2. THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

EXCERPT FROM THE STATEMENT OF THE PROSECUTION
REGARDING MILCH’S ACTIVITY IN THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD, 6 JANUARY 1947[[90]]

Mr. Denney: We come now to the part of the proof which places the defendant in the very center of the Slave Labor Program.

We have shown that from the outset of the war and prior thereto, he was thoroughly informed of the Nazi plan for total war, which contemplated the full use of all human material resources within the homeland. We will show he was active in the formation and announcement of decisions of the Central Planning Board. We will show the Board exercised jurisdiction in the matter of procurement, allocation, and use. He carried out the master plan for requisition, allocation, and use of human raw material for the war machine. There are words we will have by necessity to repeat as we introduce the documents—requisition, allocation, and use.

Our evidence will show that Milch, a member of the Central Planning Board, belonged to an organization—and here again we have another important word “belong”. He was one of two most essential men in the Planning Board that guided the decisions of that organization.

We will present to the Court excerpts from the minutes of some 12 conferences at every one of which Milch was present, starting with the first held in April 1942 and ending with the fifty-eighth held in May 1944. Actually, he was at all but eight conferences, and we use the figure “eight” advisably. We are not sure, he may have been in some of those. There is no question that he was in every one of those meetings which we introduce here. On occasions when Speer was not present Milch presided. We will show he actively participated when the Central Planning Board arrived at decisions with respect to the request, allocation, and use of this labor.

We will show he was active in the formation of the announcement of decisions of the Central Planning Board. We will show the Board exercised jurisdiction in the matter of procurement, allocation, and use of labor. And all of them were prisoners of war and were allocated to the German war effort. Requisition, allocation, and use were the dominating voice. Decisive influence, active participation, forced labor, illegal occupation—these are the words with which we are concerned, and these are the things with which he concerned himself.

Evidence

Prosecution Documents

Doc. No.Pros. Ex. No.Description of DocumentPage
R-12448-BStenographic record of the first conference of the Central Planning Board on 27 April 1942.[447]
R-12448-BLetter of 20 October 1942 transmitting the statutes of the Central Planning Board.[448]
1510-PS58Extracts from decree of 16 September 1943, defining the duties of the Planning Office of the Central Planning Board.[450]
3721-PS41-ATestimony of Fritz Sauckel, 22 September 1945, regarding the jurisdiction of the Central Planning Board.[452]
NI-109863Extracts from affidavit of Fritz Sauckel, 22 September 1946, regarding the jurisdiction of the Central Planning Board.[456]
R-12448-AExtracts from report on the eleventh conference of the Central Planning Board, 22 July 1942.[457]
R-12448-AExtracts from report on the seventeenth conference of the Central Planning Board, 28 October 1942.[459]
R-12448-AExtracts from stenographic minutes of twenty-first conference of Central Planning Board, 30 October 1942.[461]
R-12448-BExtracts from stenographic minutes of the twenty-third conference of the Central Planning Board, 3 November 1942.[465]
R-12448-AExtracts from stenographic minutes of the thirty-third conference of the Central Planning Board, 16 February 1943.[467]
R-12448-AExtracts from stenographic minutes of the thirty-sixth conference of the Central Planning Board, 22 April 1943.[471]
R-12448-AReport of the forty-second conference of the Central Planning Board, 23 June 1943.[475]
R-12448-AExtracts from stenographic minutes of the fifty-third conference of the Central Planning Board, 16 February 1944.[478]
R-12448-BReport on the fifty-third conference of the Central Planning Board, 16 February 1944.[479]
R-12448-AExtracts from stenographic minutes of the fifty-fourth conference of the Central Planning Board, 1 March 1944.[484]
R-12448-DExtracts from the report on the fifty-sixth conference of the Central Planning Board, 4 April 1944.[498]
NOKW-28749Letter from Milch to Sauckel, 8 April 1943, concerning the protection of industry.[499]
R-12448-ASpeer’s minutes of a conference with Hitler on 8 July 1943.[501]
R-12448-AExtract from the report by Saur of the conference with the Fuehrer, 5 March 1944.[502]

Defense Documents

Doc. No.Pros. Ex. No.Description of DocumentPage
R-1245Extract from the stenographic report of the eleventh conference of the Central Planning Board, 22 July 1942.[509]
R-1246Extract from the stenographic minutes of the twenty-second conference of the Central Planning Board, 2 November 1942.[510]
R-1247Extract from the stenographic minutes of the thirty-second conference of the Central Planning Board, 12 February 1943.[510]
R-1248Extract from the stenographic minutes of the thirty-third conference of the Central Planning Board, 16 February 1943.[511]
R-1249Extract from stenographic minutes of the thirty-ninth conference of the Central Planning Board, 23 April 1943.[516]
R-12431Extracts from the stenographic minutes of the fifty-fourth conference of the Central Planning Board, 1 March 1944.[517]

Testimony

Excerpts from the testimony given by defense witness Albert Speer before commission on 19 February 1947[502]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-B

STENOGRAPHIC RECORD OF THE FIRST CONFERENCE OF THE
CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD ON 27 APRIL 1942

Berlin, 27 April 1942

Secret

“THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD” IN THE FOUR YEAR PLAN

1ST CONFERENCE

Present:
The three members:
Reich Minister Speer,
Field Marshal Milch,
State Secretary Koerner.
Furthermore:
State Secretary Dr. Schulze-Fielitz, Ministry of Munitions, Ministerialrat von Normann, Four Year Plan.
Result:

I. The Central Planning in the Four Year Plan (Decree of the Reich Marshal of Greater Germany of 22 April 1942—VP 6707 g) is a task for leaders. It encompasses only principles and executive matters. It makes unequivocal decisions and supervises the execution of its directives. The Central Planning does not rely on anonymous institutions difficult to control, but always on individuals and fully responsible persons who are free in the selection of their work methods and their collaboration as far as there are no directives issued by the Central Planning.

II. Discussion of the situation in iron.

A. The objective is to reach a production of 2,2 million tons per month. In the first place it has to be established whether, after taking into account the excessive requests which were certainly made and of the difficulties confronting an increase of production (coal, transport) the present figures are sufficient (2 million tons). For the distribution in the third quarter these 2 million tons have to serve in any case as a basis.

B. The principles of distribution and the new quotas will be discussed in a subsequent conference with a wider circle of participants (see special protocol).

C. The iron-producing industry will be organized into a Reich association. It is to be established and made to operate as soon as possible. The creation of an interimistic liaison organization (Planning Group Iron) has, therefore, been abandoned. The task of the Reich Association ends with the production of iron and before the distribution of the iron.

D. For the position of president of the Reich Association Iron, Generaldirektor Voegler and Geheimrat Roechling[[91]] are suggested. Roechling was chosen, the appointment of whom would be approved by the Fuehrer, according to Reich Minister Speer. State Secretary Koerner will submit the proposal to the Reich Marshal [Goering].

III. The reorganization of the Upper Silesian Territory with the object of the highest and best utilization for war economy in mind is urgent. The selection of locations and the determining of capacities in this territory has to be expedited with regard to raw material, transport, and labor.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-B

LETTER OF 20 OCTOBER 1942 TRANSMITTING THE STATUTES
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

The Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan.

Central Planning Board.

Z. P. 1

Berlin, October 20, 1942

Enclosed I send you, for your information, the statutes of the Central Planning Board with the request to support the office of the “Central Planning Board” in every possible way in its work, and to direct, more particularly, your section chiefs and reporters to forward all information requested orally or by writing, in the shortest possible time. By this collaboration of your section chiefs and reporters, the building up of a larger apparatus in the framework of the “Central Planning Board” is to be avoided.

By Order:

[Typewritten] Walther Schieber

Certified: Schwinge

Ministerialregistrator

[Stamp of the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan.]

Distribution to—

a. The highest Reich authorities.

b. The Reich Protector.

c. The Governor General.

d. The executive authorities in the occupied territories.

STATUTES OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

1. The Central Planning Board, created by the Fuehrer and the Reich Marshal in order to unify armament and war economy, deals only with the decision of basic questions. Professional questions remain the task of the competent departments, which in their fields remain responsible within the framework of the decisions made by the Central Planning Board.

2. In order to have the conferences properly prepared and to have the execution of the decisions supervised, the Central Planning Board appoints an office. This office consists of the deputies appointed by each of three members of the Central Planning Board; one of these three deputies shall be appointed chief of the office.

[Handwritten marginal note on left side of the document: “To be forwarded”.]

3. In accordance with the attached Table of Organization [not reproduced], the office appoints reporters. These reporters are at the disposal of all members of the Central Planning Board. The office appoints one reporter to keep the record.

4. Office and reporters have to see to it, above all, and to draw the attention of the Central Planning Board, if necessary, to the required measures, that—

a. All decisive tasks of war economy are achieved quickly, without red tape, and ruthlessly, by mutual adapting of all composing branches.

b. All such work as is obviously without importance for winning the war, be discontinued.

5. Tasks of the office

a. The office prepares the meetings of the Central Planning Board in such a manner that the members of the Central Planning Board have the agenda and the material of discussion 24 hours in advance. For this purpose the office conducts preliminary talks with the competent departments, etc.

b. On the strength of the record made by the reporter, the office sees to the execution of the decisions of the Central Planning Board by the competent agencies, and sees to it that the deadlines fixed are complied with.

c. The members of the office keep the members of the Central Planning Board informed between the sessions.

6. The distribution of work, dealing with incoming mail, etc., is arranged by the office itself. The members of the office sign: “By order” of the Central Planning Board.

7. Tasks of the reporters

Reporters have to keep in constant touch with the departments, with regard to the sectors of work they are in charge of. In the regular sittings of the office they report on the progress made and on the measures which are required for the carrying on of the war economy, especially for the increase in production, for other improvements in the supply with raw materials, and for necessary changes in distribution. They do the preliminary work for the meetings of the board (see also 5 a) and in their working sector they are primarily responsible for the execution, within the established time limits, of the decisions of the Central Planning Board.

Berlin, 20 October 1942.

[Typewritten] Milch

[Typewritten] Speer

[Typewritten] Koerner

[Stamp]

Berlin 6-11-1942

No. L 16-501

Copy to the State Secretary for his information.

[Typewritten] Dr. Schattenmann

Certified: Schulz, Reg. Sekr.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1510-PS

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 58

EXTRACTS FROM DECREE OF 16 SEPTEMBER 1943, DEFINING THE
DUTIES OF THE PLANNING OFFICE OF THE
CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Berlin, 16 September 1943

DECREE OF 16 SEPTEMBER 1948 OF THE PLENIPOTENTIARY GENERAL FOR ARMAMENT TASKS WITHIN THE FOUR YEAR PLAN AND OF THE REICH MINISTER FOR ARMAMENT AND WAR PRODUCTION CONCERNING THE TASK OF THE PLANNING OFFICE

The Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich has established a Planning Office in my department by decree of 4 September 1943 for the purpose of concentrated handling of all fundamental questions of war economical planning.

In this connection I order:

I

1. The Planning Office prepares the decisions of the Central Planning Board and supervises their execution.

2. In this connection it will especially prepare the distribution to consumers of basic materials (for instance, iron, metals, coal, mineral oil, nitrogen, and other important raw materials).

3. As a working basis for Central Planning Board, the Planning Office has to draw up plans for production and distribution for the entire war economy, the demand schedules being based on the demands of the entire German sphere of power. In this connection imports and exports are to be considered. The entire planning is to be synchronized in advance with the participating departments and specialist offices, taking into account production requisites. The Planning Office will constantly have to summarize and to evaluate the necessary statistical material.

4. The Planning Office will have to submit to the Central Planning Board for decision the proposed assignment of manpower to the individual big sectors of employment (trade industry for war effort [gewerbliche Kriegswirtschaft], traffic, foodstuffs, etc.). It also has to evaluate statistically the carrying through of the assignments.

6. The Planning Office will have to advocate towards the Reich Ministry of Economics the requirements of war industry in connection with the establishment of import and export quotas.

It has to report constantly to the Central Planning Board about the state of imports essential for war economy.

II

4. The Planning Office has to evaluate statistically the industrial and war production existing within the power sphere of Greater Germany or of the states allied with the Reich; it has to develop out of that evaluation proposals for a common exchange of production in order to increase the initial war production.

[Signed] Speer

The Reich Minister for Armament and War Production

Plenipotentiary General for

Armament Tasks within the Four Year Plan

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 3721-PS

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT NO. 41-A[[92]]

TESTIMONY OF FRITZ SAUCKEL, 22 SEPTEMBER 1945, REGARDING
THE JURISDICTION OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

TESTIMONY OF FRITZ SAUCKEL TAKEN AT NUERNBERG, GERMANY, 1030 HOURS TO 1210 HOURS ON 22 SEPTEMBER 1945, BY JOHN J. MONIGAN JR., MAJ., CAC, OUSCC

Major Monigan: Principally, what I am interested in are the functions and responsibilities of the Central Planning Board in their relationship to your office and their relationship to industry.

Sauckel: I believe that this Central Planning Board was founded about three months after my taking over my office. The Board was founded in accord with a law by the Fuehrer or just upon an agreement between the Fuehrer and Speer and Goering, I don’t know which. The leader and chairman of this Central Planning Board was Speer himself. It was founded to transfer the work from the Four Year Plan to Speer, I think, because Goering was already ill at that time, and there also were difficulties about which I am not informed. Speer always took on the job of making great changes in production and put it under his own direction. Constant members of this Central Planning Board were the State Secretary and Field Marshal Milch, and State Secretary Koerner. These three were responsible for the decisions of the Central Planning Board and for internal matters and they went through this office if they were worked out by other people inside the office. I was only called to this Central Planning Board when my task was discussed, and the demands were put before me and my agencies by Speer, the Four Year Plan [Office], as well as by Milch. The Fuehrer himself told me to fulfil these demands without question. In other words, if Speer asked me for a certain amount of workers, for instance, several thousand, I could not refuse him. The particular minister had to give the number to the Central Planning Board and that was the only place where the number of workers could be discussed. In the Central Planning Board it was decided how many workers I was able to supply to these various sections like Milch and Speer, agriculture, and so on. If it came to an argument, these discussions were brought before the Fuehrer and he then decided himself.

Q. Would the Central Planning Board, in their outline of workers to be provided for agriculture and for Speer and for Milch’s industries, etc., just give you the numbers of workers which they required, or would you get the final destination of the workers too, say panzers [tanks] and machine guns, and so on, from the Central Planning Board?

A. In general, I always got the numbers for the sections in large, except for Speer who always demanded individual allocations of workers to agriculture or mining; in other words, Speer always demanded a certain number of workers for a certain kind of work.

Q. Except for Speer, they would give the requirements in general for the broad field, but in Speer’s work you would get them allocated by industry, and so on. Is that right?

A. The others only received whatever was left over, because Speer told me once in the presence of the Fuehrer that I am here to work for Speer and that I mainly am his man, he mentioned it very often, without reference to the countries involved. It was very unnatural, that process of doing these things. These smaller plants, instead of ordering their workers from the next higher echelons, gave their orders to the very highest, to Speer, who in turn handed them down to the lower ones and to me, and this was the reason for the Rotzettel (red slip) system which had to be fulfilled by me without question. In practice it came to this that if a factory actually didn’t need any workers but Speer demanded them for that factory I had to supply these workers without being able to discuss or to tell him that it would be a waste of manpower; I just had to do it because Speer had complete domination.

Q. When it was determined in the Central Planning Board that say a thousand workers would be required by Speer, how did these workers find their way from all over Germany and Europe into the Krupp factory, for instance?

A. The orders were given from higher echelons down to lower echelons; for instance, the transports were either turned over from one office to another or the lower echelons in Berlin, for instance, got orders to transfer certain men from one factory which happened to be in Berlin to another factory which was also in Berlin. This happened also through the cooperation among the various offices who were headed by Hildebrand. The orders were discussed in a so-called daily schedule of trains which was decided upon in all these meetings.

Q. Well, as I understand it, you would get a requirement for say a thousand workers for panzers, say; now, in Germany certain factories would be making tread, some would be making turrets, and some would be making other things. Now, of that thousand workers needed for tank production some would be working on treads and some would be working on other things. How did they get into the particular factories which were making the specific products?

A. This was accomplished by giving orders recklessly through the various offices. A factory, for instance, got an order to send 20 or 30 men to another place, and they were just ordered to go there. This was the reason for the Notdienstverordnung [Emergency Service Decree] where the workers were forced by a decree to obey any order which was given to them.

Q. After the workers were conscripted inside the Reich and outside, they would be worked according to certain skills and technical specialties, would they not?

A. As far as possible, they were used according to the profession they had been trained in.

Q. And the local Gau labor offices, etc., would have a list of all the workers according to their skills, would they not?

A. Yes, there were detailed files about this. This was the basic principle: There were various offices which only were concerned about a certain kind of trade or skill.

Q. So, when you got the request from the Central Planning Board for a hundred thousand men for tank production, would you, through your ministry, tell the various offices that you needed so many welders and so many machine tool people, etc., and then tell them how many of each specialty you wanted?

A. When I got these orders my assistants were always present and they in turn took down the individual numbers required for this kind of work. I also received rosters which pointed out in detail how many people were needed for certain productions and how many were needed in a certain place. There was also, besides the red-slip system, another one, which was a system used after the red-slip system. We called this the Dringlichkeitsstufen—that means the priority system for workers. These Dringlichkeitsstufen, which were divided according to place and kind of work, were given to me in the presence of my assistants and they in turn worked out these plans. The influence of Speer was so great that sometimes he specifically asked for certain specialists from a certain factory to be turned over to another place. It also happened that we were not even told about these things. If we were not able to supply him with workers from inside Germany, we had to take them from the other departments or from foreign countries. There was always a reserve of something like 500,000 people who went to schools where they were trained for the armament production.

Q. That was 500,000 German and foreign workers?

A. Yes.

Q. When a requirement was fixed for Speer or for Milch in the Central Planning Board and they called you in and said we need 500,000, or some number of workers, would they give at that time the breakdown of what kind of workers they wanted, or would they give a blanket request for 500,000 without the listing of specialties?

A. Naturally, they gave a detailed breakdown. For instance, they only asked for miners, but they also asked for specialists in that kind of work.

Q. The requirements would be stated in detail for the kind of work, not only whether it should be a mine worker, but, for instance, a locomotive engineer in a mine, or something like that, would they not?

A. Naturally, since there are many kinds of professions; I, for instance, put in charge of the mining President Dr. Gaertner who was always oriented about the different jobs which were required in that field of work.

Q. Then after you got the detailed specification of the qualifications of the workers desired, would you also get a statement as to what places they would work in, and so on?

