent plans for armament which require the quick mobilization of two million more foreign workers. The Führer therefore has granted me, for the execution of his decree of 21 March 1942, new powers for my new duties, and has especially authorized me to take whatever measures I think are necessary in the Reich, the Protectorate, the Government General, as well as in the occupied territories, in order to assure, at all costs, an orderly mobilization of labor for the German armament industry.
“The additional required labor forces will have to be drafted, for the most part, from the recently occupied Eastern Territories, especially from the Reichskommissariat Ukraine. Therefore, the Reichskommissariat Ukraine must furnish 225,000 workers by 31 December 1942 and 225,000 more by 1 May 1942.
“I ask you to inform Reich Commissioner, Gauleiter, Party Member Koch at once about the new situation and requirements and especially to see that he supports personally in every possible way the execution of this new order.
“I intend to visit Party Member Koch shortly and I would be grateful if he could inform me as to where and when I could meet him for a personal discussion. Just now though, I ask that the recruiting be taken up at once with all energy and the use of every factor, especially the experts of the labor offices. All directives which temporarily limited the procurement of Eastern Workers are annulled. The Reich procurement for the next months must be given priority over all other measures . . . .
“I do not ignore the difficulties which exist for the execution of this new order, but I am convinced that with the ruthless use of all resources and with the full co-operation of all concerned the execution of the new demands can be accomplished by the date fixed. I have already communicated the new demands directly to the Reich Commissioner for the Ukraine by teletype. In reference to our phone-call of today, I will send you the text of the Führer’s decree at the beginning of next week.”
I should like to remind the Tribunal that we have referred previously, yesterday afternoon, to this Reichskommissar, Gauleiter, Party Member Koch; and we quoted him as stating, the Tribunal will recall, “We are the master race. We must be hard,” and so forth.
On the 17th day of March 1943, the Defendant Sauckel wrote again to the Defendant Rosenberg; and on this occasion he demanded the importation of another 1 million men and women from the Eastern Territories within the following 4 months. I wish to refer at this point to Document Number 019-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-181. Quoting that letter in full:
“After a protracted illness, my deputy for labor allocation in the Occupied Eastern Territories, State Councillor Peuckert, is going there to regulate the allocation of labor both for Germany and the territories themselves.
“I ask you sincerely, dear Party Member Rosenberg, to assist him to your utmost on account of the pressing urgency of Peuckert’s mission. I may thank you already at this moment for the good reception accorded to Peuckert up to this time. He himself has been charged by me to co-operate fully and unreservedly with all bureaus of the Eastern Territories.
“Especially the labor allocation for German agriculture and likewise the most urgent armament production programs ordered by the Führer, make the fastest importation of approximately 1 million men and women from the Eastern Territories within the next 4 months, a necessity. Starting 15 March the daily shipment must reach 5,000 female or male workers, while from the beginning of April this number has to be stepped up to 10,000, if the most urgent programs and the spring tillage and other agricultural tasks are not to suffer to the detriment of food and of the Armed Forces.
“I have provided for the allotment of the draft quotas for the individual territories, in agreement with your experts for labor supply, as follows:
“Daily quota starting 15 March 1943: From General kommissariat, White Ruthenia—500 people; Economic Inspection, Center—500 people; Reichskommissariat, Ukraine—3,000 people; Economic Inspection, South—1,000 people; total—5,000 people.
“Starting 1 April 1943, the daily quota is to be doubled corresponding to the doubling of the entire quota. I hope to visit personally the Eastern Territories towards the end of the month, and ask you once more for your kind support.”
The Defendant Sauckel did travel to the East. He travelled to Kovno in Lithuania to press his demands. We offer in evidence Document Number 204-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-182. This document is a synopsis of a report of the City Commissioner of Kovno and minutes of a meeting in which the Defendant Sauckel participated. I wish to read from the second page of the English text, beginning with the first paragraph. The same passage appears in the German text at Page 5, Paragraph 2. Quoting directly as follows:
“In a lecture which the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor, Gauleiter Sauckel, gave on 18 July 1943 in Kovno, and in an official conference following it between Gauleiter Sauckel and the General Commissioner, the precarious labor situation in the Reich was again urgently presented for discussion. Gauleiter Sauckel again demanded that Lithuanian labor be furnished in greater volume for the purposes of the Reich.”
THE PRESIDENT: Who was the General Commissar? Rosenberg?
MR. DODD: The Plenipotentiary for the Arbeitseinsatz?
THE PRESIDENT: No, the General Commissar.
MR. DODD: His name is not known to us. He was apparently a local functionary in the Party.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: The Defendant Sauckel also visited Riga, in Latvia, to assert his demands; and the purpose of this visit is described in Document Number 2280-PS, bearing Exhibit Number USA-183. This document is a letter from the Reich Commissar for the Ostland to the Commissioner General in Riga, and it is dated the 3rd of May 1943. I wish to read from Page 1 of the English text, beginning with the first paragraph:
“Following the basic statements of the Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor, Gauleiter Sauckel, on the occasion of his visit to Riga on the 21st of April 1943, it was decided, in view of the critical situation and in disregard of all adverse considerations, that a total of 183,000 workers would have to be supplied from the Ostland to the Reich territory. This task absolutely must be accomplished within the next 4 months and at the latest must be completed by the end of August.”
Here again we are not informed as to the name and identity of the Reich Commissar for the Ostland.
Sauckel asked the German Army for assistance in the recruitment and deportation of civilian labor from the Eastern Territories. We refer now to Document Number 3010-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-184.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, were you saying that it was not known from whom that document emanated?
MR. DODD: No, Sir. We say it is a letter from the Reichskommissar for the Ostland to the Commissioner General in Riga, but we don’t know their names specifically at the time of the writing of the letter.
THE PRESIDENT: You don’t know who the Reichskommissar of the Eastern Territories was?
MR. DODD: We don’t know him by that title, “The Reichskommissar for the Ostland.”
THE PRESIDENT: Very well.
MR. DODD: Lohse, I am now informed, was his name. I understood that we did not know it.
THE PRESIDENT: All right.
MR. DODD: Referring to this Document 3010-PS, this document is a secret operational order of the Army Group South dated the 17th day of August 1943. I wish to read from the first page of the English text, the first two paragraphs, as follows:
“The Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor, in Decree Az. VI A 5780.28, a copy of which is enclosed (Enclosure 1), has ordered the mustering and calling-up of two complete age classes for the whole newly occupied Eastern Territory. The Reich Minister for Armament and Munitions has approved this order.
“According to this order by the Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor”—GBA—“you have to recruit and to transport to the Reich immediately all labor forces in your territory born during 1926 and 1927. The decree of 6 February 1943 relative to labor duty and labor employment in the theater of operations of the newly occupied Eastern Territory and the executive orders issued on this subject are the authority for the execution of this measure. Enlistment must be completed by 30 September 43 at the latest.”