A. This was just the remarkable thing about it, especially from Speer; factories were always mentioned and they were also mentioned by priority; for instance, the ones that always were working on the so-called Fuehrer orders had priority over the others. Speer actually controlled the small places, not step by step, but directly from the highest echelon.

Q. So that you would be informed at the Central Planning Board, at least for Speer’s factories, about the specialists and the place to which they were supposed to be sent, is that right?

A. The Central Planning Board determined only the numbers for a certain time, three months or so. These orders were then forwarded to the individual offices, who were working for me, from all kinds of industries; the Central Planning Board met only every two weeks or so.

Q. The Central Planning Board would decide that Speer would get so many hundred thousand and Milch would get so many hundred thousand, and that the agricultural program would get so many hundred thousand. Then, that was agreed upon, if they all agreed upon it among themselves in the Central Planning Board, and had no disputes regarding the number. But if there were disputes, then the Fuehrer would decide?

A. Yes.

Q. Then, after they decided a hundred thousand for Speer, then the section chiefs (in the rings for tank treads, and machine guns, etc.) would meet with your section later and say we need so many hundred thousand, we need 10,000 who are welders and 10,000 who are metal workers, etc., is that right?

A. Yes. A daily conference was held among the different offices where it was decided how many workers were needed for the individual industries. It did not occur that when a factory asked for a certain amount of men, it was like that: Speer said this factory has to be supplied with so and so many workers. In peacetime it was different.

Q. And the requirements of Speer were met as a matter of priority among all the other industries; first Speer and then the others?

A. Yes.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NI-1098

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 63

EXTRACTS FROM AFFIDAVIT OF FRITZ SAUCKEL, 22 SEPTEMBER 1946, REGARDING THE JURISDICTION OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

A. 1. I, Fritz Sauckel, born in Hassfurt-Unterfranken on 27 October 1894 was honorary Obergruppenfuehrer of the SS and SA, Reich Governor [Reichsstatthalter], Commissioner for Reich Defense and Gauleiter of Thuringia. Since 1942 I was Plenipotentiary General for Manpower and from 1933 on I was a member of the Reichstag. I state upon oath the following facts which are known to me personally:

L. 1. The Central Planning Board intervened in the problem of foreign workers to the extent of determining priorities and in representing and demanding the requirements of the economics branches consolidated in the Central Planning Board. It also transmitted these demands to the Fuehrer. The competent gentlemen of the Central Planning Board at the same time of course represented their ministries as heads. Thus I am not in a position today to say whether Speer, for instance, spoke in one or the other capacity in connection with any special matter. At any rate the Central Planning Board determined the total labor requirements. In practice I only obtained labor for them.

2. I attended sessions of the Central Planning Board only when questions concerning the mobilization of labor were involved. Sometimes only my representatives, Dr. Timm, Landrat Berk, Stothfang, or Dr. Hildebrand, attended.

3. The competent gentlemen from Speer’s Ministry also attended. Speer had a labor mobilization department where the requirements of industry were collected and confirmed.

4. Milch produced the figures for aviation. The same was done by Speer in his sphere of activity. Speer and Milch, however, also exerted influence on the allocation of workers. How far this came within their capacity as members of the Central Planning Board I cannot say; in any case they did this in their ministerial capacity.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACTS FROM REPORT ON THE ELEVENTH CONFERENCE
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD, 22 JULY 1942

Berlin 24 July 1942

Dr. Goe/W

Reich Minister Speer

Minister’s Office

Secret

REPORT ON THE 11TH CONFERENCE OF THE “CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD” ON 22 JULY 1942

Present:

Reich Minister Speer
Field Marshal Milch
State Secretary Koerner
Kommerzialrat RoechlingReich Association Iron
Dr. RohlandReich Association Iron
Von Bohlen und HalbachReich Association Iron
Dr. LangenReich Association Iron
Bergassessor SohlReich Association Iron
Gauleiter SauckelPlenipotentiary General for Labor Mobilization
State Secretary BackeReich Food Ministry
General Director PleigerReich Association Coal
Dr. FischerReich Association Coal
Major General GablenzReich Air Ministry
Colonel SellschoppReich Air Ministry
Ministerial Director Gramsch4 Year Plan
Ministerial Advisor Normann4 Year Plan
Dr. SchieberReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Dr. StellwaagReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Major WagnerReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Brigadier General BechtReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Lieutenant Colonel NicolaiReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Ministerial Advisor Dr. WissmannReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
SchliekerReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Dr. GoernerReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions

Securing of food. A net influx of 1 million foreign workers is counted on. This number was not reached in the past months. Even with an influx of more than 1 million in the coming months, the 1-million peak will actually not be surpassed in view of current departures of workers. Food for this 1 million is secured.[[93]]

To what extent an improvement of the food situation, through a sharper hold on the production outside of Germany, could be accomplished.

Every day a train load of the forces recruited in the East will be directed to the coal mines until the figure of 6,000 is achieved. Prisoners of war are being obtained, at present, from camps in the General Government. 51,000 prisoners of war in the Senne Camp. In the district east of the General Government there are 74,000 prisoners of war available. Up till now an elimination quota of 50 percent of unemployable people has been reckoned with in the allocations to coal mining. It is considered necessary that not too high demands should be placed on the choice of prisoners of war. The Miner’s Union doctors [Knappschaftsaerzte] are to be informed that a different standard is to be established for the prisoners of war than for German miners.

For the consecutive order in which the prisoners of war are to be put to work, it will be laid down, that before the metal workers are chosen, the coal mining in the first place and requirements for the loading and unloading commands in the second place are to be considered.

Field Marshal Milch undertakes to accelerate the procuring of the Russian prisoners of war from the camps.

[Typewritten] Dr. Ing. Goerner

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACTS FROM REPORT ON THE SEVENTEENTH CONFERENCE
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD, 28 OCTOBER 1942

Berlin, 30 October 1942

The Plenipotentiary General for the Four Year Plan

Central Planning Board

REPORT ON THE 17TH CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD ON 28 OCTOBER 1942, 0930 HOURS

Increase of Coal Production

Allocation of Labor

Coal production in the Ruhr district has increased to 390,000 tons per day. Any further increase depends on whether the requirements for labor are being met. About 104,000 men are required. Furthermore 7,800 men—originally 16-17,000 requirements having been brought down by rationalization—are needed for the supplying industry, 6,800 of these for the machine industry. 5,000 more unskilled workers are furthermore required to secure the transport of mine-timber which is essential for reason of variety [Sortimentsgruenden].

The intake capacity of the mining industry for the month of November is 44,000 prisoners of war, of whom 25,000 are for the Ruhr district, and 12,600 eastern workers, 7,500 of whom are for the Ruhr district. Total requirements so far amount to 191,000 laborers of whom 90,700 were wanted by the Ruhr District. Up to 24 October a total of 123,000 was allocated. These numbers are still to be checked up by the Reich Association Coal (RVK) and Mr. Sauckel.

According to the Plenipotentiary for Labor Allocation, the following number of prisoners of war is at present at hand.

Within the Reich (on the way and in camp)30,000
Remainder of prisoners of war (outstanding from a total of 150,000 and promised up to the beginning of December)60,000
At camps in the General Government15,000

Of these the following can be regarded as available up to 1 December:

Within the Reich15,000
Of the remaining prisoners of war10,000
From the General Government7,500
———
Total about 32,000

Therefore, as compared to the required 44,000, there is a deficit of about 12,000. Moreover, 10,000 civilian laborers from the East can be put up by exchanges from the agricultural sector which is 2,000 less than required so that the November deficit amounts to 14,000 and, in comparison with the total requirements of the mining industry of 104,000, there is a deficit of 62,000. The deficit increases by the smaller number of prisoners of war the size of which is still to be ascertained by the Commissioner of Labor.

The mining industry is in a position to use any amount of eastern labor instead of prisoners of war. Therefore, it is to get preference at the combing-out of the agricultural sector. There is no objection to a temporary accommodation of eastern labor at prisoner-of-war camps (without barbed wire, etc.).

The requirements of the supply industry are to be met by the Red Label method [Rotzettelverfahren]. Constructors are to be provided by canvassing at the French prisoner-of-war camps for officers.

[Typewritten] Dr. Steffler

Present:

Reich Minister Speer
Field Marshal Milch
State Secretary KoernerReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Staatsrat SchieberReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Brig. Gen. BechtReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Lt. Col. v. NicolaiReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Herr SchliekerReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Oberberghauptmann GabelReich Economic Ministry
Colonel Dr. KrullReich Economic Ministry
Oberbergrat OttoReich Economic Ministry
State Secretary GanzenmuellerReich Traffic Ministry
Staatsrat HeinbergReich Traffic Ministry
Min. Dir. GramschFour Year Plan
Min. Rat StefflerFour Year Plan
Min. Dirig. TimmPlenipotentiary for Labor Allocation
Oberreg. Rat HildebrandPlenipotentiary for Labor Allocation
Gen. Dir. PleigerReich Association Coal
Dr. SogemeierReich Association Coal
Dr. FischerReich Association Coal
Dir. WinkausPlenipotentiary for Mining Requirements

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF TWENTY-FIRST
CONFERENCE OF CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD, 30 OCTOBER 1942

EXCERPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 21ST
CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Re: Labor supply and direction of labor held on 30 October 1942, afternoon, at the Reich Ministry of Armament and Munitions.

Berlin, Pariser Platz 3

Sauckel: There is but one possibility, and that is, that the moment the Wehrmacht takes prisoners in operational territory, they are to be immediately turned over to us. We will move them away much faster than the Wehrmacht.

Milch: The correct thing to do would be to have all Stalags transferred to you by order of the Fuehrer. The Wehrmacht takes prisoners and as soon at it relinquishes them, the first delivery goes to your organization. Then everything will be in order.

Sauckel: Yes, but we do not have sufficient personnel for guarding the prisoners.

(Milch: The Wehrmacht should have to provide you with that!)

Sauckel: As soon as prisoners of war are taken, they should be placed at our disposal and we would then allocate them in a fair manner. However, with the present method we get nothing or only a fraction of what the Wehrmacht had promised us, although the prisoners had been taken by the Wehrmacht.

Timm: We can hardly hope to achieve that, since this might have something to do with the convention concerning the treatment of prisoners of war.

Milch: The man who acts there for you can wear a uniform all right and be a soldier. Only his superior will not be Herr Reinecke but Herr Sauckel.

For psychological reasons emphasis should be placed on first of all covering the requirements of the Wehrmacht branches, without other considerations. The feeling, we don’t get it anyway, has gradually permeated our whole air force industry—and I heard the same about the army. I will admit that these gigantic allocations are completely misjudged. For example, in the Luftwaffe where from an original allocation of 480,000, a balance of 150,000 was left over [per Saldo uebrig]. The plants always look only at the balance [Saldo]. However, there are many plants also who have suffered an actual decrease in manpower, especially in a young industry like ours, which is occupied with the manufacture of very special products. This industry has many young people, of whom many again have been drafted into the Wehrmacht. This drafting is done in such an idiotic way that one actually has to feel ashamed. All three experimenting engineers working on a development which may have an important bearing on the outcome of the war are simply drafted. They are not sent to the front or into training but sit around in the back somewhere and are guarding some camp. No consideration whatsoever is given to individual cases. Of course the plants then call for replacements. The masses cannot fill these breaches, and qualified replacements we cannot supply at all. Herr Dr. Werner, for example, writes a letter to Herr Schieber of which he forwards a copy to me and which states that production figures established in the delivery schedules can no longer be met, owing to the fact that for weeks partially even for months, no manpower has been allocated, and that even current withdrawals cannot be replaced by the labor offices [Arbeitsaemter]. The fact, that we can no longer meet the demands of the rising production, that backlogs are increasing more and more, fills him with rising apprehension. He then goes into details, but always reverts to the same conclusion: everything might be accomplished, we could even get the necessary material; in the final analysis we fail, however, in one important aspect in connection with our whole armament program—the allocation of manpower. If only we had, if only we had—thus it goes all day and in every conference.

I am convinced that many people are beginning to put in fake requests and exaggerate their requirements. There is only one way to straighten out this affair. In my department, I do it this way: if for months a spare part cannot be found, the entire front begins to hoard this article; so, for instance, the tail skid of a Ju 52. Then we proceeded to manufacture triple the amount of the expected requirements, yet no tail skids were available. Ordnance stock piles were filled with it; but they did not issue any. I then said: We will now manufacture nothing but tail skids until we hear shouts not to send any more. Thus, an affair like that gets finally straightened out. And here likewise we must say for once: We will supply the required laborers to the industry, if necessary by depriving other fields. Agriculture, at the moment can spare laborers; it does not need them from 15 November to 15 March of next year. It is just a waste to have to feed them. Only a small number will be needed for the procurement of wood. Thus we are able to generously help industry and later on again replenish agriculture. At the same time we have the advantage of getting fairly well-fed people. As Herr Timm recently explained, prisoners of war from the Ukraine would not serve our purpose; they could not regain their physical strength on what they get to eat in the industry. Even supplying them with better food than we give to our own people would not be sufficient to get them beyond a still weakened condition. In agriculture they get additional food. Don’t muzzle the mouth of a beast when food lies all around it. This is also of advantage to prisoners of war and workers from the East.

However, we have to finally do away with the general feeling: we have nothing and we want yet anything; we have been forsaken by God and the Fuehrer; constantly more and more is demanded of us; how can we still believe in this great program? We can only carry it out if we have such faith in it, as is spoken of in the Bible. In January we started with a monthly production of 2,000 engines; today we have reached 4,000, and in a year and a half I must reach 14,000. That of course is a gigantic achievement for a month. Every engine has at least 1,200 h.p. If in measurements of horsepower I compare the present with the former World War, then the present achievement is 40 times as great. What an immense amount of manpower was available at that time for an industry so totally different from ours! Yet today we must come up to more than three times that, which we have already done. That means, that in airplane engines alone we have to achieve 135 to 140 times as much as we did in the World War. Dr. Werner who is responsible for the engine industry proposed how this can be done. He said: We must apply a mass production scale everywhere, or else we will not accomplish it. He has very progressive ideas in this field. With the airplane engine, it can be done for sure. Crankshafts and connecting rods, etc., we can produce on a mass production scale. Today we manufacture 40,000 connecting rods. However, we still have no machines today that assemble these products individually on the assembly line. The Americans have such machines. We are lacking about 10 construction engineers and 5 mechanics; they just simply cannot be procured. One must for once satisfy the needs of the people again. I have always put them off until November and told them that Sauckel would produce the necessary labor from agriculture.

Speer: We must also discuss the slackers. Ley has ascertained that the sick list decreased to one-fourth or one-fifth in factories where doctors are on the staff who are examining 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.

Sauckel: We talked of taking the waiters out of the restaurants in Germany. But in this respect we have absolutely an abundance in France, the General Government and the Protectorate. As long as we have not skimmed that off, we could not take the responsibility towards the German people for such a measure. Again a cable of the Foreign Minister has burst into my recent negotiations in France stating that under no circumstances should the Ministry Laval be put into peril. The Fuehrer has said: If the French show no good will, then I shall retake the 800,000 French PW’s. If they show good will, then the French wives can follow their husbands to Germany and work there. Of course, he said, I have an interest that Laval remains in power. The Ministry Laval will remain, it depends only on us. And Laval cannot go back after he has reproduced in his speech and spoken before the French passages which he has taken verbally out of my appeal. Only Pétain could bring him to fall. I wish to draw your attention to the fact, however, that in France there is a surplus of young men all of whom we could use in Germany. If we expect our people to accept severest restrictions then we cannot admit such luxuries in Paris as, e.g., small restaurants with bands of 25 musicians and two waiters per table. I am firmly convinced, if we are brutal also against the others then we can extract quite a considerable number of men out of the General Government—I sent an efficient man, President Struwe, over there—and of the Protectorate. This need not interfere with the armament industry over there. There is, therefore, no fear that the demand could not be met.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-B

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE TWENTY-THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD, 3 NOVEMBER 1942

Secret

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 23D CONFERENCE OF
CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Concerning the fixing of iron quotas, on 3 November 1942, 1600

hours in the Reich Ministry for Armament and Munitions,

Berlin, Pariser Platz 3

Pleiger: * * * For the physical strain on the miners, who practically work two Sunday shifts each month, is such that they could not stand it for another six months. In other words—this is the important point—the quota of approximately 95,600 men is still lacking and must be assigned to work now at last; it was promised to me at one time. The gentlemen of the Ruhr tell me: We have our huts ready. Some of them are not completely furnished, and I reproached the people for it. They answered, however: But you promised us workers for about half a year. We have always been ahead with our huts. How can you reproach us now, our huts were not ready. The workers assigned to us will be taken care of. I would be very thankful if Sauckel would be induced to assign to us the quota of workers.

Speer: He received the instruction in the last conference of the Central Planning Board to assign workers first of all to the coal-mining industry as well as to the iron-producing industry, for you the amount of 44,000 plus 12,000, plus 7,500 for the feeder industry, plus 5,000 for pit props. The same holds true for Mr. Rohland.

Pleiger: In our conferences it must always be taken as a basis that the Reichsbahn, with regard to the allocation of cars, is at least in the same position as they were last year.

(Speer: That’s pretty bad.)

—No, it allocated over 80,000 cars in December.

Speer: Can you give me by name any smelters or other people which could be taken out?

(Rohland: Yes.)

This would still be another 50 or 100, I guess.

Rohland: I figure about 40 men per Martin furnace. If we take away 20 or 15—let’s say 20—as trained Martin furnace smelters, we would have 300 men. 300 smelters could help us a lot. But when will they come?

Speer: Then we could deceive the French about the industry in such a way, as if we would release among the prisoners of war the rollers and smelters—they have—if they give us their names.

Rohland: We opened our own office in Paris. In other words, you mean the French should report the smelters who are prisoners of war in Germany?

Milch: I would simply say: You will get two people for one of this kind.

Speer: The French firms know exactly who is a smelter among the prisoners of war. There you should make it appear, as if they would be released. They give us the names and then we take them out. Try it.

Rohland: That’s an idea.

Milch: We in the Luftwaffe and airplane industry will also try to find out: Who is a roller, smelter, or furnace mason.

Rohland: But by the time the people arrive, the quarter of the year will be over.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE THIRTY-THIRD
CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD,
16 FEBRUARY 1943

Secret!

Top Secret State Matter

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 33D CONFERENCE[[94]]
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Concerning Labor Supply on 16 February 1943 at 1600 hrs. at the

Reich Ministry for Armament and Munitions 3,

Pariser Platz, Berlin

Timm: I should like to say something about the labor supply possibilities. Perhaps you will permit me to emphasize the negative side a little. The greatest difficulties result from the fact that the supply of labor outstanding could not be fully dispatched from the East, but came in in ever diminishing numbers. One may say that they have almost become completely exhausted. Eastern laborers during the last six weeks arrived only in smaller numbers than in former times, so that they can hardly be included to an appreciable amount on the credit side of the supply account. In any case their numbers are small. The foremost reason is that in former months most transports were dispatched from the Ukraine while the main recruitment areas were those which in the meantime have become operational areas, or even are no longer in our hands. The forecasts we made applied to a large extent to the transport of people from the Caucasus district, the Kuban, from areas like Stalingrad. We prepared measures which should enable us to draw more eastern workers again during the following months. I venture to think that we should be able, on a conservative calculation, to transfer during the month of March between 150,000 and 200,000 laborers from the East to the West.

(Speer: Including or excluding those needed for agriculture?)

Including those needed for agriculture. But in my opinion it will be necessary to apply much pressure, since just those districts are concerned which have been pacified to a certain extent, and for the same reason will not be very much inclined to release labor. This is calculated on the assumption that some labor has to be released also from the eastern and northern parts of the East.

The second area, capable of releasing a considerable amount of labor is the General Government and that for the January estimate which has been drawn up with particular caution as I again wish to emphasize. We expect that the figures will be surpassed rather than not reached. I think we can expect a number of 40,000, of which, it is true, a part will have to be given to agriculture, if we intend no more than to cover the losses which we had to inflict last autumn.

Beyond this it ought to be possible in my opinion to employ within the Reich, and especially for the mining industry, part of the Polish Building Service. I venture to think one ought to enlarge this organization in such a way that more age groups than so far are called up for it, since this procedure is functioning. The younger age groups which in fact are especially suited for mining could be dispatched to the Reich. In this case the supervisors who are provided for the greatest part by the Building Service, will be needed only in very small numbers in the Reich.

The next area would be the Protectorate on which I cannot make a final statement today. We have been promised for the month of March about 10,000 laborers. But I am of the opinion that some loosening-up is possible. The Plenipotentiary will soon in a personal visit take in hand the possibility of this loosening-up.

France is included in the account with 100,000 laborers for March. Messages which I received permit us to hope that this number will be increased in the middle of March. Belgium is included with 40,000, Holland with 30,000, Slovakia with 20,000, who, it is true, are exclusively suited for agriculture, since their share of individual workers has been completely delivered. This item consists exclusively of agricultural laborers, owing to a state treaty. For the remaining part of the foreign areas I included another 10,000. This amounts altogether to 400,000 laborers who should arrive in March. One might be entitled to add for the last month altogether 10,000 prisoners of war. These are men to be drawn from the East. It can be expected that this number might under certain conditions be surpassed, since the High Command intends especially for operational reasons, to take the prisoners of war back to the Reich, particularly from the areas threatened by the enemy.

A former item concerns the fluctuation of labor which certainly amounts to about 100,000 laborers. Then there are items which at the moment cannot be estimated—the yield from the threatened areas and from the “Stoppage-action”. Here I cannot venture to name final figures, but I hope to be able to do so next month.

Sauckel: Of course, we regret very much that last autumn we were unable to recruit as much as we would have liked in the areas which now are again in enemy hands. This is partly due to the fact that we were not assisted in the degree we had expected. Moreover we were not able to effect the removal of the civil population which had been planned. These events are an urgent reminder of the fact that it is necessary to employ foreign laborers at once and in great numbers in Germany proper and in the actual armaments industry. You may be certain that we wish to achieve this. We have not the slightest interest in creating difficulties for an armaments office, even for those working for German interest abroad, by taking labor away from them to an unreasonable extent. But on this occasion I should like to ask you to try and understand our procedure. We Germans surely have sent to the front between 50 and 75 percent of our skilled workers. A part of them has been killed while the nations subjugated by us need no longer shed their blood. Thus they can preserve their entire capacity with regard to skilled workers, inasmuch as they have not been transferred to Germany which is the case only for a much smaller percentage than all of us supposed, and in fact they do use them partly for manufacturing things which are not in the least important for the German war economy. If we proceed energetically against this abuse, I ask you to give me credit for so much reason that I do not intend to damage the foreign interests of the German armaments industry. The quality of the foreign worker is such that it cannot be compared with that of the German worker. But even then I intend to create a similar proportion between skilled and workers trained for their job, as it exists in Germany by force of tradition, since it has come about that we had to send men to the front in much larger numbers than we requested France or any other country to do. Moreover we shall endeavor increasingly to bring about on a generous scale the adaptation of the French, Polish, and Czech workers. I do not see for the moment any necessity for limiting the use of foreign labor. The only thing I ask for is that we understand each other, so that the immense difficulties and friction between the respective authorities disappear and the program drawn up by us will by no means be frustrated by such things.

There are without a doubt still enough men in France, Holland, Belgium, the Protectorate, and the General Government to meet our labor demands for the next months. I confess that I expect more success from such a procedure with respect to heavier work or for work where shifts of 10 or more hours are customary, than from relying on the use of German women and men exclusively. We shall have better success by proceeding this way provided the foreign workers still obey, which remains a risk we always run, than by using weaker German women and girls as labor in places of very important armament work, where foreigners may be used for security reasons. * * *

* * * The situation in France is this; after I and my assistants had succeeded after difficult discussions in inducing Laval to introduce the Service Act this act has now been enlarged, owing to our pressure so that already yesterday three French age groups have been called up. We are now, therefore, legally and with the assistance of the French Government entitled to recruit laborers in France from three age groups, whom we can use in French factories in the future, but of whom we may choose some for our use in Germany and send them to Germany. I think in France the ice is now broken. According to reports received they now have begun to think about a possible break-through by the Bolshevists and the dangers which thereby threaten Europe. The resistance which the French Government has hitherto shown is diminishing. Within the next days I shall go to France in order to set the whole thing into motion, so that the losses in the East may be somewhat balanced by increasing recruitment and calling-up in France.

If we receive comprehensive lists in time, we shall, I think, be able to cover all demands by dispatching in March 800,000 laborers.

Speer: Recruitment abroad as such is supported by us. We only fear very much that the skilled workers extracted from the occupied countries do not always reach the appropriate factories in Germany. It might certainly be better if we acted in such a way that the parent firms of Germany which work with the French and Czech factories would comb out the foreign workers more than before for their own use.

Sauckel: We made an agreement with Field Marshal Milch. You will get the factories which are urgently needed for your airplane motors, etc.; these will be completely safeguarded. In the same way I promised Admiral of the Fleet Doenitz[[95]] today that the U-boat repair firms proper are absolutely safeguarded. We shall even be able to provide our own armament factories on French soil with labor extracted from French factories, in the main from the unoccupied territory where there still are metal works which have their full complement of skilled workers without even having been touched so far.

Hildebrand: May I point out at this point that we have to figure that we shall be deprived of the Italian workers this year. This according to present discussions, concerns 300,000 men altogether, or 15 to 20,000 a month. If we deduct the first installment, the remaining ones to a great part are just highly skilled metal workers.

Sauckel: This is a request of the Fuehrer, but he has not yet finally decided.

Hildebrand: But we have been told to be prepared to lose these men.

Speer: We ourselves quite support the combing-out abroad. On the other hand we must be entitled—and this was agreed—to exclude or prefer particular kinds of work, e.g., the armor factories. In France we are more and more turning towards giving up finishing processes and stressing the subcontracting. It is the foundries and similar works, e.g., for the use of the aluminum industry, which we wish to use to capacity. We could force the production of Opel, so that in this case Peugeot who manufacture the forged parts for Opel, the parent firm, might demand more labor for this while the rest of their workers would be taken over by Opel.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE THIRTY-SIXTH
CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD,
22 APRIL 1943

Dr. Jaenicke

Secret

Top Secret State Matter

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 36TH CONFERENCE
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Concerning 1943-44 coal economy plan. Held on Thursday, 22 April 1943, 1550 hours at the Festival Hall at the Zoo, Jebenstr.

Speer: Throughout the winter we have seen that in the last instance it is coal which provides the basis for all plans we wish to execute in other respects, and most of you are also aware of our intention to increase the manufacture of iron. Here also it will again be coal which in the last instance will tip the scales, whether or not we shall be able to accomplish this increase of iron production. Seen from the Central Planning Board, we are of the opinion that the demand for coal as well as the demand for iron ought to be coordinated in a separate plan, and that this plan ought to receive about the same degree of urgency as the Krauch plan, and that with regard to labor, the conditions required for the execution of that plan must be established. Perhaps Mr. Timm will be able to state how he expects the question of the miners to be developed; unfortunately the miners cannot be taken from the German reservoir, in their place we shall have to use very strong foreigners.

Timm: At the moment, 69,000 men are needed for hauling that coal. We want to cover this by finding within the Reich 23,000 men, viz., healthy prisoners of war, etc., who are especially suitable for mining—and by dispatching 50,000 Poles from the General Government. Out of these about 30,000 men have been supplied up to 24 April, so that about 39,000 men are still outstanding for January to April. The demand for May has been reported to us at 35,700. The difficulties existed especially with regard to recruitment in the General Government, since in every district surrounding Germany there is an extraordinary resistance to recruitment. In all countries we have to change over more or less to registering the men by age groups and to conscripting them in age groups. They do appear for registration as such, but as soon as transport is available, they do not come back so that the dispatch of the men has become more or less a question for the police.

Especially in Poland the situation at the moment is extraordinarily serious. It is well known that vehement battles 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 it was just in the last two or three weeks that some of them were shot dead, e.g., the head of the labor office in Warsaw who was shot in his office, and yesterday another man again. This is how matters stand presently, and the recruiting itself even if done with the best will remain extremely difficult unless police reinforcements are at hand.

Speer: These [women] we can use in the Reich. There are a great number of Russian PW’s and laborers who are employed at places where they need not be employed. There can be an exchange. The only thing is to do this with unskilled workers, and not to take the workers from the industry where they were trained with difficulty.

Kehrl: Where we are late in completion of a task, or where we lose an opportunity, we can make up for it. But any coal which we cannot haul at once is definitely lost for use in this war. This is why we cannot do enough to force the allotment to the pits.

Speer: But not by forcible actions in smashing what we toilsomely built.

(Kehrl: We need not do that!)

You ought to add the conscripted labor.

Timm: We must endeavor to get German men for working at the coal-face.

Kehrl: We subsist on foreigners who live in Germany.

Timm: These men are concentrated within a very small area. Otherwise there might be trouble in this sector.

Speer: There is a specified statement showing in what sectors the Russian PW’s have been distributed, and this statement is quite interesting. It shows that the armaments industry only received 30 percent. I always complained about this.

Timm: The highest percentage of PW’s are Frenchmen, and one ought not to forget that it is difficult to employ them at the coal-face. The number of Russians living within the Reich is small.

Rohland: In the mines one should exclusively use eastern people, not western ones.

Speer: The western men collapse!

Speer: In any case we ought to force the coal production with all our power. I now have here a statement on the distribution of the Soviet prisoners. There are 368,000 altogether. Of these are: 101,000 in agriculture; 94,000 in the mining industry—who are not available in any case; 15,000 in the building materials industry; 26,000 in iron and metal production where they cannot be extracted either; 29,000 in the manufacture of iron, steel, and metal goods; 63,000 in the manufacture of machines, boilers, and cars, and similar appliances, which means in armaments industry; and 10,000 in the chemical industry. Agriculture has received by far the most of them, and the men employed there could in the course of time be exchanged for women. The 90,000 Russian PW’s employed in the whole of the armaments industry are for the greatest part skilled men. If you can extract 8-10,000 men from there, it would already be the limit.

Kehrl: Would it not be possible to add Serbians, etc.?

Sogemeier: We ought not to mix too much.

Rohland: For God’s sake, no Serbians! We had very bad experiences with mixing.

Speer: Everything depends on the amount of the influx from abroad.

Schieber: If anyway nothing arrives, the mines certainly will get nothing.

Timm: Gauleiter Sauckel is perfectly convinced that the transports will be on their way within a short time. Now the front has been consolidated at last.

Schieber: We ought to be grateful that the weather has allowed the farmer to keep things going in some way despite the little labor being available to him. For the farmer, the coal supply is just as important as for the whole of the armaments industry. When we discuss tomorrow the nitrogen problem we shall see the same; our first need is coal.

Koerner: On 1 April we had in agriculture a deficit of about 600,000 laborers. It had been planned to cover it by supplying labor from the East, mainly women. These laborers will first have to be supplied until other laborers are released from agriculture. We are just entering the season where the heaviest work in the fields has to be done, for which many laborers are necessary. Much labor is needed for the hoeing of the fruits, and it is to be hoped that this year the harvest can be started early which would be rendered much more difficult if an exchange of labor would have to take place.

Milch: We ought to except certain areas of the Protectorate to which the orders are being directed, and extract nothing there until a surplus is found out subsequently. For the time being it cannot be ascertained. There are enough other areas of the Protectorate which are not affected by the industry plan and some labor could be extracted from them at once. We ought to name the places which are excepted from our action.

Timm: In this the authorities on the other side ought to participate; they are in the best position to tell the places from where nothing must be extracted.

Milch: If one proceeds as I proposed, and Timm agreed to it, no damage can be done. This ought to be done in any case. For the rest I completely agree; we must now supply the mines with labor. The greatest part of labor which we can supply from the East will indeed be women. But the eastern women are quite accustomed to agricultural work, and especially to the type of work which has to be done these coming weeks, the hoeing and transplanting of turnips, etc. The women are quite suitable for this. One thing has to be considered: first you must supply agriculture with the women, then you can extract the men, laborer for laborer. It is not the right thing if first the men are taken away and the farmers are left without labor for 4 to 6 weeks. If the women arrive after such time they arrive too late.

Speer: Beyond this we are prepared to release from all parts of the war economy, in exchange for women, any Russian PW’s or other Russian who is employed as auxiliary laborer.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

REPORT OF THE FORTY-SECOND CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD, 23 JUNE 1943

The Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

Central Planning Board

Z.P. 148

Berlin W 8, 24 June 1943

Leipziger Strasse 3

24 copies, 17th copy

Top Secret State Matter

REPORT ON THE 42D CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD ON 23 JUNE 1943, 1600 HOURS

Coal situation

The manpower situation in the coal mining industry, particularly in the hard coal mining industry, is still unsatisfactory, and necessitates an extension of the measures decided upon at the 36th Conference of the Central Planning Board, held on 22 April 1943.

The intensive discussion yielded as the most expedient solution the use of Russian prisoners of war to fill the existing vacancies. The more homogeneous character of the shifts will bring about the necessary higher output resulting both from an increased capacity of such shifts and particularly from a restriction of fluctuations.

1. The present drive, which is to be carried out throughout the German economy proper, aims both at freeing Russian labor, fit for work in the mining industry and actually not employed as semi-skilled workmen, and at replacing it by additionally imported labor consisting of eastern workers, Poles, etc. Thus, about 50,000 workmen are expected to be made available up to the end of July 1943. This drive is to be accelerated.

Furthermore as an immediate measure it should be suggested to the Fuehrer—RVK [Reich Association Coal] and GBA [Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation] submitting the necessary figures for the statement to the Fuehrer—that 200,000 Russian prisoners fit for the heaviest work be made available from the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS through the chiefs of the army groups [Heeresgruppenchefs]. The prisoners will be selected on the spot by medical officers of the mining industry and officials of the office of the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation will take charge of them there and then. Provisions are to be made for an extension of this program in order to satisfy any demand for manpower, which will have accumulated up to the end of the year 1943.

The manpower needed by the mining transport industry [Bergbau-Zubringer-Industrie] and by the iron-producing industry may be supplied from that same source provided that the necessities of the coal mining industry have previously been adjusted.

The performance of the Soviet Russians so employed is to be raised by a premium system. For this purpose, the present pay restrictions are to be lifted and the manager [Betriebsfuehrer] be allowed to distribute amongst the workers, according to his discretion, one Reichmark per head per day as premium for particular services rendered.

Furthermore, care will be taken that workmen can exchange these premiums, which will be paid out in camp money [Lagergeld] for goods. It is intended to put at their disposal various provisions (e.g., sunflower seeds, etc.) beer, tobacco, cigarettes and cigars, small items for daily use, etc.

The Reich Food Ministry in conjunction with the Reich Association Coal and the Reich Ministry of Economic Affairs will clarify the question whether, beyond that, something else can be changed as far as rations are concerned.

2. Equally, in occupied countries, labor is to be tied more securely to the various factories by means of the distribution of additional ration cards as premium for good services. This refers in particular to the General Government and the occupied territories in the East. The output demanded of the General Government is to be fixed at the proposed amount, and the additional rations for armament workers may then be rated accordingly.

[Typewritten signature] Dr. Gramsch

Present:

Reich Minister Speer
Field Marshal Milch
Staatstrat SchieberReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Oberbuergermeister LiebelReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Major General WaegerReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
Dr. Ing. GroenerReich Ministry for Armament and Munitions
President KehrlReich Economic Ministry
Min. Dir. GramschFour Year Plan
Min. Dirig. TimmPlenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation (GBA)
Staatsrat PleigerReich Association Coal (RVK)
Dr. SogemeierReich Association Coal (RVK)
Dr. RosenkranzReich Association Coal (RVK)

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE FIFTY-THIRD
CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD,
16 FEBRUARY 1944

Secret!

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 53D CONFERENCE
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Concerning Supply of Labor held on 16 February 1944, 10 o’clock,

in the Reich Air Ministry

Present: Milch (for Central Planning Board), Kehrl, Backe, etc.

Milch: The armament industry employs foreign workers to a large extent, according to the latest figures—40 percent. The new allocations of the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation consist mostly of foreigners and we lost a lot of German personnel which was called up. Specially the air industry being a young industry employs a great many young people who should be called up. This will be very difficult as is easily seen if one deducts those working for experimental stations. In mass production the foreign workers by far prevail. It is about 95 percent and higher. Our best new engine is made 88 percent by Russian prisoners of war and the other 12 percent by German men and women. 50-60 Ju 52’s which we now regard only as transport planes are made per month. Only 6-8 German men are working on this machine, the rest are Ukrainian women who have beaten all the records of trained workers.

The list of the shirkers should be entrusted to Himmler’s trustworthy hands who will make them work, all right. This is very important for educating people and has also a deterrent effect on such others who would likewise feel inclined to shirk.