We say it is clear that the demands made by the Defendant Sauckel resulted in the deportation of civilians from the Occupied Eastern Territories. The Defendant Speer has recorded conferences with Hitler on 10, 11, and 12 August 1942; and this record is contained in Document R-124, which is already in as Exhibit USA-179. I now wish to quote from Page 34 of that same document in Paragraph 1 of the English text. In the German text it appears at Page 23, Paragraph 2. Quoting directly:
“Gauleiter Sauckel promises to make Russian labor available for the fulfillment of the iron and coal program and reports that, if required, he will supply a further million Russian laborers for the German armament industry up to and including October 1942. So far he has already supplied 1,000,000 for industry and 700,000 for agriculture. In this connection the Führer states that the problem of providing labor can be solved in all cases and to any extent. He authorizes Gauleiter Sauckel to take all necessary measures. He would agree to any compulsory measures in the East as well as in the Occupied Western Territories if this question could not be solved on a voluntary basis.”
In order to meet these demands of 1,700,000—100,000 here and there—the Nazi conspirators made terror and violence and arson, as we said yesterday, fundamental instruments of their labor enslavement policy. Twenty days after the Defendant Sauckel’s demands of the 5th of October 1942, a top official in the Defendant Rosenberg’s Ministry described the measures taken to meet these demands. I wish to refer now to Document Number 294-PS, which is Exhibit Number USA-185. This document is a top-secret memorandum, dated the 25th of October 1942, signed by one Bräutigam. I wish to quote from Page 4 of the English text starting with the last paragraph, as follows—in the German text it appears at Page 8, Paragraph 2—quoting directly:
“We now experienced the grotesque picture of having to recruit, precipitately, millions of laborers from the Occupied Eastern Territories, after prisoners of war had died of hunger like flies, in order to fill the gaps that have formed within Germany. Now suddenly the food question no longer existed. In the customary limitless disregard for the Slavic people, ‘recruiting’ methods were used which probably have their precedent only in the blackest periods of the slave trade. A regular manhunt was inaugurated. Without consideration of health or age, the people were shipped to Germany where it turned out immediately that more than 100,000 had to be sent back because of serious illness and other incapability for work.”
The Defendant Rosenberg wrote, himself, concerning these brutalities, to the instigator of them, the Defendant Sauckel; and we refer now to Document Number 018-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-186.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, from where did that top-secret document come?
MR. DODD: It came from the files of the Defendant Rosenberg.
This document, 018-PS, is a letter from the Defendant Rosenberg to the Defendant Sauckel; and it is dated the 21st day of December 1942, with attachments. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting at the middle of the second paragraph which reads as follows:
“The reports I have received show that the increase of the guerilla bands in the Occupied Eastern Territories is largely due to the fact that the methods used for procuring laborers in these regions are felt to be forced measures of mass deportations, so that the endangered persons prefer to escape their fate by withdrawing into the woods or going to the guerilla bands.”
Passing now to Page 4 of the same English text, there is an attachment to Rosenberg’s letter consisting of parts excerpted from letters of residents of the Occupied Eastern Territories—excerpted by Nazi censors apparently. In the German text it appears at Page 6, Paragraphs 1 and 2. Starting the quotation:
“At our place, new things have happened. People are being taken to Germany. On October 5 some people from the Kowkuski district were scheduled to go, but they did not want to and the village was set on fire. They threatened to do the same thing in Borowytschi, as not all who were scheduled to depart wanted to go. Thereupon three truckloads of Germans arrived and set fire to their houses. In Wrasnytschi 12 houses and in Borowytschi 3 houses were burned.
“On October 1 a new conscription of labor forces took place. Of what happened, I will describe the most important to you. You cannot imagine the bestiality. You probably remember what we were told about the Soviets during the rule of the Poles. At that time we did not believe it and now it seems just as incredible. The order came to supply 25 workers, but no one reported. All had fled. Then the German police came and began to ignite the houses of those who had fled. The fire burned furiously, since it had not rained for 2 months. In addition the grain stacks were in the farm yards. You can imagine what took place. The people who had hurried to the scene were forbidden to extinguish the flames, were beaten and arrested, so that six homesteads were burned down. The policemen meanwhile ignited other houses. The people fall on their knees and kiss their hands, but the policemen beat them with rubber truncheons and threaten to burn down the whole village. I do not know how this would have ended if Sapurkany had not intervened. He promised that there would be laborers by the next morning. During the fire the police went through the adjoining villages, seized the laborers, and brought them under arrest. Wherever they did not find any laborers, they detained the parents until the children appeared. That is how they raged throughout the night in Bielosersk . . . .
“The workers who had not yet appeared by then were to be shot. All schools were closed and the married teachers were sent to work here, while the unmarried ones go to work in Germany. They are now catching humans as the dogcatchers used to catch dogs. They are already hunting for 1 week and have not yet enough. The imprisoned workers are locked in the schoolhouse. They cannot even go to perform their natural functions, but have to do it like pigs in the same room. People from many villages went on a certain day to a pilgrimage to the Poczajów Monastery. They were all arrested, locked in, and will be sent to work. Among them there are lame, blind, and aged people.”
Despite the fact that the Defendant Rosenberg wrote this letter with this attachment, we say he nevertheless countenanced the use of force in order to furnish slave labor to Germany and admitted his responsibility for the “unusual and hard measures” that were employed. I refer to excerpts from the transcript of an interrogation under oath of the Defendant Rosenberg on the 6th of October 1945, which is Exhibit USA-187, and I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text starting with the ninth paragraph.
THE PRESIDENT: You haven’t given us the PS number.
MR. DODD: It has no PS number.
THE PRESIDENT: I beg your pardon. Has a copy of it been given to Rosenberg’s counsel?
MR. DODD: Yes, it has been. It is at the end of the document book, if Your Honors please, the document book the Tribunal has.
DR. ALFRED THOMA (Counsel for the Defendant Rosenberg): In the name of my client, I object to the reading of this document for the following reasons:
In the preliminary hearings my client was questioned several times on the subject of employment of labor from the eastern European nations. He stated: that the Defendant Sauckel, by virtue of the authority he received from the Führer and by order of the Delegate for the Four Year Plan, had the right to give him instructions; that he (the Defendant Rosenberg) nevertheless demanded that recruiting of labor be conducted on a voluntary basis; that this was in fact carried out; and that Sauckel agreed, provided that the quota could be met. Rosenberg further stated that on several occasions in the course of joint discussions his Ministry demanded that the quota be reduced and that in part it was, in fact, reduced.
This document which is now going to be presented does not mention all these statements, it only contains fragments of them. In order to make it possible both for the Tribunal and the Defense to obtain a complete picture, I ask the Tribunal that the Prosecution be requested to present the entire records of the statements and, before submitting the document officially, to discuss the retranslation with the Defense so as to avoid misunderstandings.
THE PRESIDENT: I am not sure that I understand your objection. You say, as I understood it, that Sauckel had authority from Hitler. Is that right?
DR. THOMA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: And that Rosenberg was carrying out that authority.
DR. THOMA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: But all that counsel for the Prosecution is attempting to do at the moment is to put in evidence an interrogation of Rosenberg. With reference to that, you ask that he should put in the whole interrogation?
DR. THOMA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we don’t know yet whether he intends to put in the whole interrogation or a part of it.
DR. THOMA: I know only one thing: I already have in my hand the document which the Prosecution wishes to submit and I can see from it that it contains only fragments of the whole interrogation. What in particular it does not contain is the fact that Rosenberg always insisted on voluntary recruiting only and that he continually demanded a reduction of the quota. That is not contained in the document to be submitted.
THE PRESIDENT: If counsel for the Prosecution reads a part of the interrogation, and you wish to refer to another part of the interrogation in order that the part he has read should not be misleading, you will be at liberty to do so when he has read his part of the interrogation. Is that clear?
DR. THOMA: Yes. But then I request the Tribunal to ask counsel for the Prosecution if the document which he intends to submit contains the whole of Rosenberg’s statement.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, were you going to put in the whole of Rosenberg’s interrogation?
MR. DODD: No, Your Honor, I was not prepared to put in the whole of Rosenberg’s interrogation, but only certain parts of it. These parts are available, and have been for some time, to counsel. The whole of the Rosenberg interrogation in English was given to Sauckel’s counsel, however, and he has the entire text of it, the only available copy that we have.
THE PRESIDENT: Has counsel for Rosenberg not got the entire document?
MR. DODD: He has only the excerpt that we propose to read into the record here at this time.
DR. THOMA: May I say something?
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Dodd, the Tribunal considers that if you propose to put in a part of the interrogation, the whole interrogation ought to be submitted to the defendant’s counsel, that then you may read what part you like of the interrogation, and then defendant’s counsel may refer to any other part of the interrogation directly if it is necessary for the purpose of explaining the part which has been read by counsel for the Prosecution. So before you use this interrogation, Rosenberg’s counsel must have a copy of the whole interrogation.
MR. DODD: I might say, Your Honor, that we turned over the whole interrogation to counsel for the Defendant Sauckel; and we understood that he would make it available to all other counsel for the Defense. Apparently, that did not happen.
DR. THOMA: Thank you, Mr. President.
DR. SERVATIUS: I received these documents from the Prosecution last night. They were in English; that is sufficient for me, but counsel for the other defendants are not all in a position to follow the English text, so that certain difficulties arise, and I must find time to interpret the document to my colleagues. But it would be desirable if the Prosecution could give us the German text, for the interrogation took place in German and was translated into English, so that the original German text should be available.
Those are the difficulties, and I would like to suggest that the German text be also handed to us as soon as possible.
MR. DODD: With reference to the so-called German text, the original is an English text. These interrogations were made through an interpreter and they were transcribed in English so that the original text is an English text, and that is what was turned over to the attorney for the Defendant Sauckel with the understanding that it would be made available to all other counsel.
THE PRESIDENT: But of course that doesn’t quite meet their difficulties because they don’t all of them speak English, or are not all able to read English, so I am afraid you must wait until Rosenberg’s counsel has got a copy of the entire interrogation in his own language.
MR. DODD: Very well.
Passing on beyond the document to which we have just referred—which we now withdraw in view of the ruling—and which we will offer at a later date after we have complied with the ruling of the Court, we have a letter dated the 21st of December 1942, which is Document 018-PS, and which bears Exhibit Number USA-186—which, by the way, is a letter from the Defendant Rosenberg to the Defendant Sauckel—and I wish to quote from Page 1, Paragraph 3 of the English text. In the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly:
“Even if I in no way deny that the numbers demanded by the Reich Minister for Armament and Munitions as well as by the agricultural economy justify unusual and severe measures, I must, because I am answerable for the Occupied Eastern Territories, emphatically request that, in filling the quota demanded, measures be excluded the consequences and our toleration of which will some day be held against me and my collaborators.”
In the Ukraine area, arson was indeed used as a terror instrument to enforce these conscription measures; and we refer now to Document Number 254-PS, which is Exhibit USA-188. This document is from an official of the Rosenberg Ministry and was also found in the Rosenberg file. It is dated June 29, 1944 and encloses a copy of a letter from one Paul Raab, a district commissioner in the territory of Wassilkov, to the Defendant Rosenberg. I wish to quote from Raab’s letter, Page 1, starting with Paragraph 1 of the English text which reads as follows:
“According to a charge by the Supreme Command of the Army, I burned down several houses . . . in the territory of Wassilkov, Ukraine, belonging to insubordinate people ordered to labor service—this accusation is true.”
Passing now to the third paragraph:
“During the year of 1942 the conscription of workers was accomplished nearly exclusively by way of propaganda. Only rarely was force necessary. But in August 1942, measures had to be taken against two families in the villages of Glevenka and Soliony-Shatior, each of which were to supply one person for labor. Both had been requested in June for the first time but had not obeyed, although requested repeatedly. They had to be brought in by force, but succeeded twice in escaping from the collecting camp in Kiev or while in transit. Before the second arrest, the fathers of both of the workers were taken into custody as hostages to be released only when their sons appeared. When, after the second escape, the re-arrest of both the young men and the fathers was ordered, the police patrols detailed to do this, found the houses empty.”
Passing to Paragraph 4, it is stated, and I quote directly:
“At that time I decided at last to take measures to show the increasingly rebellious Ukrainian youth that our orders have to be followed. I ordered the burning of the houses of the two fugitives.”
Would Your Honor like to have the rest of that paragraph?
THE PRESIDENT: I think you should read the next few lines.
MR. DODD: “The result was that in the future people obeyed, willingly, orders concerning labor obligations. However, the practice of burning houses has not become known for the first time by my actions, but was suggested in a secret letter from the Reich Commissioner for Allocation of Labor specifically as a coercive measure in case other measures should fail. This harsh punishment was acceptable to the local population . . .”
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): The Commissioner for Labor, Mr. Dodd—you just said, “an order from the Commissioner of Labor.” Who was that?
MR. DODD: Well, we have discussed this matter previously to our appearance here today. The document does not identify him by name. We are not sure. The Defendant Sauckel was called Plenipotentiary General for Labor, and we think we can’t go much further, and say we don’t know. It just does not appear.
THE TRIBUNAL (Mr. Biddle): Thank you.
MR. DODD: Reading that last sentence again:
“This harsh punishment was acceptable to the local population because previous to this step both families had ridiculed on every hand the duty-conscious people who sent their children partly voluntarily to the labor allocation.”
Turning to Paragraph 2 on Page 2, beginning about two-thirds of the way through the paragraph, I wish to read as follows—in the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 1:
“After initial successes, a passive resistance of the population started, which finally forced me to turn again to arrests, confiscations, and transfers to labor camps. After a whole transport of conscripted laborers overcame the police at the railroad station in Wassilkov and escaped, I saw again the necessity for strict measures. A few ring-leaders, who of course had long since escaped, were located in Plissezkoje and in Mitnitza. After repeated attempts to get hold of them, their houses were burned down.”