* * * It is, therefore, not possible to exploit fully all the foreigners unless we compel them by piece work or have the possibility of taking measures against foreigners who are not doing their bit. But if the foreman lays hands on a prisoner of war or smacks him, at once there is a terrible uproar, the man is put into prison, etc. There are sufficient officials in Germany who think it their most important duty to stand up for human rights instead of war production. I, too, am all for human rights. But if a Frenchman says, “You fellows will all be hanged and the chief of the factory will be beheaded first”, and if then the chief says, “I am going to hit him”, then he is in a mess. He is not protected, but the “poor fellow” who said that to him is protected. I have told my engineers, “I am going to punish you if you don’t hit such a man; the more you do in this respect the more I shall praise you. I shall see to it that nothing happens to you.” This is not yet sufficiently known. I cannot talk to all plant leaders. I should like to see the man who stays my arm because I can take care of anybody who does so. If the little plant leader does that he is put into a concentration camp and runs the risk of losing the prisoners of war. In one case two Russian officers took off with an airplane but crashed. I ordered that these two men be hanged at once. They were hanged or shot yesterday. I left that to the SS. I expressed the wish to have them hanged in the factory for the others to see. * * *

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-B

REPORT ON THE FIFTY-THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD, 16 FEBRUARY 1944

[Marginal notes] St. 10-44 VII Top Secret

The Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

Central Planning Board

Z.P. 7 g. Rs.

Pl. 030053

Berlin, 18 February 1944

W 8, Leipziger Strasse 3

Secret

31 copies, 3d copy

[Milch’s initial]

M

REPORT ON THE 53D CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD ON 16 FEBRUARY 1944,
ON LABOR ALLOCATION 1944

The purpose of this conference is to determine the labor needs and resources for the 1st quarter and the whole year of 1944. The session is opened by the discussion of the data submitted by the planning office (see enclosures 1-9). On the basis of the planning office’s estimate of the requirements (enclosure 9) these turn out, after discussion with the individual allottees, to be the following:

FirstSecond-Fourth
Quarter-44Quarter-44Total
in 1000’s
Agriculture70(1)70(2)140
Forestry and Timber Industry40(3). .(4)40
Armament and War Production544(5)3,000(6)3,544
Air Raid Damages10050150(7)
Communications85(8)265350
Distribution. .. .. .
Public Administration62(9). .62
Wehrmacht Administration130. .130
—————————
1,0313,3854,416

(1) Not including the 200,000 of whom 100,000 each will flow back from industry and forestry.

(2) Not including the demand for seasonal workers amounting usually to 62,000.

(3) 25,000 for forestry and 15,000, including 8,000 women for the timber industry, as against a peacetime requirement of 150,000 male and 40,000 female seasonal workers, although now considerably increased production (1943:70 million cubic meters; 1944:80 million cubic meters) and particularly heavy combing-out through draft.

(4) Starting autumn 1944, the usual necessary transfer from agriculture.

(5) Found to be a priority requirement for February with the Plenipotentiary for Labor Allocation.

(6) Starting March, 200,000 monthly as compensation for fluctuations—2 million for period March to December 1944. Plus compensation for return to agriculture 100,000 (cp. note 1) including 30,000 retrained workers who perhaps will have to be covered by an over-all exchange system and about 900,000 as replacement for draftees, as reserves for increased programs, etc., making about 3 million men all told for the period from March to December 1944.

(7) 150,000 is the minimum requirement in addition to the hitherto assigned 70,000 OT, 100,000 GB construction and 118,000 workmen to the local and district assignments and 42,000 workers centrally assigned. The mobile formations are to be increased and sometimes to be reinforced by local help, particularly by people unemployed through bombings.

(8) Including 75,000 for the Reichsbahn, 1,000 for inland navigation, 7,000 for motor traffic, 2,000 for minor railways.

(9) Including 27,000 for the Reichspost and 35,000 for the Red Cross.

In this estimate, real fluctuation (departure from work) as well as fictitious fluctuation (change of work location) are taken into account. Fictitious fluctuation is still to be variously estimated in the various branches. For the armament section it is estimated at 50 percent of the total fluctuation (cp. note 6). The total requirements of approximately 4.4 million would thus decrease by up to 1 million. The above estimate of requirements ought, therefore, in no case to exceed the requirements determined at the Fuehrer’s conference on 4 January 1944, comprising only the real fluctuation and amounting to 4,05 million namely:

1.Maintenance of the status of activity in the whole of the war economy including agriculture, taking into account the replacement of deficiencies due to drafts into the Wehrmacht, deaths, illness, expiration of contract, etc. (real fluctuation)2,5 million
2.For additional armament tasks and removal of bottleneck situations in armament plants1,30 million
3.Air raid defense constructions, etc.0,25 million
—————
Total4,05 million

Kehrl is charged with the task of ascertaining the magnitude of real and fictitious fluctuation, and as a basis thereto, on behalf of the Central Planning Board, together with the competent offices, to determine the concepts, “real and fictitious fluctuation,” furthermore the concepts, assignment, reserves [Aufstockung], etc., in a uniform terminology which will be binding for all agencies concerned.

The following resources are the GBA’s [Sauckel’s] estimated coverage of the requirements:

1.With the utmost efforts, other workers can be mobilized from German domestic reserves (getting hold of labor unemployed as result of enemy air raids, compulsory registration, shutting down, combing out measures)500,000
2.Recruitment of Italian labor numbering at the rate of 250,000 a month from January to April—1,000,000 and 500,000 from May to December1,500,000
3.Recruitment of French labor at equal monthly rates, from 1 February to 31 December 1944 (approx. 91,000 per month)1,000,000
4.Recruitment of labor from Belgium250,000
5.Recruitment of labor from the Netherlands250,000
6.Recruitment of labor from the eastern territories, occupied former Soviet territories, Baltic states, and General Government600,000
7.Recruitment of workers from other European countries100,000
—————
Approximately4,2 million

In addition, the following possibilities are seen for the mobilization of more reserves: Intensification of employment of women (in England, 61 percent of women between 14 and 65 are conscripted for the war economy, in Germany only 46 percent) especially in agriculture (more stringent application of the Goering ordinance), reduction in number of domestic assistants, reduction of the idle classes (Sauckel-Kehrl-Himmler, in this respect regional round-ups are to be carried out separately for foreigners, men and women) improvement of the sanitary system (saving up to 3 percent), working out of equitable contractual wages with incentive wage premiums. The planning office undertakes in common with the GBA [Sauckel] the examination of these possibilities for an intensified mobilization. Kehrl is moreover commissioned to make a general examination of the question of an improvement of industrial labor assignment. Everyone concerned will transmit their data on faulty assignment of workers to the planning office. If necessary, this question will be handled at a special session of the Central Planning Board.

For the 1st quarter of 1944 the following resources (including a fictitious fluctuation of about 50,000 per month) are given by the estimate of the GBA [Sauckel]:

Assignments in January145,000
Assignments February-March500,000
————
Approximately650,000

The adjustment of requirements and coverage will be effected at another session of the Central Planning Board.

[Signed] Steffler

Present:

Field Marshal Milch
State Secretary Koerner
President Kehrl
Ministerial Councillor Steffler
Maj. Gen. WaegerMinistry for Armament and Munitions
TeuscherMinistry for Armament and Munitions
KVV Chief BoschMinistry for Armament and Munitions
Ministerial Councillor WissmannMinistry for Armament and Munitions
Lt. Col. SchaedeMinistry for Armament and Munitions
Provincial Counsellor BerkPlenipotentiary for Labor Allocation
State Secretary HaylerReich Economic Ministry
General of Engineers SellschoppReich Air Ministry
Staff Engineer KaufmannReich Air Ministry
Staff Secretary GanzenmuellerReich Transport Ministry
Ministerial Director HassenpflugReich Transport Ministry
Ministerial Councillor HennigReich Transport Ministry
State Secretary BackeReich Food Ministry
State Secretary AlpersReich Office for Forestry
Prof. AbetzReich Office for Forestry
State Secretary GuttererPropaganda Ministry
Mayor EllgeringPropaganda Ministry
Gen. WeidemannOKW
Major KochOKW

Distribution:

Reich Minister Speer1st copy
Reich Minister Funk2d copy
Field Marshal Milch3d copy
State Secretary Koerner4th copy
President Kehrl5th copy & 6th
Engineer Goerner7th copy
Ministerial Councillor Steffler8th & 9th copies
Maj. Gen. Waeger10th copy
KVV Chief Bosch11th copy
Ministerial Councillor Wissmann12th copy
Provincial Councillor Berk13th copy
State Secretary Hayler14th copy
General Engineer Sellschopp15th copy
State Secretary Ganzenmueller16th copy
State Secretary Backe17th copy
State Secretary Alpers18th copy
State Secretary Gutterer19th copy
Gen. Weidemann20th copy
Major Koch21st copy
Planning Office22d & 23d copies
Registry V.P.24th & 31st copies

Pla. 160/ 11.2.

List of persons invited to the Conference of the Central Planning Board on 16 February 1944:

Chairman: Field Marshal Milch

Participants:

Reich Minister of Economy Funk
State Secretary Koerner
State Secretary Dr. Backe
General Forester Dr. Alpers
State Secretary Dr. Ganzenmueller
State Secretary Dr. Gutterer
President Kehrl
Maj. Gen. Waeger
Ministerial Manager Dr. Timm (crossed out and replaced by Provincial Councillor Berk)
Military Government vice-regent Dr. Bosch
Ministerial Councillor Dr. Steffler

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACTS FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
FIFTY-FOURTH CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING
BOARD, 1 MARCH 1944

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 54TH CONFERENCE[[96]]

OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Re: Labor Supply on Wednesday, 1 March 1944, 10 o’clock, at the Ministry for Air Transport

Sauckel: Field Marshal [Milch], Gentlemen, it goes without saying that we shall satisfy as far as possible the demands agreed upon by the Central Planning Board. In this connection I wish to state that I call such deliveries as can be made by the Plenipotentiary for Labor Allocation “possible” by stressing every nerve of his organization. Already on 4 January I had to report to the Fuehrer with the greatest regret that for the first time I was not in a position to guarantee delivery of the grand total of 4,050,000 men then calculated in the Fuehrer’s Headquarters for the year 1944. In the presence of the Fuehrer I emphasized this several times. In the previous years I was able to satisfy the demands, at least with regard to the number of laborers, but this year I am no longer able to guarantee them in advance. In case I can deliver only a small number, I should be glad if those arriving would be distributed by percentage within the framework of your program. Of course, I shall readily agree if I am now told by the board: Now we have to change the program; now this or that is more urgent. It goes without saying that we will satisfy the demands whatever they may be, to the best of our ability, with due regard to the war situation. So much about figures!

We have no reason to contest the figures as such, for we ask nothing for ourselves. We are not even able to do anything with the laborers we collect; we only put them at the disposal of industry. I only wish to make some general statements and ask for your indulgence.

In the autumn of last year the supply program, inasmuch as it concerns supply from abroad was frustrated to a very great extent; I need not give the reasons in this circle; we have talked enough about them, but I have to state: the program has been smashed. People in France, Belgium, and Holland thought that labor was no longer to be directed from these countries to Germany because the work now had to be done within these countries themselves. For months—sometimes I visited these countries twice within a month—I have been called a fool who against all reason travelled around in these countries in order to extract labor. This went so far, I assure you, that all prefectures in France had general orders not to satisfy my demands since even the German authorities quarreled over whether or not Sauckel was a fool. If one’s work is smashed in such a way, repair is very, very difficult. * * *

* * * Today I am able to report that we stopped that decrease. According to most accurate statistics, which I had ordered, we have today again including foreign workers and prisoners of war, the same number of 29.1 million which we had in September. But we have added nothing since that time. Thus we dispatched to the Reich in those two months no more than 4,500 Frenchmen which amounts to nothing. From Italy only 7,000 civilians arrived. This, although from 1 December until today, I have had no hour, no Sunday, and no night for myself. I have visited all these countries and travelled through the whole Reich. My work was terribly difficult, but not for the reason that no more workers are to be found. I wish to state expressly, in France and in Italy there are still men galore. The situation in Italy is nothing but a European scandal, the same applies to a certain extent to France. Gentlemen, the French work badly and support themselves at the expense of the work done by the German soldier and laborer, even at the expense of the German food supply, and the same applies to Italy. I found out during my last stay that the food supply of the northern Italians cannot suffer any comparison with that of the southern Italians. The northern Italians, viz., as far to the south as Rome are so well nourished that they need not work; they are nourished quite differently from the German nation by their Father in Heaven without having to work for their bread. The labor reserves exist but the means of touching them have been smashed.

The most abominable point made by my adversaries is their claim that no executive had been provided within these areas in order to recruit in a sensible manner the Frenchmen, Belgians, and Italians and to dispatch them to work. Thereupon I even proceeded to employ and train a whole batch of French male and female agents who for good pay, just as was done in olden times for “shanghaiing”, went hunting for men and made them drunk by using liquor as well as words in order to dispatch them to Germany. Moreover I charged some able men with founding a special labor supply executive of our own, and this they did by training and arming, with the help of the Higher SS and Police Leader, a number of natives, but I still have to ask the Munitions Ministry for arms for the use of these men. * * *

* * * Especially the protected factories in the occupied countries make my work more difficult. According to reports received within the last days these protected factories are to a great part filled to capacity, and still labor is sucked up into these areas. This strong suction very much obstructs our desire to dispatch labor to the Reich. I wish to emphasize that I never opposed the use of French labor in factories which had been transferred from Germany to France. I am still sound of mind, and as recently as last summer I charged Mr. Hildebrand with an inquiry in France which had the following result: It would be easy to extract from French medium and small factories—80 percent of all French factories are small enterprises with only 36-40 working hours—1 million laborers for use in the transferred factories, and 1 million more for dispatch to Germany. To use 1 million within France should be quite possible unless the protected factories in France artificially suck up the labor completely and unless their number is continually increased, as happens according to my reports especially in Belgium, and unless new categories of works are continually declared protected, so that finally no labor is left which I may use in Germany. I wish here and now to repeat my thesis: A French workman, if treated in the right way, does double the amount of work in Germany that he would do in France, and he has here twice the value he has in France. I want to state clearly and fearlessly—the exaggerated use of the idea of protected factories in connection with the labor supply from France in my submission implies a grave danger for the German labor supply. If we cannot come to the decision that my assistants, together with the armament authorities, are to comb out every factory, this fountain of labor too in the future will remain blocked for the use of Germany, and in this case the program prescribed to me by the Fuehrer may well be frustrated. The same applies to Italy. In either country there are enough laborers, even enough skilled workers; only we must have enough courage to step into the French plants. What really happens in France, I do not know. That a smaller amount of work is done during enemy operations in France, like in every occupied country, than is done in Germany seems to me evident. If I am to fulfill the demands which you present to me, you must be prepared to agree with me and my assistants, that the term “protected factory” is to be restricted in France to what is really necessary and feasible by reasonable men, and the protected factories are not, as the Frenchmen think, protected against any extraction of labor from them for use in Germany. It is indeed very difficult for me to be presented to French eyes as a German of whom they may say, Sauckel is here stopped from acting for German armament! * * * On the other hand, I have grounds for hoping that I shall be just able to wiggle through, first by using my old corps of agents and my labor executive, and secondly by relying upon the measures which I was lucky enough to succeed in obtaining from the French Government. In a discussion lasting 5-6 hours I have exerted from M. Laval the concession that the death penalty will be threatened for officials endeavoring to sabotage the flow of labor supply and certain other measures. Believe me, this was very difficult. It required a hard struggle to get this through. But I succeeded and now in France, Germans ought to take really severe measures, in case the French Government does not do so. Don’t take it amiss, I and my assistants in fact have sometimes seen things happen in France that I was forced to ask, is there no respect any more in France for the German lieutenant with his 10 men. For months every word I spoke was countered by the answer: But what do you mean, Mr. Gauleiter, you know there is no executive at our disposal; we are not able to take action in France! This I have been answered over and over again. How then, am I to regulate the labor supply with regard to France. There is only one solution—the German authorities have to co-operate with each other, and if the Frenchmen despite all their promises do not act, then we Germans must make an example of one case, and, by reason of this law, if necessary put prefect or burgomaster against the wall, if he does not comply with the rules; otherwise no Frenchman at all will be dispatched to Germany. During the latter quarter the belief in a German victory and in all propaganda statements which we were still able to make has sunk below zero, and today it is still the same. I rather expect the new French ministers, especially Henriot [French (Vichy) Minister of Propaganda] will act ruthlessly; they are very willing and I have a good impression of them. The question is only how far they will be able to impress their will on the subordinated authorities. Such is the situation in France.