And finally, I wish to pass to the last paragraph on Page 3 of that same document. In the German text it appears at Page 5, Paragraph 7. Quoting from that last paragraph on the third page:
“My actions toward fugitive labor draftees were always reported to District Commissioner Döhrer, of the Wassilkov office, and to the Commissioner General in Kiev. Both of them knew the circumstances and agreed with my measures because of their success.”
That is the end of that part of the quotation.
That Generalkommissar in Kiev, as we indicated yesterday and again this morning, was the man Koch—we quoted his statement about the master race.
Another document confirms arson as an instrument of enforcing this labor program in the village of Bielosersk in the Ukraine in cases of resistance to forced labor recruitment. Atrocities committed in this village are related in Document Number 018-PS, which is already in evidence as Exhibit USA-186. But in addition there is Document Number 290-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-189. This document consists of correspondence originating within the Rosenberg ministry, which was, of course, the office headquarters of the Defendant Rosenberg; and it is dated the 12th day of November 1943. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting with the last line, as follows:
“But even if Müller had been present at the burning of houses in connection with the Reich conscription in Bielosersk, this should by no means lead to the removal of Müller from office. It is mentioned specifically in a directive of the Commissioner General in Luck, of 21 September 1942, referring to the extreme urgency of national conscription, that farms of those who refuse to work are to be burned and their relatives are to be arrested as hostages and brought to forced labor camps.”
The SS troops were directed to participate in the abduction of these forced laborers and also in the raids on villages, burning of villages, and were directed to turn the entire population over for slave labor in Germany.
We refer to Document Number 3012-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-190. This document is a secret SS order and it is dated the 19th day of March 1943. I wish to quote from Page 3 of the English text starting with the third paragraph. In the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. It says, and I quote it:
“The activity of the labor offices, that is, of recruiting commissions, is to be supported to the greatest extent possible. It will not be possible always to refrain from using force. During a conference with the chief of the labor allocation staffs, it was agreed that whatever prisoners could be released should be put at the disposal of the commissioner of the labor office. When searching villages or when it becomes necessary to burn down villages, the whole population will be put at the disposal of the commissioner by force.”
THE PRESIDENT: Shouldn’t you read Number 4 which follows it?
MR. DODD: Number 4 says:
“As a rule, no more children will be shot.”
I might say to Your Honor that parts of these documents are going to be relied on for other purposes later and it sometimes may appear to the Tribunal that we are overlooking some of these excerpts, but nevertheless I am grateful to have them called to our attention because they are most pertinent to these allegations as well.
From the community of Zhitomir where the Defendant Sauckel appealed for more workers for the Reich, the Commissioner General reported on the brutality of the conspirator’s program, which he described as a program of coercion and slavery. And I now refer to Document Number 265-PS, which is Exhibit USA-191. This document is a secret report of a conference between the Commissioner General of Zhitomir and the Defendant Rosenberg in the community of Vinnitza on the 17th of June 1943. The report itself is dated the 30th of June 1943 and is signed by Leyser. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, beginning with the last paragraph; and in the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. Quoting it directly:
“The symptoms created by the recruiting of workers are, no doubt, well known to the Reich Minister through reports and his own observations. Therefore I shall not repeat them. It is certain that a recruitment of labor in the true sense of the word can hardly be spoken of. In most cases it is nowadays a matter of actual conscription by force.”
Passing now to Page 2 of that same document, and to Paragraph 1, line 11—in the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 2—it says; and I quote it directly:
“But as the Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor explained to us the gravity of the situation, we had no alternative. I consequently have authorized the commissioners of the areas to apply the severest measures in order to achieve the imposed quota. That a lowering of morale is coupled with this needs no further proof. It is nevertheless essential to win the war on this front too. The problem of labor mobilization cannot be handled with gloves.”
The recruitment measures which we have been discussing enslaved so many citizens of occupied countries that whole areas were depopulated.
I now wish to refer to our Document Number 3000-PS, which is Exhibit USA-192. This document is a partial translation of a report from the chief of Main Office III with the High Command in Minsk, and it is dated the 28th day of June 1943. It was sent to Ministerialdirektor Riecke, who was a top official in the Rosenberg Ministry. I wish to read from Page 1 of the English text, starting with the second paragraph, as follows:
“Thus recruitment of labor for the Reich, however necessary, had disastrous effects, for the recruitment measures in the last months and weeks were absolute manhunts, which have an irreparable political and economic effect . . . . From . . . White Ruthenia approximately 50,000 people have been obtained for the Reich so far. Another 130,000 are to be taken. Considering the 2,400,000 total population . . . the fulfillment of these quotas is impossible. . . . Owing to the sweeping drives of the SS and police in November 1942, about 115,000 hectares of farmland . . . are not used, as the population is not there and the villages have been razed. . . .”
We have already referred to the conspirators’ objective of permanently weakening the enemy through the enslavement of labor and the breaking up of families; and we invite the Tribunal’s attention to Document 031-PS, which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-171, for we desire to emphasize that the policy was applied in the Eastern Occupied Territories with the Defendant Rosenberg’s approval of a plan for the apprehension and deportation of 40,000 to 50,000 youths of the ages of 10 to 14. Now the stated purpose of this plan was to prevent a reinforcement of the enemy’s military strength and to reduce the enemy’s biological potentialities. We have already quoted from Page 3 of the English text of that document to establish that the Defendant Rosenberg approved that plan, the so-called Hay Action plan. We referred to it yesterday afternoon.
Further evidence of the conspirators’ plan to weaken their enemies, in utter disregard of the rules of international law, is contained in Document Number 1702-PS, which bears Exhibit Number USA-193. This document is a secret order, issued by a rear area military commandant to the district commissar at Kasatin, dated the 25th of December 1943. I quote from Page 3 of the English text at Paragraph 1. In the German text it appears at Page 12, Paragraph 1.
“The able-bodied male population between 15 and 65 years of age and the live stock are to be shipped back from the district east of the line Belilovka-Berditchev-Zhitomir (exclusive of these places).”
This program, which we have been describing, and the brutal measures that it employed were not limited to Poland and the Occupied Eastern Territories but covered and cursed Western Europe as well. Frenchmen, Dutchmen, Belgians, Italians, all came to know the yoke of slavery and the brutality of their slavemasters.
In France these slavemasters intensified their program in the early part of 1943, pursuant to instructions which the Defendant Speer telephoned to the Defendant Sauckel at 8 o’clock in the evening on the 4th day of January 1943 from Hitler’s headquarters. I now refer to Document Number 556(13)-PS, which is Exhibit USA-194. This document, incidentally, is a note for his own files, signed by the Defendant Sauckel, dated the 5th of January 1943. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, Paragraph 1 as follows:
“On 4 January 1943 at 8 p.m. Minister Speer telephones from the Führer’s headquarters and communicates that on the basis of the Führer’s decision, it is no longer necessary to give special consideration to Frenchmen in the further recruiting of specialists and helpers in France. The recruiting can proceed with vigor and with sharpened measures.”
To overcome resistance to his slave labor program, the Defendant Sauckel improvised new impressment measures which were applied to both France and Italy by his own agents and which he himself labelled as grotesque. I now refer to Document Number R-124, which is Exhibit USA-179, and particularly Page 2 and Paragraph 2 of the English text; in the German text it appears at Page 8, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly from that page and that paragraph a statement made by Sauckel on 1 March 1944 at a meeting of the Central Planning Board:
“The most abominable point against which I have to fight is the claim that there is no organization in these districts properly to recruit Frenchmen, Belgians, and Italians and to dispatch them to work. So I have even proceeded to employ and train a whole staff of French and Italian agents of both sexes who for good pay, just as was done in olden times for ‘shanghaiing,’ go hunting for men and dupe them, using liquor as well as persuasion in order to dispatch them to Germany.
“Moreover, I have charged several capable men with founding a special labor allocation organization of our own, and this by training and arming, under the aegis of the Higher SS and Police Führer, a number of indigenous units; but I still have to ask the munitions ministry for arms for these men. For during the last year alone several dozens of high-ranking labor allocation officials of great ability have been shot. All these means must be used, grotesque as it may sound, to refute the allegation that there is no organization to bring labor to Germany from these countries.”
This same slave labor hunt proceeded in Holland, as it did in France, with terror and abduction. I now refer to Document Number 1726-PS, which is Exhibit USA-195. This document is entitled, “Statement of the Netherlands Government in View of the Prosecution and Punishment of the German Major War Criminals.” I wish to quote from enclosure “h,” entitled “Central Bureau for Statistics—The Deportation of Netherlands’ Workmen to Germany.” It is Page 1 of the English text, starting with the first paragraph; and in the German text it appears at Page 1, also Paragraph 1. Quoting it directly, it reads as follows:
“Many big and medium-size large business concerns, especially in the metal industry, were visited by German commissions who selected workmen for deportation. This combing-out was called the ‘Sauckel action,’ so named after its leader, who was charged with the procurement, of foreign workmen for Germany.
“The employers had to cancel the contracts with the selected workmen; and the latter were forced to register at the labor offices, which then took charge of the deportation under supervision of German ‘Fachberater.’
“Workmen who refused—relatively few—were prosecuted by the Sicherheitsdienst—the SD. If captured by this service, they were mostly lodged for some time in one of the infamous prisoners’ camps in the Netherlands and eventually put to work in Germany.
“In these prosecutions the Sicherheitsdienst was supported by the German police service, which was connected with the labor offices and was composed of members of the NSB and the like.
“At the end of April 1942 the deportation of workers started on a grand scale. Consequently, in the months of May and June, the number of deportees amounted to not less than 22,000 and 24,000 respectively, of which many were metal workers.
“After that the action slackened somewhat, but in October 1942 another peak was reached (2,600). After the big concerns, the smaller ones had, in their turn, to give up their personnel. . . .
“This changed in November 1944. The Germans then started a ruthless campaign for manpower, passing by the labor offices. Without warning they lined off whole quarters of the towns, seized people in the streets or in the houses and deported them.
“In Rotterdam and Schiedam where these raids took place on 10 and 11 November, the number of people thus deported was estimated at 50,000 and 5,000, respectively.
“In other places where the raids were held later, the numbers were much lower, because one was forewarned by the events. The exact figures are not known as they have never been published by the occupants.
“The people thus seized were put to work partly in the Netherlands, partly in Germany.”
A document found in the OKH files furnishes further evidence of the seizure of workers in Holland; and I refer to Document Number 3003-PS, which is Exhibit USA-196. This document is a partial translation of the text of a lecture, delivered by one Lieutenant Haupt of the German Wehrmacht, concerning the situation of the war economy in the Netherlands. I wish to quote from Page 1 of the English text, starting with the fourth line of Paragraph 1—quoting that directly, which reads as follows:
“There had been some difficulties with the Arbeitseinsatz, that is, during the man-catching action, which became very noticeable because it was unorganized and unprepared. People were arrested in the streets and taken out of their homes. It has been impossible to carry out a uniform exemption procedure in advance, because for security reasons the time for the action had not been previously announced. Certificates of exemption, furthermore, were to some extent not recognized by the officials who carried out the action. Not only workers who had become available through the stoppage of industry, but also those who were employed in our installations producing things for our immediate need were apprehended or did not dare to go into the streets. In any case it proved to be a great loss to us.”
I might say to the Tribunal, that the hordes of people displaced in Germany today indicate, to a very considerable extent, the length to which the conspirators’ labor program succeeded. The best available Allied and German data reveal that, as of January 1945, approximately 4,795,000 foreign civilian workers had been put to work for the German war effort in the Old Reich; and among them were forced laborers of more than 14 different nationalities. I now refer to Document Number 2520-PS, Exhibit USA-197, which is an affidavit executed by Edward L. Deuss, an economic analyst.
At the top of the first page there are tables setting forth the nationality and then the numbers of the various nationals and other groupings or prisoners of war and politicals, so-called. The workers alone total, according to Mr. Deuss who is an expert in the field, the 4,795,000 figure to which I have just referred. In the second paragraph of this statement of Deuss, I should like to read for the record and quote directly:
“I, Edward L. Deuss, for 3 years employed by the Foreign Economic Administration, Washington, as an economic analyst in London, Paris, and Germany, specializing in labor and population problems of Germany during the war, do hereby certify that the figures of foreign labor employed in the Old Reich have been compiled on the basis of the best available German and Allied sources of material. The accompanying table represents a combination of German official estimates of foreigners working in Germany in January 1945, and of American, British, and French figures of the number of foreigners actually discovered in the Old Reich since 10 May 1945.”
Only a very small proportion of these imported laborers came to Germany on a voluntary basis. At the March 1, 1944 meeting of this same Central Planning Board, to which we have made reference before, the Defendant Sauckel himself made clear the vast scale on which free men had been forced into this labor slavery. He made the statement, and I quote from Document Number R-124, which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-179 and from which I have quoted earlier this morning. I wish to refer to Page 11 of that document, the middle paragraph, Paragraph 3. In the German text it appears at Page 4, Paragraph 2—the Defendant Sauckel speaking—and I quote directly from that document:
“Out of 5 million foreign workers who arrived in Germany, not even 200,000 came voluntarily.”
The Nazi conspirators were not satisfied just to tear 5 million odd persons from their children, from their homes, from their native land. But in addition, these defendants, who sit today in this courtroom, insisted that this vast number of wretched human beings who were in the so-called Old Reich as forced laborers must be starved, given less than sufficient to eat, often beaten and maltreated, and permitted to die wholesale for want of food, for want of even the fundamental requirements of decent clothing, for the want of adequate shelter or indeed sometimes just because they produced too little.