In Italy the situation is exactly the same, perhaps rather worse. * * *

Moreover, I am offended, and this grieves me most, by the statement that I was responsible for the European partisan nuisance. Even German authorities reproached me thus, although they were the last ones who have the right to make such statements. I wish to protest against this slander, and I can prove that it is not I who is responsible. * * *

* * * Numerous German authorities, even such as had no connections with economics and labor supply, inquired of me, why do you fetch these people to Germany at all? You make trouble for this area and render our existence there more difficult. To which I can only reply: It is my duty to insist on it that labor supply comes from abroad. There is no longer a German labor supply. That the latter is exhausted I already proved by my ill-famed manifesto of April of last year. But I am not able to transfer the German soil to France. Nor can I transfer the German traffic to France nor the German mines. Nor can I transfer the German armament works which still have to release part of their workers, if fit for war service, nor their machines. Here alone 2,500,000 men are in question as has been calculated in the Fuehrer conference. It is the flower of German workers who go to the front and must go there. I have always been one of those who says: If only energetic measures are applied in fetching labor from abroad, then we want to release in God’s name everybody from armaments work whom we can, in order to strengthen our companies. The 1st and 7th Armored Divisions from Thuringia are frequently mentioned in the armed forces report, I can only tell you that the number of soldiers killed in battle in some Thuringian villages has surpassed for some time already the number of soldiers killed in the World War [I] by twice that amount. This I mention in my capacity as Gauleiter. It is for this reason that we have to do our duty. The best kind of German men, and men in the prime of life, have to go to the front, and German women of more than 50 years of age cannot replace them. Therefore I have to continue to go to France, Belgium, Holland, and Italy, and there will be a time again when I shall go to Poland and extract workers there as fit and as many of them as I can get. In this circle I only wish to urge that you spread it around that I am not quite the insane fellow I have been said to be during the last quarter of a year. Even the Fuehrer has been told so. It goes without saying that just this slander has had the effect that I was unable to deliver in the last quarter at least 1½ million workers whom I would have been able to deliver as long ago as last year, had the atmospheric conditions been better. It was due to that “artificial atmospheric screen”, that they did not arrive. I am aware that they simply have to arrive this year. My duty to the Fuehrer, the Reich Marshal, Minister Speer, and towards you, Gentlemen, and to agriculture is apparent, and I shall fulfill it. A start has been made, and as many as 262,000 new workers have arrived, and I hope and am convinced to be able to deliver the bulk of the order. How the labor is to be distributed will then have to be decided according to the needs of the whole of German industry, and I shall always be prepared to keep the closest contact with you, Gentlemen, and to charge the labor exchanges and the district labor exchanges with intimately collaborating with you. Everything is functioning if such collaboration exists. * * *

Milch: * * * I now proceed to the important question, where are we still able to get greater amounts of laborers from you, and without a doubt the answer is, from abroad. I have asked Mr. Schieber to make a short appearance here in order to give his opinion on Italy. I agree with your statement, Gauleiter, that it is only the bad organization of our work abroad which is responsible for the fact that you can’t do your job. Too many people meddle in your work. If someone tells you, there is no executive in France and Italy, I consider it an impudence, a foolish and stupid lie uttered by people who either are unable to think or consciously state an untruth. This kind of person is not interested in giving a clear lead in this respect and in analyzing the situation, probably because they are not smart enough. In this way, however, your work is rendered more difficult or frustrated, and all armament work at the same time. For we have it before our eyes what close relations exist between the situation in the occupied countries and that in the armaments industry. A more foolish policy can hardly be conceived. In case the invasion of France begins and succeeds only to a certain degree, then we shall experience a rising by partisans such as we have never experienced either in the Balkans or in the East, not because this would have happened in any case, but only because we made it possible by not dealing with them in the right manner. Four whole age groups have grown up in France, men between 18 and 23 years of age, who are, therefore, at that age when young people moved by patriotism or seduced by other people are ready to do anything which satisfies their personal hatred against us—and of course they hate us. These men ought to have been called up in age groups and dispatched to Germany; for they present the greatest danger which threatens us in case of invasion. I am firmly convinced and have said several times, if invasion starts, sabotage of all railways, works, and supply bases will be a daily occurrence, and then it will be really the case that our forces are no longer available to survey the execution of our orders within the country, but they will have to fight at the front, thereby leaving in their rear the much more dangerous enemy who destroys their communications, etc. If one had shown the nailed fist and a clear executive intention, a churchyard peace would reign in the rear of the front at the moment the uproar starts. This I have emphasized so frequently, but still nothing is happening, I am afraid. For if one intends to start to shoot at that moment, it will be too late for it; then we have no longer the men at our disposal to kill off the partisans. In the same way, we are aware of the fact that their supply of arms in the West is rather ample since the English are dropping them from planes. I consider it an idiotic statement if you, Gauleiter, are accused of having made these men into partisans. As soon as you arrive the men run away to protect themselves from being sent to Germany. Then they are away, and since they do not know how to exist, they automatically fall into the hands of the partisan leaders; but this is not the consequence of the fact that you wish to fetch them, but of the fact that your opposite number, the executive is not able to prevent their escape. You simply cannot act differently. The main crux of the problem is the fact that your work is made so extremely difficult, and this is why you cannot deliver the 4,050,000 workers. As long as it is feasible for these men to get away and not be caught by the executive, as long as the men are able not to return from leave and not to be found out on the other side, I do not think, Party Comrade Sauckel, that you will have a decisive success through employing your special corps. The men even then will be whisked away unless quite another authority and power is on the watch, and this can only be the army itself. The army alone can exercise effective executive. If some say they cannot do this kind of work, this is incorrect for within France there are training forces stationed in every hole and corner town and every place which could all be used for this work. If this would be done in time, the partisan nuisance would not emerge, just as it would not have done in the East if one had only acted in time. Once I had this task at Stalingrad. At Taganrog there were then 65,000 men of the army, and at the front one lieutenant and 6 men were actually available for each km. and they would have been only too glad if they had 20-30 for their assistance. In the rear there were great masses of men who had retreated in time and squatted down in the villages, and who now were available neither for fighting at the front nor for fighting the partisans. I am aware that I am placing myself in opposition to my own side, but I have seen such things happen everywhere, and can find no remedy but that the army should assert itself ruthlessly. You, Gauleiter Sauckel, the Reich Marshal, and the Central Planning Board ought to report on this question to the Fuehrer, and then he ought to decide at the same time on the duties of the military commanders. There ought to be orders of such lucidity that they could not be misunderstood, and it is then that things will be in order. It never can be too late to do so, but these duties and this work will be more difficult to perform with every passing day. The same applies to Italy as well.

Sauckel: I wish to insist on combing out the protected factories in the future also for the protected factories are working like a suction pump; and since it is known everywhere in Italy and France that every worker if he works in a protected factory is protected against any attempt of mine to extract him, it is only too natural that the men are pouring into these factories. How difficult my task becomes thereby is proved by the following fact. I intended to extract from Italy a million workers within the quarter ending 30 May. Hardly 7,000 arrived in the two months which expired so far. This is indeed the difficulty. The bulk enters the protected factories, and only the chaff remains for my purpose to send them to Germany. At least I hope to accomplish that with regard to larger enterprises as the number of protected factories is restricted in Italy, i.e., the number of protected factories, will not be further increased.

Sauckel: This indeed is the decisive question, the one we are dealing with now. If half of the program for 4 million workers to be brought to Germany—in other words 2 million—cannot be fulfilled, the employment of labor in Germany will fall off this year. The more useful workers, however, are in France, and of course in Italy too, employed in the protected factories. Therefore if I am not to touch the protected factories which are situated in these countries, this will have the effect that the less valuable workers instead of the more valuable type will arrive in Germany. And here we have to ponder about what is in fact more important and expedient. If we give up using these people in Germany, where we effectively rule the factories, where moreover we keep to a different labor discipline and reach better labor results than in France proper, then we give up the valuable kind, and then I shall only be able to transport to Germany the less valuable kind of people who still can be found on the streets of France or Italy, or people like waiters, hairdressers, small folk from tailor shops, etc.

Milch: What is the percentage of protected factories in Italy compared with the whole of Italian labor?

Schieber: I think 14 percent, but I don’t have the figures here.

Milch: Would not the following method be better: We could take under German administration the entire food supply for the Italians and tell them: Only he gets any food who either works in a protected factory or goes to Germany.

Sauckel: True, the French worker in France is better nourished than the German worker is in Germany, and the Italian worker too, even if he does not work at all, is better nourished in the part of Italy occupied by us than if he works in Germany. This is why I asked the German food authorities over and over again to improve also the food of the German worker introducing the “factory sandwich”. When I am in Paris, of course, I go to Maxim’s. There one can experience miracles of nourishment. The Fuehrer still thinks that in these countries only very rich men who can go to Maxim’s are well provided with food. Thereupon I sent my assistants to the Paris suburbs, to the estaminets and lunch restaurants and was told that the Frenchmen who eat there did not feel the shortage caused by the war to any degree comparable with what our nation has to experience. The average French citizen too can still buy everything he wishes.

(Interruption: This is still more so in small places!)

Yes. Moreover, the Frenchman can pay for what he can get. Therefore he has no reason for wishing to go to Germany in order to get better food. This unfortunately is the case.

Milch: Is there nothing we can do? True, we might not be able to control the distribution to the customer, but we ought to be able to intervene at an earlier stage of distribution.

Koerner: We have requested from France really immense amounts of food; these requests have always been fulfilled; often after some pressure, but they have been fulfilled.

Milch: But there is a simple remedy, let us cease supplying the troops from Germany, but tell them to provide the food for themselves from France. Then in a few weeks they will have everything eaten up, and then we can start distributing the food to the Frenchmen.

Koerner: In France there still is for the time being a rationing system. The Frenchmen had his ration card on which he receives the minimum. The rest he provides in other ways, partly by receiving food parcels which we cannot touch at all. Every year we increase our food demands to the French Government who always satisfied them, though very frequently yielding to pressure, and in proportion to the harvest results, were they good or bad. In Italy the situation is that food is not rationed at all. The Italian can buy and eat what he wants, and since an Italian always has money and deals in the black market, he is in a much better situation than our German worker who practically has nothing but what he gets on his card.

Milch: But don’t we even send food to Italy?

Koerner: We are exchanging certain goods.

Sauckel: Moreover we are now at the point that the families of French and Italian workers are no longer in a better position owing to the money transfer if their bread-winning members are working in Germany than if they remain abroad; now nothing remains to induce them to go to Germany.

Milch: Unfortunately, Reich Minister Speer is not present today. He certainly must have had an opinion about the whole system. His agreement with Bichelonne was to activate an additional labor supply in France itself for our armament with the aid of existing French capacities. We cannot compute the result here of what was achieved by that action. Whether the result he dreamed of has been achieved cannot be decided just yet; that is, have the S-plants given us an increase of armaments which is greater than what we would have achieved if the people had worked in Germany? I would propose that Minister Speer himself one day clarify this problem again. Because if only a negative result had been achieved, he would automatically change his point of view too.

The first question is: Is the percentage of trained people in the S-plants so great that all the others are to be regarded as rubbish? And the second question is: Is it possible at all, with the lack of so-called executive power and differing opinions on this question, to seize and transfer to Germany the remaining 80 percent who are not in the S-plants? So, in view of the general political and organizational conditions in France, would you be able to transfer some 10-15 percent of the best of these 80 percent?

Sauckel: I’ll have to get them.

Milch: Can you do it at all?

Sauckel: Today I cannot promise anything. Today I can only do my work.

Milch: I mean, in reference to the other 80 percent, if your hands are not tied by different circumstances, that first, there is nothing to attract these people to Germany; that second, they reckon with Germany’s defeat in a short time; that third, they are attached to their families and to their country; and that fourth, they shun work because they can still exist, and without it they look on the whole period as a period of transition. On the other hand you have the fact that the army does not assist you and that the German authorities are hostile to each other, a fact which is very cleverly utilized by the French.

Sauckel: That has changed since my last visit. All German authorities, the Military Commander, Field Marshal von Rundstedt, Field Marshal Sperrle, have supported me considerably in these affairs.

(Milch: I refer to the smaller authorities, the executive ones.)

That has been spoiled—pardon me if I have to bring this up—because all departments, even armaments over there, were of the opinion up to 4 January, that my claims and, especially, my figures, were crazy.

(Milch: But only people who could not understand such figures.)

Up to 4 January it was the same everywhere, from the military commander to the German Ambassador and the German armament departments. Up to then all the agencies in France had in general held the opinion: it has not been decided yet by any means, Sauckel’s figures are not correct, so we have to take it easy here. And that penetrated naturally down to the lower ranks of French authorities too.

Milch: That is just what I mean about the differences of opinion between you and Minister Speer. You say: The best thing for me is to approach the protected industries; Speer says: Leave those people alone, take 80 percent away from the others. And if one is neutral, one has to say, always with the provision that these 20 percent in the S-plants really achieve something for us, Speer is right when he says: Please do not touch my 20 percent; there are enough among the 80 percent for your use. And now I say: Why do you not take the others? Is it so difficult to approach them?

Sauckel: No. I need the people as well. The fact is that Speer’s plants are filling up nowadays. For instance, I received the information the day before yesterday that the urge to work for the protected industries is especially strong in France just now and so the supply of skilled workers to Germany is practically cut off. Skilled workers can only be found in these plants.

Kehrl: May I explain briefly the opinion of my Minister? Otherwise the impression might be created that the measures taken by Minister Speer had been unclear or unreasonable, and I want to prevent this. Seen from our viewpoint, the situation is as follows: Up to the beginning of 1943 manufacturing for Germany was done in France only to a relatively modest extent, since generally only such work was transferred for which German capacity did not suffice; these were some few individual products, and moreover some basic industries. During all this time a great number of Frenchmen were recruited and voluntarily went to Germany.

(Sauckel: Some were recruited forcibly.)

The drafting started after the recruiting no longer yielded adequate results.

Sauckel: Out of the five million foreign workers who arrived in Germany, not even 200,000 came voluntarily.

Kehrl: Let us forget for the moment whether or not some slight pressure was used. Formally, at least, they were volunteers. After this recruitment no longer yielded satisfactory results, we started drafting according to age groups, and with regard to the first age group the success was rather good. Up to eighty percent of the age group were registered and sent to Germany. This started about June of last year. Following developments in the Russian war and the hopes raised thereby in the western nations, the results of this calling-up of age groups became considerably worse, as can be proved by the figures noted; viz., the men tried to dodge this call-up for transport to Germany, partly by simply not registering at all, partly by not arriving for the transport or by leaving the transport en route. When they found out through these first attempts during the months of July and August that the German executive either was not able or was not willing to catch these shirkers and either to imprison them or take them forcibly to Germany, the readiness to obey the call-ups sank to a minimum. Therefore, relatively small percentages were caught in individual countries. On the other hand, these men, moved by the fear the German executive might after all be able to catch them, did not enter French, Belgian, or Dutch factories, but took to the mountains where they found company and assistance from the small partisan groups there.

Milch: Another question. Since now through the transfer of various industries so much is covered by French labor, as in the textile industry, etc., a corresponding number of German workers would necessarily become free as a result of that.

Kehrl: Then they will not be requisitioned here, though they would have been formerly.

Timm: Nobody is going to be released. Probably other requests will be sent to the same factories.

Sauckel: In this respect I must also draw attention to the fact that the German factories which were shut down were much more up to date and probably worked with less personnel than the French factories.

Milch: But we want all the factories to work for armaments.

Kehrl: That would also result in spreading the risk in case of air warfare.

Milch: I believe the system to be good, as a still more severe commitment of workers for Germany would have the effect of making a considerable part of them remain over there for good. I wish you had something to back you up so you can have enough power to get it done. I do not think that anyone in France will enforce it.

Sauckel: But they will all right, if Germany goes at this thing the right way. It is not the insignificant French workman who should be punished, but the French policeman, who, instead of supplying people to Germany, goes to them beforehand and says: I’m coming tomorrow; you’d better get out. The French subordinate and intermediary authorities have to be punished.

Milch: Even if Bichelonne and Laval have the best intention there will be resistance from the mayors, the gendarmes, and the prefects, just because these people are afraid that, first, they will be called to account afterwards for it, and, second, because of their patriotism, which makes them say: We must not work for the enemy of our country. Therefore, I would like to have an authority in our administration which would force these people to do it, because then the French could say: If you force us, we will do it, but voluntarily we will not do it. The same applies to Italy. There they say: Who knows who will win, whether it will be Mussolini or Badoglio or the King; only, if you force us, we are ready to do it. Therefore, we have to have something on our side which will exercise this pressure. I don’t see at all why big divisions should be necessary for this. The existing forces should be sufficient to accomplish it.

Timm: I have the feeling that we are sticking too closely to the figures and are neglecting the qualitative side of the question. The present development may permit us to fulfill our programs with regard to figures, but in the demands made by the factories the important thing for them is to have so many metal workers, etc. Then we practically have to say: You will only get unskilled workers.

Kehrl: We realize that. The plants are getting unskilled workers, at the utmost it may be possible to obtain skilled workers by transferring plants from Italy to Germany.

Sauckel: Then in the course of the year the factories will declare: We cannot use these workers. And over against this you have the fact that in France we have a reservoir of unused skilled workers.

Milch: I am not worrying about that. Naturally our plants will say: We want skilled workers. But they also need a certain number of unskilled workers.

Timm: Will it not happen that the officers making the demands say one day: But we know that in the French plants there is an excess of skilled workers which cannot be justified?

Milch: That should be discussed again later with Speer himself. First, Speer must have the proper perspective to see what has happened as the result of all his agreements.

I can imagine that first the numerus clausus is introduced at once, so that the extent of the output in the S-plants is fixed, and that secondly it is decided later on that if a part of the S-plants has not worked properly after a certain period, they lose their protection again and the people from these plants can be transferred as a unit. I can foresee already now that in air armaments, part of the plants will turn out such bad production that I shall not be interested in keeping them up. So, protection for certain plants will simply be discontinued. And this will have a positive effect on the other plants, too, because they will say: If we don’t do our work properly, we shall be transferred. Now during the transfer it is necessary to see that people really do arrive and do not run away before or during the transfer. If a transport has left a town and has not arrived, 500 to 600 persons from this place must be arrested and sent to Germany as prisoners of war. Such a thing is then talked about everywhere. If actions like this and other similar ones are carried out often, they would exert a certain pressure. The whole thing would be made easier if we had control of food. The stuff offered by the black market has to come from a certain depot, and there we ought to cut in.

Kehrl: That is difficult. The transport of food by parcel post has taken on extraordinary proportions in France.

Milch: If I were military commander, I would simply confiscate the whole of the parcel post!

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-D

EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT ON THE FIFTY-SIXTH CONFERENCE
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD, 4 APRIL 1944

The Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

Central Planning Board

Z.P. 18 Secr. St. Papers Pl. 030056

Berlin, 8 April 1944

[Signed] Dr. Goerner

Top Secret State Matter

REPORT ON THE 56TH CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD ON 4 APRIL 1944

Building Allocation 1944

The Jaegerstab is to get a quota of 550 million including 150 million definitely pledged from the reserve and the air administration is to have a quota of 200 million; both are to be checked against each other. Regarding the air administration quota, precise details (as to specific amounts, number of workers required, quantities of material, etc.) are to be submitted, building projects for the supplying industry (optical glass) are to be transferred to the office of armament supplies, trial projects are to be discussed between the commissioner of building and air H.C., the remaining demands are to be cleared between air chief administration and the Chief of the General Staff.

The quota recipients will be informed of their respective quotas as of guiding figures within the limits of which the commissioner of building may give assignments. The quota recipients themselves are, on the basis of these guiding figures, to re-plan their projects by concentrating on priority issues and to report which of their building projects will have to fall out including the resulting figures. Field Marshal Milch will report to the Fuehrer on the total situation of building. Reports on the quotas Air Ministry, Navy, Army, and Reichsbahn are to be sent to Field Marshal Milch forthwith.

Demands of labor, building materials, etc., as resulting from the quota allocations are to be discussed with the planning office by the quota recipients taking into account such amounts of the quota as were already used up for building purposes since 1 January 1944.

[Typed signature] Steffler.

Present:

Field Marshal Milch
Reich Minister Funk
State Secretary Koerner[[97]]
President Kehrl[[98]]
Dr. Ing. Goerner
Min. Rat Steffler

[follow names of 27 others who attended, including Under Secretary Ohlendorf,[[99]] Lt. Gen. (Artillery) Von Leeb,[[100]] and Professor Krauch.[[101]]]

[Signed] Staatsrat Schieber

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-287

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 49

LETTER FROM MILCH TO SAUCKEL, 8 APRIL 1943, CONCERNING
THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRY

Copy

The Reich Air Minister and Supreme Commander of the Air Force

St/GL

Secret

File note: 16m 10 No. 220/43 secret (GL/A-W Wi 3 II)

Berlin W 8, 8 April 1943

7 Leipziger Street

Tel. 12 0047, Ext. 5530

To the Plenipotentiary for the Four Year Plan

Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation

Berlin SW 11

96 Saarland Street

Subject: Protection of Industry.

The continuously increasing drafting of German workers from the production as well as from the security teams (plant protection and plant fireguards) make it necessary to assign more and more foreign labor to the factories of the armament industry. This assignment of foreign labor faces the plants of the armament industry with special tasks of security, which cannot be guaranteed with the forces at present at the disposal of the industry. According to what I have found out the statistics of 31 December 1942 have already shown an unfulfilled demand of 15 percent in plant protection personnel. Moreover, the extension of the air force industry brings about a further increase in the requirements for plant protection personnel, an increase which up to now has not been covered by the labor offices.

An investigation I made in a number of plants of the air force industry a short while ago has shown that even after the introduction of the compulsory labor law most of the labor offices could not make the necessary forces available for protection and fireguard tasks, while other labor agencies could not entirely satisfy the needs. The labor office of Halberstadt has even refused to deal with this requirement because these men were required for organizations without productive value.

In the field of the air force industry I already ordered, at the beginning of the war, the 84-hour week for these sectors. So that no further increase can be made with these working hours, for otherwise, there would be an increase of illness which would bring about a further unwarranted weakening in the numbers of the personnel. Even the decree for the securing of the necessary forces of protectory guards, issued by you on 29 December 1942, (File note: Va 5550.917) has not yet shown any results up to now in the field of the armament industry.

Therefore, you are urgently requested to direct the labor offices to place at the disposal of the armament plants, upon their request as quickly as possible the competent forces for plant protection and fireguards, because otherwise normal security in the plants does not seem to be guaranteed any longer.

In the field of air force industry, this would involve approximately 2,500 to 3,000 men.

We ask you to kindly inform us about the steps taken.

Copy, for information, to:

OKW W Stb [Economic Staff of the Armed Forces]

By Order:

Milch [Typewritten]

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

SPEER’S MINUTES OF A CONFERENCE WITH HITLER ON 8 JULY 1943

Top Secret State Matter

Berlin, 10 July 1943

CONFERENCE WITH THE FUEHRER, 8 JULY 1943

17. The Fuehrer laid down in the coal discussion that 70,000 Russian prisoners of war fit for mining work should be sent each month to the mines. He also pointed out that an approximate minimum of 150,000-200,000 fit Russian prisoners of war must be earmarked for the mines in order to obtain the required number of men suitable for this work.

If the Russian prisoners of war cannot be released by the army, the male population in the partisan infested areas should without distinction be proclaimed prisoners of war and sent off to the mines.

At the same time the Fuehrer ordered that prisoners of war not fit for the mines should immediately be placed in the iron industry, in manufacturing and supply industries, and in the armament industry.

The Fuehrer further ordered that he should receive a monthly report giving (a) the total number of Russian prisoners of war, and (b) the number of Russian prisoners of war fit for mining, made available for the mines and a report addressed to Field Marshal Keitel as to why the remainder could not be used.

The joint report of Sauckel and Pleiger is also to be sent to me.

[Signed] Speer

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-A

EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT BY SAUR OF THE CONFERENCE
WITH THE FUEHRER, 5 MARCH 1944

Top Secret State Matter

Berlin, 6 March 1944

POINTS FROM THE CONFERENCE (SAUR) WITH THE
FUEHRER ON 5 MARCH 1944

Jointly with Field Marshal Milch, Lt. Gen. of the Air Force

Bodenschatz, Colonel von Below

18. Told the Fuehrer of the Reich Marshal’s wish for the future utilization of the productive capacity of prisoners of war by giving the direction of the Stalag to the SS, with the exception of the British and Americans. The Fuehrer considers the proposal a good one and has asked Colonel von Below to arrange matters accordingly.

(Prepared by Saur)

(Seen by Speer)

EXCERPTS FROM THE TESTIMONY GIVEN BY DEFENSE WITNESS
ALBERT SPEER[[102]] BEFORE COMMISSION ON 19 FEBRUARY 1947

EXAMINATION

Judge Musmanno: Herr Speer, I would like to understand the machinery by which labor was brought into Germany beginning with the request by any particular department for any particular number of workers. Let us suppose that someone appeared before the Central Planning Board and said, “I will need fifty thousand men for a factory that I am about to construct.” Now please tell us just what happened. Would you issue an order to somebody? Would he then in turn order someone else and how did these workers finally then arrive in Germany?

Witness Speer: If somebody on the Central Planning Board requested labor, the Central Planning Board did not issue an order that these workers must be supplied, but the Central Planning Board agreed that those workers can be supplied. An order by the Central Planning Board, Sauckel would not have accepted. That is a definite fact.

It is quite clear that the requests for labor did not occur in these long intervals between the meetings of the Central Planning Board, but this had to happen in much shorter intervals and in a constant collaboration with the people concerned, for the enemy air raids and changes in programs which became necessary because of the military situation made these changes very often necessary. Therefore, for the whole of our armament industry and also for certain branches of production outside armament that were in my ministry, we decided on so-called framework contingents, and priority lists were drawn up. I do not know whether you are interested in that part.

Q. Well, not particularly. I want very succinctly a statement as to the steps which ensue after the declaration of someone before the Central Planning Board that he needed a certain number of workers. Who was informed of this request? Who authorized the call for the workers? Who submitted the demand? Who then at the other end gathered the workers? Not in detail—I just want the steps in movement from the Central Planning Board until the men actually arrived.

A. The Central Planning Board did not deal with that matter anymore afterwards. Let us say the request of labor, say, of the coal mining industry——

Q. Yes.

A. ——was reported to Sauckel by the coal mining industry itself. Therefore, one could call a meeting of the Central Planning Board as a statement for Sauckel that such labor is very important for the coal mining industry, and that as far as possible he has to supply them. That is necessary within the framework of economic planning, but beyond that the Central Planning Board did not pursue the matter any further or was not even in a position to do so.

Q. Well, did you know there at the fountainhead of labor—because if you made the request originally, that is what started the machinery in motion—did you not know that bringing in workers forcibly from occupied territories to work in the war operation constituted a violation of international convention? Weren’t you aware of that right at the very source?

A. What I say now is not meant to be an excuse. I really did not know it. Up to the beginning of my trial here, the regulations of international law were unknown to me, and nobody ever drew my attention to the fact that such regulations exist; but I want to say once more, I don’t say this in order to excuse myself, here, but it is a fact that it was like this.

Q. Well, you were certainly quite aware from the decision of the International Military Tribunal just how illegal and improper that was.

A. I took note of it there, and, after all, I received my punishment for it now.

Q. Well, could you not have followed the same line of reasoning adopted by the Tribunal, which, after all, was based upon international convention? You were a man of education, a man of great cultural attainments and of great technical ability, and it was because of these attributes that you were chosen by Hitler to become the Minister of Armaments. Could you not have reasoned that out by yourself? Wasn’t it very clear and obvious?

A. I believe that the general knowledge of the principles of international law can only be brought to the knowledge of a wider circle of legal laymen if after a war legal offenses committed during the war will be revealed by a public trial, and thereby a more general knowledge of offenses against international law becomes known. You know that I was an architect and that such knowledge as I had in the field of law I merely received from newspapers, and I knew, for instance, all about various legal commitments of architects which are fairly extensive as far as construction of buildings goes.

I would say that a great mistake has been committed here by omitting after the First World War to establish international legal conditions by trials, and at the same time to adjust it to the developments of technical warfare instead of which, after the First World War, the whole question of the deportation of labor, for instance, was decided by the highest German courts, and as far as I know, the decision of that court was not particularly lucid. This is how the basis of ignorance is laid in the field of international law, and I believe that many a mistake and many a violation in this war could have been avoided or at least mitigated if a general knowledge of international law had been prevalent.

Q. Would you say that had there been, following the First World War, trials such as those we are now conducting, that you then would have been aware of the illegality of the practices in which you were engaged; or rather, you would have been aware of the illegality of such practices and you then would not have participated in them?

A. I am of the opinion that trials against the responsible men for the First World War after its conclusion would have enlightened the public and myself on the tenets of international law. I do not wish to go as far as to say that I would not have committed these breaches of law, for it is very difficult to excuse one’s self after the event by saying one committed the act only through ignorance of international law. Nevertheless, I should say that the observance of international law would have been possible without losing much momentum in my armament drive. Of course only that part of international law is meant here which deals with the recruiting of labor, whereas the other factor, the so-called legal looting of occupied territories as it is called, there is no doubt that that would have been necessary for an increased output of armaments. Violations of international law as far as the assignment of labor was concerned were in my opinion not only unnecessary, but unreasonable. We would have achieved more if we had observed international law. This is a very complicated topic; I do not know whether you are interested why this should be so.

Q. Well, I merely want you to enlighten me, if you care to, on this specific angle. You are considered a specialist. Now, had there been an international trial following the First World War, and the decision in that trial had been very clear and specific—as was the decision in this trial—you would have then known the limitations very specifically on the conduct of war; and having then known that you couldn’t do certain things, would you then have refused to participate as you did in this World War as a specialist? Having been put on notice that you cannot take labor from other countries forcibly and throw them into the armament industries—knowing all that, would you then have refused to give your services to Hitler in the prosecution of this war?

A. As to the first part of the question I wish to say if a trial and a clear decision had been handed down after the First World War, then certainly somebody would have put the international laws and regulations on my desk; that is to say, he would have informed me of it. The second question—it is not possible to give a simple answer to the second part of the question for when I started my office in 1942 the war in all its aspects had already departed from all existing international regulations. Please don’t misunderstand me if I point out here that economic warfare was waged by the British and Americans with extreme concentration on bombing warfare, which was not a matter of national reprisal because it hit industries in occupied territories. On the other hand the war with Russia had gone beyond the normal limits, if I can call it that. It is difficult for me to say who was the guilty party.

Q. I do not refer to the time after the war had reached such a state that there were no restrictions. I am speaking of the period before the war started. I would like to know whether a man of your education could have been enlisted in a practice which you knew and would then have known was entirely illegal and contrary to international law as well as the precepts and dictates of humanity.

A. I would not have participated if I had known the whole documentary material which became known in our first big trial. If I had known that Hitler since 1938 had prepared for war and had tied the fate of his people to his own to such an extent that his end was the end of his own nation——

Q. I didn’t intend to enter into such a long discussion on this. All I had in mind was that if those in your classification, as specialists, would have observed international law, and would have known clearly what international law was—the restrictions, the limitations and so on—and if we assumed that these specialists were men of character, then, even though Germany had at the helm a navigator who had become mad, he could not have run the ship on to the rocks for the simple reason that you and the other specialists who assisted in the present shipwreck, would have refused to ship on a venture which was so obviously bound for the rocks, internationally speaking. Is that true or not?

A. That is so without a doubt.

Q. And would you go so far as to say that had there been an international trial of the proportions of the one we have just had, and these which are now following, after the First World War, and the knowledge resulting from decisions handed down would have become well-known because of the punishments which would have been inflicted, would you say that that might have served as a bar against a Second World War?

A. I do not wish to say that it could have stopped and Hitler——

Q. If Hitler had not had specialists, Hitler could not have wrecked the world himself. Hitler had to have a Speer and had to have the others who were condemned in the first International Military Tribunal. He could not have done it alone.

A. That’s quite clear, but these specialists were taken into their part of the war without realizing what the connections were and an international trial is not a wholly certain method to prevent a new war; but I think it’s a very essential contribution toward that aim. I am unable to answer your question by saying that Hitler would have been unable to find collaborators if, after the First World War, these trials had been held, but I do wish to say it would have been much more difficult for him, also because our specialists were not very intimately connected with the Party circles.

Q. Well, I think that’s a point I wanted to find out; that, if the specialists had refused to collaborate, knowing that the contribution of their service meant a completely illegal undertaking, then Hitler could not have conducted a war by himself and therefore there could not have been a war?

A. In technical warfare the specialists are decisive factors for the conduct of war, but the specialists are not to be regarded as being the parties principally responsible. They do not have the necessary knowledge of the background, the political background—essential in view of Hitler’s untruthfulness—to see where he is taking the ship.

Q. The ship could go nowhere without you specialists. That’s all.

A. I thank you.

Judge Musmanno: Do you have any questions, Dr. Bergold?

DIRECT EXAMINATION

Dr. Bergold: Yes, sir, I have. Witness, his Honor has asked you how it would be if a factory, for instance, would need and would request 50,000 workers, which way and in which channel would take this request up to the point in foreign territories where 50,000 foreigners would have been gathered and taken to Germany for that purpose. Isn’t it correct that such a proposal of bringing 50,000 workers to this factory did not mean that 50,000 foreign workers would be brought but meant only that 50,000 workers altogether were brought? That meant German workers as well as foreign workers which were actually already in Germany and employed there and also new recruits? That included all that, did it not?

Speer: I was deflected from my answer in that particular case and I did not really give an answer to the question. If 50,000 workers were requested for a certain branch in our industry the request gave a figure which did not show how many of them were Germans and how many of them were foreign workers. The bigger part of the workers which were supplied came from what was called fluctuation. Fluctuation meant the transfer of workers from one plant to another. It’s quite clear that production is in a constant development. One always follows the other and in some cases one orders particular workers and then it loses that importance for military reasons. The plan is that some workers available are constantly released and sent on to different plants or industries. A second source was the newly mobilized German workers, I mean the women workers, and a third source was the sending of foreign workers already in Germany, and a fourth source the prisoners of war who were also sent on from one branch to the next, and the fifth source consisted of some that came in from foreign countries. How these various workers from these various sources were distributed among branches, neither my offices nor the factories who had requested workers could find out. That was a matter which had to be decided by the labor exchanges because it took an enormous amount of work to find the proper workers for the proper branches. * * *

Q. Thank you. Witness, do you know that when the French Government, which at that time existed in Paris, had issued an order for the calling up of labor did that mean compulsory labor?

A. These details became known to me during the trial. My tasks were enormous and at that time I did not bother much about details. I cannot say anything about this from my knowledge.

Q. Witness, you must know this; at the time when you had discussions with Mr. Bichelonne, French Minister, I should think that the existence of compulsory labor service in France should have been discussed at that time.

A. Perhaps I misunderstood you. I said quite clearly last time that I knew about the fact that in occupied territories workers were taken to Germany against their free will. The various districts, etc., are not known to me.

Q. No. I mean if such a decree had been issued at all. That’s what I am speaking of.

A. I had to assume that but I wasn’t actually informed about it.

Q. Did you consider the French Government, which at that time was in Paris, France—did you consider it a regular government?

A. This is the same sort of question which his Honor put to me too. I had no basis to find out whether the French Government was legal or not, because these are problems of international law which are beyond me as a layman.

Q. Witness, do you not know that the Government of Pétain had been recognized and was recognized by the American Government, and that the American Government had an ambassador, if I recall correctly—and I am not sure I can pronounce his name—at that time, Mr. Leahy, Admiral Leahy?

A. I know that, but I must say frankly that I did not spend my time thinking about whether the French Government was legal or not.

Q. Thank you. I have no further questions.

Judge Musmanno: Herr Speer, what I was endeavoring to elucidate, or have you elucidate for us, was not whether you knew if a government was legal or not, if it was recognized internationally or not. I wanted to draw your attention to something quite more fundamental, and that was the employment against its will of population in a war activity, all of which was prohibited by international law. And if you and all the specialists in the Hitler regime knew of the limitation and were thoroughly aware, and the knowledge was so widespread that you couldn’t help but know that it was illegal and that you would be punished if you did it, that is, to bring in workers from another country and put them into war operations—if that were a matter of such general knowledge that every college man and every person that was well read would know of it, would Hitler not have had difficulty in obtaining such a crew to run a ship, regardless of what he may have had in mind as to the illegal port which he hoped to attain by that voyage?

Speer: I can only speak about the time in which I worked, that is to say, from 1942 onwards. In that time, I am sure that if these legal matters had been made quite clear a large number of technicians or industrial leaders would not have collaborated to the extent they did if they had realized the illegality and the possible punishment.

I would like to stress this particularly for the period from 1943 onwards. From that time onwards, many intelligent people realized that the war had been lost, and from that time onwards it would have made a great impression if in former trials heavy punishment was meted out. Not everybody would have been impressed; certain people would have followed the old line, but the majority of so-called specialists, certainly—

Q.—would have recognized the illegality of what they were asked to do. I understand you to say that the majority of the specialists would have recognized the illegality of what they were asked to do and would have refused. That is what I understand you to say.

A. Yes, that is what I wanted to say.

Judge Musmanno: Very well. Thank you very much.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 5

EXTRACT FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC REPORT OF THE ELEVENTH
CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD,
22 JULY 1942

REPORT OF THE 11TH CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL

PLANNING BOARD ON 22 JULY 1942[[103]]

[page 2 of original]

Safeguarding of Food Supplies

A net increase of one million foreign workers is anticipated. This figure has not been reached during the past months. Even if more than one million workers are brought here during the months to come, the limit of one million will actually never be exceeded due to continued losses. Food for this number of workers is guaranteed.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 6[[104]]

EXTRACT FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
TWENTY-SECOND CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD, 2 NOVEMBER 1942

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 22D CONFERENCE

OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD CONCERNING

ASSIGNMENT OF LABOR, MONDAY, 2 NOVEMBER

1942, 12:00 O’CLOCK IN THE REICH MINISTRY

FOR AVIATION

Milch: In my opinion agriculture has to be provided with its labor. If, theoretically, agriculture could have been given 100,000 more men, there would be 100,000 fairly well-fed men, while those we get now, particularly the prisoners of war, are not exactly fit for work. If agriculture will get them in time, they will again be able to feed these people up again. However, it will not be very happy about it. * * *

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 7

EXTRACT FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
THIRTY-SECOND CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD, 12 FEBRUARY 1943

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 32D CONFERENCE

OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD—THE FOUR

YEAR PLAN ON 12 FEBRUARY 1943

Milch: Everybody sticks to his old methods until he is literally beaten away from them. However, one must not only beat, one must give advice, too. They must be good experts who will tell people: You will do that this way or that; it is not necessary that you use just this sum. Who does such a thing will never give in and say, I can do with less. Mining has been partly beaten[[105]] into iron by saying we cannot give you anything but iron on account of the shortage of lumber.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 8[[106]]

EXTRACT FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
THIRTY-THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL
PLANNING BOARD, 16 FEBRUARY 1943

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 33D CONFERENCE[[107]]

OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Subject:Assignment of Labor, 16 February 1943, 16 o’clock, in the Reich Ministry for Armament and Munitions, Berlin.

Speer: We are in complete agreement. You will not receive any list from us for this action but the whole armament industry including the anticipated deliveries will be devoted to this action. The administrations too must be served at the same time. But the authorities including army, air and navy shall not get a single person from the action. This must be adhered to. You know what the Reich Minister Dr. Lammers said: That he must therefore have some new women typists at the Reich Chancellory at once. That makes no sense.