Now these conditions of deportation are vividly described in Document Number 054-PS, which is a report made to the Defendant Rosenberg concerning the treatment of Ukrainian labor. I wish to refer to Document Number 054-PS, which bears the Exhibit Number USA-198. Before quoting from it directly—according to this report the plight of these hapless victims was aggravated because many were dragged off without opportunity to collect their possessions. Indeed, men and women were snatched from bed and lodged in cellars pending deportation. Some arrived in night clothing. Brutal guards beat them. They were locked in railroad cars for long periods without any toilet facilities at all, without food, without water, without heat. The women were subjected to physical and moral indignities and indecencies during medical examinations.
I refer how specifically to this Document Number 054-PS, which consists of a covering letter to the Defendant Rosenberg, first of all, and is signed by one Theurer, a 1st lieutenant in the Wehrmacht, to which is attached a copy of a report by the commandant of the collecting center for Ukrainian specialists at Kharkov; and it also consists of a letter written by one of the specialists in the Rosenberg office—no, by one of the workers, not in the Rosenberg office, but one of the specialists they were recruiting, by the name of Grigori. I wish to quote from the report at Page 2, starting at Paragraph 4 of the English text—and in the German text it appears at Page 3, Paragraph 4. Quoting directly from that page of the English text:
“The starosts, that is village elders, are frequently corruptible; they continue to have the skilled workers, whom they drafted, dragged from their beds at night to be locked up in cellars until they are shipped. Since the male and female workers often are not given any time to pick up their luggage and so forth, many skilled workers arrive at the collecting center for skilled workers with equipment entirely insufficient (without shoes or change of clothing, no eating and drinking utensils, no blankets, et cetera). In particularly extreme cases, therefore, new arrivals have to be sent back again immediately to get the things most necessary for them. If people do not come along at once, threatening and beating of skilled workers by the above-mentioned local militia become a daily occurrence and are reported from most of the communities. In some cases women were beaten until they could no longer march. One bad case in particular was reported by me to the commander of the civil police here (Colonel Samek) for severe punishment (village of Sozolinkov, district of Dergatchi). The encroachments of the starosts and the militia are of a particularly grave nature because they usually justify themselves by claiming that all that is done in the name of the German Armed Forces. In reality, the latter have conducted themselves throughout in a highly understanding manner toward the skilled workers and the Ukrainian population. The same, however, cannot be said of some of the administrative agencies. To illustrate this, be it mentioned that a woman once arrived dressed with barely more than a shirt.”
Passing now to Page 4 of this same document, starting with the 10th line of the third paragraph, and in the German text it appears at Page 5, Paragraph 2. Quoting directly again:
“On the basis of reported incidents, attention must be called to the fact that it is inexcusable to keep workers locked in the cars for many hours, so that they cannot even take care of the calls of nature. It is evident that the people of a transport must be given an opportunity from time to time, to get drinking water, to wash, and to relieve themselves. Cars have been shown in which people had made holes so that they could attend to the calls of nature. When nearing bigger stations, persons should, if possible, relieve themselves far from these stations.”
Turning to Page 5 of the same document, Paragraph 12—in the German text it appears at Page 6, Paragraph 1:
“The following abuses were reported from the delousing stations:
“In the women’s and girls’ shower rooms, services were partly performed by men, or men would mingle around or even help with the soaping, and vice versa there were female personnel in the men’s shower rooms. Men also for some time were taking photographs in the women’s shower rooms. Since mainly Ukrainian peasants were transported in the last months, as far as the female portion of these are concerned, they were mostly of a high moral standard and used to strict modesty; they must have considered such a treatment as a national degradation. The above-mentioned abuses have been, according to our knowledge, settled by the intervention of the transport commanders. The reports of the photographing were made from Halle; the reports about the former were made from Kiwerce. Such incidents, altogether unworthy of the dignity and prestige of the Greater German Reich may still occur here or there.”
Sick and infirm people of the occupied countries were taken indiscriminately with the rest. Those who managed to survive the trip into Germany but who arrived too sick to work were returned like cattle together with those who fell ill at work, because they were of no further use to the Germans. The return trip took place under the same terrible conditions as the initial journey, and without any kind of medical supervision. Death came to many and their corpses were unceremoniously dumped out of the cars, with no provision for burial.
I quote from Page 3, Paragraph 3 of Document Number 054-PS. In the German text it appears at Page 2, Paragraph 3. Quoting directly:
“Very depressing for the morale of the skilled workers and the population is the effect of those persons shipped back from Germany who had become disabled or had been unfit for employment from the very beginning.
“Several times already transports of skilled workers on their way to Germany have crossed returning transports of such disabled persons and have stood on the tracks alongside of each other for a long period of time. These returning transports are insufficiently cared for. Nothing but sick, injured, or weak people, mostly 50 to 60 in a car usually escorted by 3 to 4 men. There is neither sufficient care nor food. The returnees made frequently unfavorable—if also surely exaggerated—statements relative to their treatment in Germany and on the way. As a result of all this and of what the people could see with their own eyes, a psychosis of fear was evoked among the skilled workers, that is, the whole transport to Germany. Several transport leaders, of the 62d and 63d transports, in particular, reported on it in detail. In one case the leader of the transport of skilled workers observed with his own eyes how a person who had died of hunger was unloaded from a returning transport on the side track (1st Lieutenant Hofmann of the 63rd Transport Station, Darniza). Another time it was reported that three dead had to be deposited by the side of the tracks on the way and had to be left behind unburied by the escort. It is also regrettable that these disabled persons arrive here without any identification. From the reports of the transport commanders, one gets the impression that these unemployable persons are assembled, penned into the wagons, and sent off provided only by a few men escorts and without special care for food and medical or other attendance. The labor office at the place of arrival as well as the transport commanders confirm this impression.”
Incredible as it may seem, mothers in the throes of childbirth shared cars with those infected with tuberculosis or venereal diseases. Babies, when born, were hurled out of these car windows; and dying persons lay on the bare floors of freight cars without even the small comfort of straw.
I refer to Document Number 084-PS, which is Exhibit USA-199. This document is an interdepartmental report, prepared by Dr. Gutkelch, in the Defendant Rosenberg’s Ministry, and it is dated the 30th of September 1942. I wish to quote from Page 10 of the English text, starting with the fourth line from the top of the page. In the German text it appears at Page 22, Paragraph 1. Quoting directly from that paragraph:
“How necessary this interference was is shown by the fact that this train with returning laborers had stopped at the same place where a train with newly recruited Eastern Workers had stopped. Because of the corpses in the trainload of returning laborers, a catastrophe might have been precipitated had it not been for the mediation of Mrs. Miller. In this train women gave birth to babies who were thrown out of the windows during the journey, people having tuberculosis and venereal diseases rode in the same car, dying people lay in freight cars without straw, and one of the dead was thrown on the railway embankment. The same must have occurred in other returning transports.”