Milch: Where France is concerned, there exists in France an industry which makes aircraft motors and parts, all complete. We have transferred there all the things which can be made there without endangering secrecy in any way. These are training aircraft, transport aircraft, etc. However, since we want to make the most of the production in other ways, we have moved away part of it to a large extent. As a whole these things must be kept secret from the French but in every part subject to secrecy there are only a few parts which are real secret. The bulk consists of other parts. These have also gone there to a great extent just as we engaged aircraft builders in France to a great extent. We now currently have work waiting in France for several thousand aircraft builders. At the moment the industry working for us there needs, according to its claims, some 20,000 men, who are asked of us, in order to be able to keep to the program. The production is still far behind that which was agreed upon with you in the program. Whereas we in Germany fully carry out our program, only 30 percent of it is carried out in France. In fact it has only begun to function in the last weeks and months after we have been more active there. In principle, we have excluded the State from this whole cooperation with industry and set the German firms to work with the French firms.

Sponsor firms have been appointed so as to make the affair operate. This system is not yet fully completed but has been favorably initiated everywhere and indeed brings quite other returns to some extent. The reproach is always made to us that nearly all Europe is at our disposal. The production we draw from France, with the exception of motor cars, is minute as regards the army. The whole French production potential is not yet fully exploited by us or only to a quite small proportion. If it were necessary for us to produce in France, because in Germany the capacity, space machine tools, etc., which are not convenient for removal are lacking, if the accommodation of the people were not so difficult, etc., we would in fact be reduced to the point of taking everything to Germany and have the work done here. But this would entail too great a decrease in the production in our own country, not to mention the reluctance of the people.

We came to an agreement yesterday. I am very thankful that this matter is now, thanks to yourself, Gauleiter Sauckel, together with Gen. v. d. Heyde and Col. Brueckner, to be settled on the spot. It is difficult to induce Frenchmen to come over here. An official agency alone cannot either appreciate or realize this, only a sponsoring firm can realize it. I therefore suggest that sponsor firms be called upon to cooperate, precisely because in France the sub-contract system is very widespread.

Behind the factory which actually organizes the thing, there are other factories which belong to the semi-finished goods and preparatory industry. This industry, however, can be supervised by our sponsor industries. We should have to assign to our people the task of investigating the individual firms and find out which people are working for our program. All others we annex ourselves. When we have got hold of them and annex them in German industry, that is, only those people who are really necessary to us, it will be possible to utilize them in the right way.

The proportion of specialist workers there is higher than in this country. We have indeed drained a certain number of them into our factories last year because they were the easiest to get. The Frenchmen must work with more specialists than we. We must work with more specialists than the Russian, and the Russian must have still more specialists than the American. In America they can place any simpleton before any machine, he will put it right in a flash. Only the installation requires a specialist. The man need only have arms; a head is a superfluous luxury.

In France the system is quite different. The Frenchman has adapted himself to it and has always indeed had unemployment. A labor organization as we conceive it does not exist. With the same number of Frenchmen and all other installations, facilities, etc., being the same, one will only obtain, as compared with German personnel, half at the most or only one-third of the production, even if the personnel have all good will and zeal. It is a matter of system. This system we cannot simply alter, neither can the sponsor firms, but we must try in this way to obtain from them to a certain extent the additional resources which we need for our industry and armament. By proceeding thus, we can put things right. I believe the sponsor firms have an obvious interest in this. If industry has too many specialist workers there working for us, let us draw upon them ourselves, because we are suffering a great shortage of them. This resource should be left to our firms after this extensive drain on specialist workers has been suffered. We want to raise our armament.

Now to another point. I have today ordered in my jurisdiction that an extensive action should take place; today, when we are counting upon obtaining a great number of women in virtue of the obligatory service whose age limit we hope to see extended to 55. The British have extended obligatory service to the age of 65. The additional 10 years are a trifle exaggerated. Women are not able to go to the machines immediately and perform heavy work. The few days that are necessary for them to instruct the personnel are immaterial. We can still spare that much time if it were not that it would convey to the population an impression to the following effect: Now that we have reported for work, it is months before we are called up. I have ordered, within my jurisdiction, that the women should as much as possible be employed in offices where men are now to be found, for instance in the wage offices, etc. In these, women and elderly men can be easily trained, as they will be able to do without further difficulty. In this way, men in the commercial offices, etc., should be released for the accountancy offices and similar offices. This involves, in the case of industry, over 20,000 individuals and there are other branches besides.

It amounts to quite a considerable number consisting solely of people who, in view of the war economy, are unfortunately necessary now. These men must now be placed at our machines insofar as they are not drafted, that is to say, are not soldiers. These people are more likely to be able to render better service at the machines or in the factories than the women now assigned, insofar as women are disposed to go to the machines. Of course, there will be women who have done such work before and who are now willing to turn to this work but who have not reported for work so far because they have not found it necessary to work for a living on account of the dole.

Where the assignment of women is concerned, I should suggest that, in the process of the action, only those women be assigned for whom work at the machine is not involved if a man is thereby released.

Timm: The danger lies in this that the draftees were partly to be released without replacement having actually been forthcoming.

Field Marshal Milch: That is quite another matter. When female auxiliaries of the Signal Corps are assigned, it is not additionally but only in the proportion that soldiers are released thereby. There are indeed several 100,000 men in the signal corps of the army and air force. In our department, 250 to 300,000 have been such. Whether there are so many now, I do not know. They are all young men fit for combat. I have always campaigned against this and said: one ought to assign women preferably so as to release soldiers. If that is done now, it will really release a large number, it does not matter whether for the workshop or for the front. Of course, there is a front somewhere in the East too. This front will be maintained for a certain time. The only useful thing the Russian will inherit from the territories evacuated by us will be the people. It might be better in principle to withdraw the population in time as far as 100 km. behind the front. The whole civilian population will move back to 100 km. behind the front. Nobody will now be assigned to trench [digging] work.

Timm: We tried to withdraw the population of Kharkov. 90 to 120,000 people were required by the fortress commandant of Kharkov for trench work alone so that in some cases we had to organize whole convoys.

Weger: Actual demolitions were even carried out.

Field Marshal Milch: But that is done by the engineer corps. There is definitely no more hope that more prisoners of war will come from the East.

Sauckel: The prisoners taken are used there.

Field Marshal Milch: We have made the request that there should be a certain percentage of Russians with us in the antiaircraft artillery. 50,000 altogether are expected. 30,000 are already there as gunners. It is a funny thing that Russians must operate the guns. The other 20,000 are still missing. I received a letter from the High Command of the Army yesterday saying: We can no longer turn over a single one, we have too few ourselves. So this thing will not turn out so successfully for us.

Speer: It would be advisable to make the draft of women somewhat clearer in the press.

Field Marshal Milch: That would primarily have to be placed in the foreground. In this respect the question is whether I will receive the accounts from our industry in time. The matter is bound to be settled some time. There will be no deception. People who want to deceive also deceive now, whether they have this personnel or not, whether their accounts are up to date or not. The other people are honest. The mass has not engaged in deception. Whether we are a little backward in checking prices will not be very important. The most important thing is to work. We know what is produced abroad, having now received the figures. The Russian actually makes 2,000 aircraft a month in the way of front-line aircraft. This figure is far higher than ours. This must not be forgotten. We must get to the assembly line and produce quite other figures.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 9

EXTRACT FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE THIRTY-NINTH
CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD,
23 APRIL 1943

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 39TH CONFERENCE

OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Subject: Food Situation and Armament Industry.

Held on Friday 23 April 1943, 9:30 A.M. in the Festival Barrack

near the Zoo, Jebenstrasse

Milch: I am convinced that there are more Russian prisoners of war. At that time 4,000,000 were captured. A large part of them died, however the number of those who are still living is higher than we are told now. We reckon here with hundred thousand Russian prisoners of war in the agriculture. Altogether, we have 300,000 of them in the Reich. During the First World War I had 200 Italian prisoners of war with me. These prisoners were to be turned over, however, we kept ours by reporting them dead in order to keep them. And these people also wanted to stay in spite of the fact that we told them that they would be reported dead even to their families. We dragged these prisoners around with us till the end of the war.

Kehrl: If the food supplies of the labor brought in from abroad are taken from the German rations then, while we think that we are very rich for having these people, the German rations are in reality reduced, and the decrease in the working capacity of our own workers does more harm than the good done by the new people.

Speer: But from the figures of this incoming labor we have to deduct those who leave the country because of expired foreign agreements, and the others which we lose because of cases of death or illness. On the whole the increase of labor in our total war economy is not at all so very important. (Interpolation: the more labor we fetch from the East, the more this total figure will increase.)

Backe: But there is a limit, too, in the number of men we can absorb. At that time we were told that one million was to be taken into the country, from the East. Now we have already got several millions.

Milch: You cannot count that way. Before all these measures in the second year of the war, the air force had 1.8 million men and today it has less than two million. The whole air armament which is a considerable part of the total war armament, in the course of the war or in the last 2½ years of the war has not even increased by 10 percent. In reality the total increase in this field amounts to about 125,000 to 150,000 men. We are always looking for those people. That is our main problem.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 31

EXTRACTS FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
FIFTY-FOURTH CONFERENCE OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING
BOARD, 1 MARCH 1944

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE 54TH CONFERENCE[[108]]
OF THE CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD

Re:Labor Allocation on Wednesday, 1 March 1944, 1000 hours, at the Reich Air Ministry.

Sauckel: * * * I have a Gau armament supervisor in Thuringia and I have just been inspecting the plants in Thuringia. At the railroad car factory in Gotha I have set things going so that within a few days it will be turning out 20 percent of its production again. Everything has been done. But one thing you must bear in mind: Labor allocation as an institution must be independent and must remain so. Furthermore I must ask you not to support constantly the opinion of the armament inspectors: Sauckel must be put under the control of the Ministry then everything will be better. Gentlemen, please see to it that that does not happen this year. As a National Socialist of long standing I am determined to cooperate unreservedly with you, the Minister for Armament and Production, indeed with all those gentlemen, but, in consideration of the difficulty in this sphere of work I must be given the amount of freedom to make decisions of my own which was guaranteed me by the Fuehrer’s decrees and those of the Reich Marshal. I would never have taken on the task without these decrees, because I know it cannot be accomplished without them. I beg you therefore, to create such an atmosphere as is necessary among the lower ranks too so that the Gau labor offices in the first place may be recognized as organizations which are entrusted to me and put at my disposal for keeping the labor commitment in order on the lower levels. * * *

Sauckel: I would like to insist on the fact that, in the future also, the S-plants be checked; for the S-plants form a suction pump, and, since it is known all over Italy and France, that whoever works in the S-plants is protected from any interference on my part is proved by the following fact. During the first three months I wanted to take out of Italy 1 million people before 30 May. In these two months hardly 7,000 men have come. That is just the difficulty. The bulk goes to the S-plants, and only the dregs are left for employment in Germany. I would like to achieve yet, that for the important plants in Italy, at least the number of S-plants be restricted, that is that the number of S-plants be not increased.

Schieber: In Italy for every protected plant there is an agreement made. Over, beyond the situation on 15 February or 10 February, S-plants are established only with the approval of the services under me. We have them registered, and only when we aim at an agreement are they declared protected plants.

Sauckel: Now the question arises: If in such a protected plant there are more hands than are needed according to German standards, could they be handed over?

Schieber: They are to be combed through but the people combed through are to be put only in other protected plants. Down there in Italy in your services there is a demand for 7,000 hands and more. The gentlemen are right to laugh at us saying: What does that mean, you want people, but at the same time our great task must be the transfer of people! I spoke with Leyers on Sunday and told him that I wished to have a conversation with the Gauleiter about this matter: If the labor offices state that there is still a certain surplus of hands employed, a commissioner appointed by General Leyers must then visit the respective plant together with a commissioner of Gauleiter Sauckel’s; they must examine the situation, and these two gentlemen must then come to an agreement, as to the people they remove from plants. * * * Besides these promises concerning nutrition have not been kept to the extent we wished. The extra food, as we had planned it has not yet appeared at all so that there is no incentive felt; apart from this certain inner evolutions are influencing industry at present in Italy, with the result that especially the leading workmen who are so valuable for us partly fail to come to the factory any more. They wait patiently until, during the next three or four weeks, the elections and convocations in the factories concerning socialization and the introduction of commissars, etc., are over. * * *

Sauckel: In Italy, it seems, things are going on smoothly in general, but not yet in France.

Milch: When workmen are transferred how are their families ensured?

Sauckel: Automatically.

Schieber: That is quite easy. If it is possible in any way, we shall have the whole personnel transferred to another factory. * * *

Sauckel: Years ago we made an investigation like this in France and saw that in German armament production, corresponding to districts A and B, some 600,000 workers were occupied out of the total of some 2½ to 3 million metal workers we had anticipated. Therefore there must still be some more metal workers hidden in France, people who were formerly in metal trades.

Milch: So 75 percent are still free, and 25 percent are tied up in the S-industries.

Sauckel: We have to deduct the prisoners of war who are now in Germany. But there are hundreds of thousands of skilled workers who, according to the agreements made, have returned to France and Belgium month after month.

Sauckel: In reply to that I must ask you the following: What do you want to do now in Germany? In Germany you now have plane construction, the manufacture of highly expensive apparatus, complicated engine construction, you have here in general the most complicated manufactures in the world. If I brought the scum of French manpower to Germany for you what would you get as regards production? We of the Labor Allocation were always of the opinion in the French industries we must under all circumstances maintain a certain level of the trained workers and a certain degree of production. And we wanted to compel these French industries to lower their level of a hundred percent skilled personnel for the benefit of the German industries which have been bled of their skilled hands.

As Plenipotentiary General for the Allocation of Labor I considered my task to be not the transfer to Germany of the scum of Europe, but the bringing of efficient manpower. But a part of your gentlemen in France, and in your Ministry too, had no understanding for this. That I must say quite plainly. It would be mere child’s play for me to bring you the refuse of Europe if you would be satisfied with it. I would simply grab all the whores and gigolos in Paris and put them at your disposal, then I would not have to touch your armament industries. But if I have to provide you with real workers who will prove efficient in Germany, then in France—and that was just my program—we must do the same as we did in every German plant and in every German enterprise: when a German company is split in two, some of the good workers and some of the bad ones had to be given up and not just the bad workers. And French armaments never were harmed thereby. It is a fact, is it not, that a French worker of quality produces the double amount if he is put in a German factory under German discipline, with German supervision and German welfare?

If we agree to re-examine all S-plants—and that is all I ask—and if we take out all superfluous expert workers and assistant workers, then we put them at the disposal of the other French enterprises which need them, to the extent that they need them, and when they are satisfied, I have to request that if I am to carry out my program, then from these plants too, workers must be transferred to Germany. If that is not approved of and it is insisted that the severe formula be observed: S-plants are out of question for labor commitments to Germany, then, according to my experience, this program of January 4 can hardly be achieved. Then you are responsible for the decision of what was better at the end of this year, to have these people in France or in Germany. That is the responsibility you have to bear and which I shift from my shoulders. I was told: Why did you not take the Russian workers away in time, now they are in the Russian regiments. Exactly the same would happen here. My opinion is that the introducing of S-plants was altogether a great mistake which is damaging to the general interests of Germany. The French government jumped to that with the greatest cleverness. * * * That is the way we did it the first year, and up to 700,000 Frenchmen came to the Reich according to the program. These were all decent French workers. From the fall of this year on this came to an end. No more skilled French workers came, nor any others either. It was the entire collapse of the labor allocation built up on the slogan: From now on no worker needs to go from France to Germany.

Kehrl: The consideration which originated at that time with Minister Speer and which led to the arrangement with Bichelonne was the following: If I cannot transfer the people by force from France to Germany to the extent necessary, which is shown, by developments now, and if at the same time I run the danger of having the people leave the plants in which they are now working for fear of being taken by force, then it is a lesser evil for me to try and put these people to work in France and Belgium, in which case I do not have to use German force to get them across the frontier. Then at least I am sure that the people are not running away from the plants in the first place and secondly that additional employment will be brought there.

He sent an invitation to Minister Bichelonne. The conferences took place between the 16th and 18th September. The question was put to Bichelonne to what extent the shifting of industries would be possible, and what additional productions he could place, etc. This caused a change in the policy of production. So far Minister Speer had chiefly shifted to France all the urgent armament productions in those fields in which the German capacity was insufficient. Now he said: I will not only shift this to France, but I will also shift really important war production, which is carried out at present in Germany with German labor, so that I can release German labor in Germany and have this production carried out in France, Belgium, and Holland. There is sufficient capacity in this field in France and labor is also available in sufficient numbers. Therefore a large part of the work can be accomplished there and I can release the people in Germany. Thereby I am serving two ends: in the first place I am setting free German labor and secondly I am utilizing the French workers who are not working at all now because industry is at standstill. And there is still a third factor, that Frenchmen will be ready of their own accord to carry out such production as serves the welfare of the civilian population, because with such work they are no longer in danger of air raids and they are not working directly for the war. So that they will not be considered as traitors to their country, but are working for the advantage of their own country.

This development has been encouraged in the meantime. The time is still too short to make any definite statement as to the results. In some fields the results are already quite exceptional. In some instances we have transferred up to 50 percent and more of the total German requirements to the West and the manufacturing is done there. The transfer figures are rising rapidly from month to month. The coal and power questions are of course great obstacles. We hope, however, to overcome them in the course of this year, because by the middle of the year we shall have increased 25 percent of the power supply in France by water power, the necessary constructions for which will be finished by them, and by the end of 1944 hydroelectric stations will be ready and they will be equal to 50 percent of the present French power production.

The idea in fact is this: to carry out there the work which up to now has been done here and to release thereby German labor. There is yet another reason for this. It has been pointed out by you time after time, Gauleiter, that in these sections of industry, it is not easy to change the workers. According to the Field Marshal’s description of the situation, there is especially a lack of managers and supervising personnel in the works and only German workmen can be considered for such, and every worker, even if technically he is not so suitable, will serve for purposes of management supervision and will lend some backbone to the plant.

As regards the question of the S-plants, Minister Speer put the following question to Minister Bichelonne: Are you in a position to provide the labor for such an extensive shifting program, which involves a certain risk? To which Bichelonne, from his standpoint quite rightly replied: If the people are not running away into the woods for fear of being deported to Germany I shall get them to work in French plants. From this discussion there resulted the idea of protected plants which, as you said, were supposed to represent a protection against Sauckel. Whoever is there is working for Germany and may not be deported to Germany. You said that these plants worked like a suction pump. That is just what they were meant to do. Labor was to be drawn in with a suction process so that the plants were full to capacity and could work for us. The existence of the S-plants cannot and may not be undermined. It is backed by the German promise which was given in all solemnity and which was supported by the signature of my Minister.