Some aspects of the Nazi transport were described by the Defendant Sauckel himself in a decree which he issued on the 20th of July 1942; and I refer specifically to Document Number 2241(2)-PS, which is Exhibit USA-200. I ask that the Tribunal take judicial notice of the original decree, which is published in Section BIa, at Page 48e of a book entitled Die Beschäftigung von ausländischen Arbeitskräften in Deutschland. I quote from Page 1, Paragraph 2, of the English text; and I am quoting directly:
“According to reports of transportation commanders”—Transportleiter—“presented to me, the special trains provided by the German railway have frequently been in a really broken-down condition. Numerous window panes have been missing in the coaches. Old French coaches without lavatories have been partly employed so that the workers had to fit up an emptied compartment as a lavatory. In other cases, the coaches were not heated in winter so that the lavatories quickly became unusable because the water system was frozen and the flushing apparatus was therefore without water.”
The Tribunal will unquestionably have noticed or observed that a number of the documents which we have referred to—and which we have offered—consist of complaints by functionaries of the Defendant Rosenberg’s Ministry, or by others, concerning the conditions under which foreign workers were recruited and lived. I think it is appropriate to say that these documents have been presented by the Prosecution really for two purposes, or for a dual purpose; to establish, first, the facts recited therein, of course, but also to show that these conspirators had knowledge of these conditions and that notwithstanding their knowledge of these conditions, these conspirators continued to countenance and assist in this enslavement program of a vast number of citizens of occupied countries.
Once within Germany, slave laborers were subjected to almost unbelievable brutality and degradation by their captors; and the character of this treatment was in part made plain by the conspirators’ own statements, as in Document Number 016-PS, which is in evidence as Exhibit USA-168; and I refer to Page 12, Paragraph 2 of the English text. In the German text it appears at Page 17, Paragraph 4. Quoting directly:
“All the men must be fed, sheltered, and treated in such a way that they produce to the highest possible extent at the lowest conceivable degree of expenditure.”
Force and brutality as instruments of production found a ready adherent in the Defendant Speer who, in the presence of the Defendant Sauckel, said at a meeting of the Central Planning Board—and I refer to Document Number R-124, which is already in evidence and which has been referred to previously. It bears the Exhibit Number USA-179. I refer particularly to Page 42 of that Document R-124, and Paragraph 2 of that Page 42. The Defendant Speer, speaking at that meeting, stated:
“We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the side list decreased at once to one-fourth or one-fifth in factories where doctors are on the staff who examine the sick men. There is nothing to be said against SS and police taking drastic steps and putting those known as slackers into concentration camps. There is no alternative. Let it happen several times and the news will soon go around.”
At a later meeting of the Central Planning Board, Field Marshal Milch agreed that so far as workers were concerned—and again I refer to Document Number R-124 and to Page 26, Paragraph 2, in the English text, and in the German text at Page 17, Paragraph 1. Field Marshal Milch, speaking at a meeting of the Central Planning Board when the Defendant Speer was present, stated; and I am quoting directly:
“The list of the shirkers should be entrusted to Himmler . . . .”
Milch made particular reference to foreign workers again in this Document Number R-124 at Page 26, Paragraph 3—in the German text it appears at Page 18, Paragraph 3—when he said; and I am quoting him directly:
“It is therefore not possible to exploit fully all the foreigners unless we compel them by piece-work wages and have the possibility of taking measures against foreigners who are not doing their bit.”
The policy as actually executed was even more fearful than the policy as expressed by the conspirators. Indeed, these impressed workers were underfed and overworked; and they were forced to live in grossly overcrowded camps where they were held as virtual prisoners, and were otherwise denied adequate shelter, adequate clothing, adequate medical care and treatment. As a consequence, they suffered from many diseases and ailments. They were generally forced to work long hours, up to and beyond the point of exhaustion. They were beaten and subjected to all manner of inhuman indignities.
An example of this maltreatment is found in the conditions which prevailed in the Krupp factories. Foreign laborers at the Krupp works were given insufficient food to enable them to perform the work required of them.
I refer to Document Number D-316, which is Exhibit USA-201. This document was found in the Krupp files. It is a memorandum upon the Krupp stationery to a Herr Hupe, a director of the Krupp locomotive factory in Essen, Germany, dated the 14th of March 1942. I wish to refer to Page 1 of the English text, starting with Paragraph 1, as follows; and I am quoting directly:
“During the last few days we established that the food for the Russians employed here is so miserable that the people are getting weaker from day to day.
“Investigations showed that single Russians are not able to place a piece of metal for turning into position, for instance, because of lack of physical strength. The same conditions exist in all other places of work where Russians are employed.”
The condition of foreign workers in Krupp workers’ camps is described in detail in an affidavit executed in Essen, Germany, by Dr. Wilhelm Jäger, who was the senior camp doctor. It is Document Number D-288, which is Exhibit USA-202.
“I, Dr. Wilhelm Jäger, am a general practitioner in Essen, Germany, and its surroundings. I was born in Germany on 2 December 1888 and now live at Kettwig, Sengenholz 6, Germany.
“I make the following statement of my own free will. I have not been threatened in any way and I have not been promised any sort of reward.
“On the 1st of October 1942, I became senior camp doctor in the Krupp’s workers’ camps for foreigners and was generally charged with the medical supervision of all Krupp’s workers’ camps in Essen. In the course of my duties it was my responsibility to report upon the sanitary and health conditions of the workers’ camps to my superiors in the Krupp works.
“It was a part of my task to visit every Krupp camp which housed foreign civilian workers, and I am therefore able to make this statement on the basis of my personal knowledge.
“My first official act as senior camp doctor was to make a thorough inspection of the various camps. At that time, in October 1942, I found the following conditions:
“The Eastern Workers and Poles who worked in the Krupp works at Essen were kept at camps at Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse, Spenlestrasse, Heegstrasse, Germaniastrasse, Kapitän-Lehmannstrasse, Dechenschule, and Krämerplatz.”—When the term “Eastern Workers” is hereinafter used, it is to be taken as including Poles.—“All of the camps were surrounded by barbed wire and were closely guarded.
“Conditions in all of these camps were extremely bad. The camps were greatly overcrowded. In some camps there were twice as many people in a barrack as health conditions permitted.
“At Krämerplatz the inhabitants slept in treble-tiered bunks, and in the other camps they slept in double-tiered bunks. The health authorities prescribed a minimum space between beds of 50 centimeters, but the bunks in these camps were separated by a maximum of 20 to 30 centimeters.
“The diet prescribed for the Eastern Workers was altogether insufficient. They were given 1,000 calories a day less than the minimum prescribed for any German. Moreover, while German workers engaged in the heaviest work received 5,000 calories a day, the Eastern Workers with comparable jobs received only 2,000 calories. The Eastern Workers were given only two meals a day and their bread ration. One of these two meals consisted of a thin, watery soup. I had no assurance that the Eastern Workers, in fact, received the minimum which was prescribed. Subsequently, in 1943, I undertook to inspect the food prepared by the cooks; I discovered a number of instances in which food was withheld from the workers.
“The plan for food distribution called for a small quantity of meat per week. Only inferior meats rejected by the veterinary, such as horse meat or tuberculin-infested, was permitted for this purpose. This meat was usually cooked into a soup . . . .
“The percentage of Eastern Workers who were ill was twice as great as among the Germans. Tuberculosis was particularly widespread among the Eastern Workers. The tuberculosis rate among them was four times the normal rate (Eastern Workers, 2 percent; German, 0.5 percent). At Dechenschule approximately 2.5 percent of the workers suffered from open tuberculosis. The Tartars and Kirghises suffered most; as soon as they were overcome by this disease they collapsed like flies. The cause was bad housing, the poor quality and insufficient quantity of food, overwork, and insufficient rest.
“These workers were likewise afflicted with spotted fever. Lice, the carrier of this disease, together with countless fleas, bugs, and other vermin, tortured the inhabitants of these camps. As a result of the filthy conditions of the camps nearly all Eastern Workers were afflicted with skin disease. The shortage of food also caused many cases of Hunger-Oedema, Nephritis and Shiga-Kruse.
“It was the general rule that workers were compelled to go to work unless a camp doctor had certified that they were unfit for work. At Seumannstrasse, Grieperstrasse, Germaniastrasse, Kapitän-Lehmannstrasse, and Dechenschule there was no daily sick call. At these camps the doctors did not appear for 2 or 3 days. As a consequence workers were forced to go to work despite illness.
“I undertook to improve conditions as much as I could. I insisted upon the erection of some new barracks in order to relieve the overcrowded conditions of the camps. Despite this, the camps were still greatly overcrowded but not as much as before. I tried to alleviate the poor sanitary conditions in Krämerplatz and Dechenschule by having some emergency toilets installed; but the number was insufficient, and the situation was not materially altered . . . .
“With the onset of heavy air raids in March 1943, conditions in the camps greatly deteriorated. The problem of housing, feeding, and medical attention became more acute than ever. The workers lived in the ruins of their former barracks. Medical supplies which were used up, lost, or destroyed were difficult to replace. At times the water supply at the camps was completely shut off for periods of 8 to 14 days. We installed a few emergency toilets in the camps, but there were far too few of them to cope with the situation.
“During the period immediately following the March 1943 raids many foreign workers were made to sleep at the Krupp factories in the same rooms in which they worked. The day workers slept there at night, and the night workers slept there during the day, despite the noise which constantly prevailed. I believe that this condition continued until the entrance of American troops into Essen.
“As the pace of air raids was stepped up, conditions became progressively worse. On 28 July 1944 I reported to my superiors that:
“ ‘The sick barracks in camp Rabenhorst are in such a bad condition one cannot speak of a sick barracks any more. The rain leaks through in every corner. The housing of the sick is therefore impossible. The necessary labor for production is in danger because those persons who are ill cannot recover.’
“At the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944—I am not completely sure of the exact date—I obtained permission for the first time to visit the prisoner-of-war camps. My inspection revealed that conditions at these camps were worse than those I had found at the camps of the Eastern Workers in 1942. Medical supplies at such camps were virtually non-existent. In an effort to cure this intolerable situation, I contacted the Wehrmacht authorities whose duty it was to provide medical care for the prisoners of war. My persistent efforts came to nothing. After remonstrating with them over a period of 2 weeks, I was given a total of 100 aspirin tablets for over 3,000 prisoners of war.
“The French prisoner-of-war camp in Nöggerathstrasse had been destroyed in an air raid attack and its inhabitants were kept for nearly half a year in dog kennels, urinals, and in old bakehouses. The dog kennels were 3 feet high, 9 feet long, and 6 feet wide. Five men slept in each of them. The prisoners had to crawl into these kennels on all fours. The camp contained no tables, chairs, or cupboards. The supply of blankets was inadequate. There was no water in the camp. Such medical treatment as there was, was given in the open. Many of these conditions were reported to me in a report by Dr. Stinnesbeck, dated 12 June 1944, in which he said:
“ ‘. . . There are still 315 prisoners in the camp. One hundred seventy of these are no longer in barracks but in the tunnel in Grunertstrasse under the Essen-Mülheim railway line. This tunnel is damp and is not suitable for continued accommodation of human beings. The rest of the prisoners are accommodated in 10 different factories in the Krupp works. The medical attention is given by a French military doctor who takes great pains with his fellow countrymen. Sick people from Krupp factories must be brought to sick call. This inspection is held in the lavatory of a burned-out public house outside the camp. The sleeping accommodation of the four French orderlies is in what was the men’s room. In the sick bay there is a double-tier wooden bed. In general the treatment takes place in the open. In rainy weather it is held in the above-mentioned small room. These are insufferable conditions. There are no chairs, tables, cupboards, or water. The keeping of a register of sick people is impossible. Bandages and medical supplies are very scarce, although the badly wounded from the factory are very often brought here for first aid and have to be bandaged here before being transported to the hospital. There are many loud and lively complaints about food which the guard personnel confirms as being justified. Illness and loss of manpower must be reckoned with under these conditions . . . .’
“In my report to my superiors at Krupps, dated 2 September 1944, I stated . . . .
“Camp Humboldtstrasse has been inhabited by Italian military internees. After it had been destroyed by an air raid, the Italians were removed and 600 Jewish females from Buchenwald concentration camp were brought to work at the Krupp factories. Upon my first visit at Camp Humboldtstrasse, I found these persons suffering from open festering wounds and other ailments.
“I was the first doctor they had seen for at least a fortnight. There was no doctor in attendance at the camp. There were no medical supplies in the camp. They had no shoes and went about in their bare feet. The sole clothing of each consisted of a sack with holes for their arms and head. Their hair was shorn. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and closely guarded by SS guards.
“The amount of food in the camp was extremely meager and of very poor quality. The houses in which they lived consisted of the ruins of former barracks and they afforded no shelter against rain and other weather conditions. I reported to my superiors that the guards lived and slept outside their barracks as one could not enter them without being attacked by 10, 20, and up to 50 fleas. One camp doctor employed by me refused to enter the camp again after he had been bitten very badly. I visited this camp with Mr. Gröne on two occasions and both times we left the camp badly bitten. We had great difficulty in getting rid of the fleas and insects which had attacked us. As a result of this attack by insects of this camp I got large boils on my arms and the rest of my body. I asked my superiors at the Krupp works to undertake the necessary steps to delouse the camp so as to put an end to this unbearable vermin-infested condition. Despite this report, I did not find any improvement in sanitary conditions at the camp on my second visit a fortnight later.
“When foreign workers finally became too sick to work or were completely disabled, they were returned to the labor exchange in Essen and from there they were sent to a camp at Friedrichsfeld. Among persons who were returned to the labor exchange were aggravated cases of tuberculosis, malaria, neurosis, cancer which could not be treated by operation, old age, and general feebleness. I know nothing about conditions at this camp because I have never visited it. I only know that it was a place to which workers were sent who were no longer of any use to Krupp.
“My colleagues and I reported all of the foregoing matters to Mr. Ihn, director of Friedrich Krupp AG.; Dr. Wiele, personal physician of Gustav Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach; senior camp leader Kupke; and sometimes to the Essen health department. Moreover, I know that these gentlemen personally visited the camps.”—signed—“Dr. Wilhelm Jäger.”
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now until 2 o’clock.