Sauckel: May I again draw attention to the matter of volunteers and to the entire process of the allocation of French labor. There was never any program carried out in France on a voluntary basis, but the programs have been carried out for the Todt Organization the building of fortresses in France, on the one hand, and for the assignment in France to the plants working for Germany and also to the plants working for transferred industries according to concrete agreements which I made with the French government, on the other hand. The French government fulfilled these conditions last year. It appointed people for the western fortifications and for the Atlantic fortifications, it appointed people for the plants and it appointed people for Germany. In the fall of last year, towards the end of summer, Laval declared for the first time that he was not going to send any more people to Germany and from then on only very few Frenchmen arrived in Germany.

Timm: Will it not happen that the offices making the demands say one day: But we know that in the French plants there is an excess of skilled workers which cannot be justified?

Milch: That should be discussed again later with Speer himself. First Speer must have a survey of what has happened as the result of all his agreements.

[90] Tr. pp. 161-162.

[91] Defendant in case of Government of France vs. Hermann Roechling. See Vol. XIV.

[92] Dr. Bergold, Milch’s defense counsel, objected as follows (Tr. p. 134): “May it please the Tribunal, I would like to make a final objection against the introduction of the exhibit just submitted by prosecution, namely 41-A, for the following reason: this is an interrogation of Sauckel, who, in conformance with the sentence passed upon him, was executed. I am of the opinion that such an interrogation cannot be used as evidence here, for, since Sauckel was executed, I have no possibility whatsoever to ask him to appear here before the Tribunal as a witness and to cross-examine him concerning his statements. In this statement there are certain things which are not correct, and, due to the fact that the person who made them is dead, they cannot be corrected. The International Military Tribunal frequently ruled that statements made by witnesses and affidavits can only be introduced when it is possible for the defense counsel to bear these persons as witnesses, and to ask prosecution to produce these people for cross-examination. This is absolutely impossible in the case of Sauckel, and I should like to ask the Tribunal to issue a ruling on whether or not these statements can be used as evidence here.

The Court ruled as follows (Tr. p. 194):

Presiding Judge Toms: The Court has determined that under the Charter and the Ordinance this exhibit is admissible. Its weight, however, in view of the peculiar circumstances attending it, is, of course, still for the Tribunal to determine. This ruling is made after conference with the judges of Tribunal I, who had a similar problem presented, and who made the same ruling as this Tribunal now makes.

Mr. Denney: If your Honors please, that question will come up again, because we have interrogations and affidavits from other defendants in the first trial, who have since either been executed or have taken their own lives.

Presiding Judge Toms: The Tribunal feels that the very broad scope of the section of the Charter and the Ordinance dealing with the admission of evidence justifies the admission of this exhibit.

[93] Defense introduced this paragraph as Defense Exhibit 5. See pp. 509-10.

[94] Another portion of the minutes of this meeting was introduced by the defense as Defense Exhibit 8. See pp. 511-15.

[95] Defendant before International Military Tribunal. See Trial of the Major War Criminals, vols. I-XLII, Nuremberg, 1947.

[96] Another portion of the minutes of this meeting was introduced by the defense as Defense Exhibit 31. See pp. 517 to 523.

[97] Defendants in case of United States vs. Ernst von Weizsaecker, et al. See Vols. XII, XIII, XIV.

[98] Same as note above.

[99] Defendant in case of United States vs. Otto Ohlendorf, et al. See Vol. IV.

[100] Defendant in case of United States vs. Wilhelm von Leeb, et al. See Vols. X, XI.

[101] Defendant in case of United States vs. Carl Krauch, et al. See Vols. VII, VIII.

[102] Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 17 Feb. and 4 Mar. 47, pp. 1136-1186, 1445-1457.

[103] Prosecution introduced other portions of this report as Prosecution Exhibit 48-A. See pp. 457-59.

[104] Prosecution also introduced this document.

[105] Defense counsel, Dr. Bergold, explained (Tr. p. 523):

“This document shows that the defendant liked to use strong language. It refers merely to the allocation. He speaks of ‘beating’, yet he does not mean this literally but figuratively. The high Tribunal will remember at one time he spoke of whips being used to force certain people to use suggested methods. That is not what he meant.”

[106] Dr. Bergold stated (Tr. p. 530): “This document is submitted to show that Field Marshal Milch was very much endeavouring to leave the French workers in France with their own firms and only to transfer orders over there. The International Military Tribunal has accounted as exonerating circumstances in the case of Speer that he established in France the protected plant system (Speer Betriebe); so far as Milch is concerned, we wish to point out that he did the very same thing for the airplane industry and that he tried to act in a reasonable way. I also wish to say that the man always had in mind reasonable economic propositions. Finally the document proves that individual remarks made were of no consequence whatsoever, that they were only verbal flourish which did not lead to any results. For instance, in the case of antiaircraft batteries, the conference passes that point over, which is shown by the last words of Speer and Milch. It is simply a marginal remark. I will also prove that he did not say that on this occasion and that the minutes were changed, because he had difficulties with Goering. I shall show that this passage, criticizing Goering, was taken out of the report because at that time serious difficulties arose between him and Goering.”

[107] Another portion of the minutes of this meeting was introduced by the prosecution as Prosecution Exhibit 48-A. See pp. 467-71.

[108] Another portion of the minutes of this meeting was introduced by the prosecution as Exhibit 48-A, See pp. 484 to 498.

3. THE JAEGERSTAB[[109]]

EXCERPT FROM STATEMENT OF THE PROSECUTION
REGARDING MILCH’S ACTIVITY IN THE
JAEGERSTAB, 13 JANUARY 1947[[110]]

Mr. King: If your Honors please, the prosecution begins now the presentation of that phase of its case dealing with the defendant Milch’s participation in the Jaegerstab. I might add that that has to do with the slave labor phase of the Milch case.

First, I wish to say a few words about the background of the Jaegerstab. The Jaegerstab was formed on 1 March 1944 by decree of Albert Speer issued pursuant to an order of Adolf Hitler. Our evidence will show, however, that it was the defendant Milch who conceived and instigated the formation of the Jaegerstab.

The purpose of the Jaegerstab was increased production of fighter aircraft. Fighter plane production had suffered severe set-backs due to British and American air attacks. Defendant Milch and his Luftwaffe had also suffered in the battle for new raw materials.

Fighter aircraft were Germany’s principal defense against bombing raids. Early in 1944 the defendant Milch had concluded that without adequate fighter protection the entire German armament industry would soon be destroyed. After repeated urgings, Milch was finally successful in his efforts to create a special commission of top officials from various ministries to undertake a special effort in the field of fighter production.

The Jaegerstab, therefore, was actually a concentration of experts drawn from various ministries. Our evidence will show that the defendant Milch and Speer were designated as the joint chiefs of the Jaegerstab with Karl Adolf Saur acting as Chief of Staff.

The methods adopted by the Jaegerstab in the execution of its tasks were (1) transfer of German aircraft industry underground, (2) the decentralization of German aircraft industry, (3) quick repair of bombed-out plants.

Our proof will show that the labor for this program, which was the decisive consideration in the discussions of the Jaegerstab, was obtained from three sources: (1) Sauckel Ministry, (2) concentration camps, (3) direct recruitment from occupied countries.

Evidence

Prosecution Documents

Doc. No.Pros. Ex. No.Description of DocumentPage
NOKW-01754Extracts from the minutes of the conference with air force engineers and chief quartermasters under chairmanship of Milch, 25 March 1944.[527]
NOKW-26170Chart of the organization of the Jaegerstab drawn by Saur with letter of transmittal to prosecution staff, 14 November 1946.[535]
1584-III-PS71Correspondence between Himmler and Goering, 9 March 1944, concerning the use of concentration camp prisoners in the aircraft industry.[537]
R-12448-EExtracts from the minutes of discussions between Saur and the Fuehrer, 6 and 7 April 1944.[539]
NOKW-24761Appointment of Field Marshal Milch as Goering’s plenipotentiary for the intensification of air force armament.[540]
F-82457Order of Field Marshal von Kluge regarding compulsory recruitment of labor in the West, 25 July 1944.[542]
NOKW-33775Extracts from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference of 6 March 1944.[544]
NOKW-33875Extracts from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference on Friday, 17 March 1944.[545]
NOKW-34675Extracts from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference under chairmanship of Field Marshal Milch on Monday, 20 March 1944.[546]
NOKW-38875Extracts from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference of 28 March 1944.[547]
NOKW-33475Extract from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference of 25 April 1944.[550]
NOKW-36275Extracts from transcript of stenographic minutes of Jaegerstab Conference on the occasion of the 5th trip of the “Hubertus Undertaking”, 2 and 3 May 1944.[552]
NOKW-39075Extract from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference of 4 May 1944.[553]
NOKW-44275Extract from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference on 5 May 1944.[554]
NOKW-36175Extract from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference during the 6th journey of the “Hubertus Undertaking” from 8-10 May 1944.[554]
NOKW-33675Extracts from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference on 26 May 1944.[555]
NOKW-35975Extracts from transcript of stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference on 27 June 1944.[557]
NOKW-32073Extract from interrogation of Karl Otto Saur on 13 November 1946, concerning the use of concentration camp prisoners in Jaegerstab construction.[558]
NOKW-26676Affidavit of Fritz Schmelter, 19 November 1946, concerning the organization of the Jaegerstab.[559]

Defense Documents

Doc. No.Pros. Ex. No.Description of DocumentPage
Speer Ex. 3417Order of Hitler, 21 April 1944, delegating to Dorsch authority for Jaegerstab constructions.[560]
NOKW-33712Excerpts from the stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference on 6 March 1944 in the Reich Air Ministry.[561]
NOKW-33813Excerpts from the stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference presided over by Field Marshal Milch on Friday, 17 March 1944, 1100 hours, in the Reich Air Ministry.[562]
NOKW-36515Extract from the stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference, 12 April 1944.[563]
NOKW-33416Extracts from stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference, 25 April 1944.[564]
NOKW-44221Extract from the stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference, 5 May 1944.[565]
NOKW-33623Excerpts from the stenographic minutes of the Jaegerstab Conference on Friday, 26 May 1944, at 10:00 o’clock.[566]

Testimony

Extracts of testimony of defense witness Fritz Schmelter[567]
Extracts of testimony of defense witness Xaver Dorsch[583]

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-017

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 54

EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF THE CONFERENCE WITH AIR
FORCE ENGINEERS AND CHIEF QUARTERMASTERS UNDER
CHAIRMANSHIP OF MILCH, 25 MARCH 1944

[Handwritten note] To my files

Mi.

Secret

MINUTES OF THE CONFERENCE WITH AIR FORCE ENGINEERS
AND CHIEF QUARTERMASTERS UNDER
THE CHAIRMANSHIP OF FIELD MARSHAL
MILCH ON SATURDAY, 25 MARCH 1944,
AT 10 O’CLOCK

Dr. Koppert/Lm.

25 March 1944

Field Marshal Milch: Gentlemen! I welcome you. I have called you together here in order to discuss with you questions of importance for our German defense.

Beginning with the year 1942, the Luftwaffe put special emphasis upon a considerable increase in the number of fighter planes produced each month which at that time amounted to 200 to 220. It was possible, by July of last year, to exceed the figure of one thousand as the norm, in accordance with our program. Then the heavy raids, especially against our armament industry, began first against the preliminary industry [Vorindustrie] in the Ruhr, then against our fighter and airplane industry itself. The enemy enumerated 65 completely destroyed fighter factories and factories producing parts for fighters in his lists. Beginning in the middle of 1942 we undertook extensive evacuations, and did so to small localities above ground, smaller places, and the like. In so doing, about 4½ million square meters of factory space, productive space, were evacuated. That was the maximum that could be accomplished with the means at our disposal. We were lacking in transport space, we were lacking in machine tools, and primarily we were lacking in skilled workers and managerial forces, more of whom are of course needed in a dispersed system of manufacture than in a centralized system. The extraordinary drafting into the Wehrmacht and just at the end also the SE 3-drive deprived the Luftwaffe armament industry of its key personnel. We have in our employ today approximately 60 percent foreigners and 40 percent Germans, whereby one has to take into consideration that the women work in the factories only half a day. Therefore, the ratio of Germans to foreigners becomes considerably more unfavorable. The ratio is gradually approaching 90 percent foreign with 10 percent German supervising them. The rest of the Germans are concentrated in development factories and the like.

The enemy has now adopted a definite plan—as you as soldiers know yourselves and learn constantly from foreign news—of destroying aircraft production first, and mainly the production of fighter planes and night fighters, in order to be able to deal with Germany as he pleases. The enemy believes that this stage has almost been reached now. There is, however, still some confusion in his news reports. One day he expresses his amazement that the German fighter planes did not appear. Then again the newspapers receive a secret directive: “Unpleasant surprises do occur, so do not emphasize so strongly that the enemy has already disappeared from the air.” On the whole, however, the enemy hopes that it has come to the point where Germany’s backbone has been broken or that at least that stage has almost been reached where the enemy has been granted the possibility of dealing with Germany as he pleases.

Another plan our Western enemies have concerns the questions surrounding the concept of the invasion. The invasion and its success would of course also be favorably influenced by a destruction of German anti-air raid defenses.

We of the Luftwaffe armaments have been asking for over a year already that a strong home defense in the air be set up. We have made efforts to establish the prerequisites necessary for this, namely, the providing of sufficient planes to serve as day and night fighters. * * * Being fully aware that the strength of the Luftwaffe alone is insufficient both as regards quotas and with respect to the workers, etc., in order to bring about an extensive change in the field of air armaments, we applied to Minister Speer and his colleagues to undertake a common special effort in this field. The establishment of a Ruhr staff served as an example for us; it was established at the time when the industry in the Ruhr area seemed to be entirely put out of commission by the continuous raids. At that time the Ruhr staff was set up and the necessary quotas, buildings, etc., were put at its disposal. Thereby the entire situation was changed. Minister Speer and his colleagues, fully aware that without air armaments and without air defense the rest of the armament industry would very soon be destroyed and become useless, agreed to this plan enthusiastically and with initiative. Thus it came about that a definite proposal was made to the Reich Marshal and the Fuehrer: the Jaegerstab was created. The order of the Fuehrer provides clearly that the fighter plane program which the Jaegerstab is starting has priority over all other fields of armament, which means, to be sure, that other important armaments are not to be infringed upon by it. * * *

The Jaegerstab is made up as follows: the direction is in the hands of Reich Minister Speer and myself. Deputy for both of us, and at the same time our chief of staff, is Hauptdienstleiter Dipl. Ing. Saur, who is sitting on my left. Saur is the man who carried out the large-scale armament program for the army and the navy in the Speer Ministry in recent years in an exemplary manner. Saur again and again during the past year and a half succeeded in raising the production figures in all important fields and sometimes even in multiplying them.

Further, I name only the leaders of the Jaegerstab. We have put the question of over-all planning in the hands of Dr. Wegener. Construction matters will be directed by Dipl. Ing. Schlempp. The evacuation underground will be in the hands of SS Gruppenfuehrer Kammler. The supply, one of the most essential factors, and everything in the way of semi-manufactured material that comes to our factories for completion, will be taken care of by Director Schaaf, deputy to Staatsrat Dr. Schieber, the chief of the armament supply office [Ruestungslieferungsamt] in Speer’s Ministry. Dr. Schmelter will take care of labor commitment. Sites suitable for dispersal, confiscations, etc., will be in the hands of Ministerialrat Speh of the armaments supply office. Gruppenfuehrer Nagel of the Organization Speer will be in charge of transportation. The supply of power will be in the hands of General Director Fischer. Engineer Lange will be in charge of machinery, Mr. Nobel of repairs. Reich railroad questions will be in the hands of the President of the Reich railroad, Pueckler. Post Office: Oberpostrat Dr. Zerbel. Health matters: Dr. Poschmann. Social welfare: Dr. Birkenholz. Special problems for Me 262 and steel power units: Captain Dr. Krome. Raw materials and quota system: Dr. Stoffregen. Questions of technical simplification, etc.: Oberstabsing. Klinker. Office manager: Petri.

* * * On the spot the individual gentlemen are then told, supported by the combined authority of the state, the Wehrmacht, and the Party, that is, Saur and me—Speer is unfortunately still on sick leave, otherwise he would also be present—what it is all about. That takes ten minutes. After ten minutes the individual members of the Jaegerstab disappear and get together with the men from the factory who are competent for their sphere of activity. Thus, all pertinent questions are dealt with in the conferences about the commitment of labor, and all competent men, who have anything to do with the commitment of labor meet, especially the president of the competent Provincial Labor Office. Thus it is determined on the spot, in the individual spheres, what the factory lacks. If the circumstances require it, it is immediately demonstrated to the factory that their requests are nonsense. Unreasonable demands and excessive claims are revised. Well-founded demands are immediately filled. While the discussions are still going on, telegrams are sent to the different offices, and the people are already set to work. In general, the people arrive in 24 hours. Unfortunately there are exceptions, for which the Wehrmacht sector is responsible. The Wehrmacht does not work as smoothly and beautifully as civilian offices. It is an error to believe that civilian offices are more bureaucratic than military offices. On the basis of my continuous and extensive experience I can assure you exactly the opposite is true.

* * * Our entire German ball-bearing industry, and that outside Germany, was eliminated one hundred percent by the enemy in a, I must say, brilliant attacking operation: Erfurt, Schweinfurt, Frankfurt on the Main, Stuttgart, Italy. We were faced with the question whether without ball bearings we could produce new planes at all, new tanks, or whether we had to capitulate as an armament industry. For ball bearings are an indispensable factor in modern armament industry. One finds and needs them everywhere, even in places where one does not think of them at first. Now it became apparent, thank God, that the branches of the Wehrmacht had hoarded ball bearings and roller bearings in such large masses that we got along for three months with the hoarded material alone. In this case it was lucky that we still had so much, that so many ball bearings had been hoarded. I have to admit that. But that is not the normal way. It is certain that in the whole period up to now too many spare parts have been requested just in order to gather such hoards. And this in spite of the fact that not everything has been attained by far, but only very large stocks. I should like to say that with the material you have, 20 to 30,000 planes could be newly built or newly equipped without further ado. That is how much material you have! And this does not concern large parts; for in that field I was always strict—it concerns rather all the accessories and apparatus. In considering these figures one has to know that about 52 percent of the total man-hours are spent in equipping a plane and only 48 percent in building the aircraft frame and the engine. Only then does one realize fully the importance for us of all that small junk that is lying around all over. It is not necessary that the troops always take along all their spare parts. * * *

Gentlemen, in this connection I may call your attention to another important point. If I visit an office and find out that something is being hidden there, then I ask for the death penalty for such a crime today! That is fraud! That is sabotage of the German armament industry!

Then there is still the human factor. We often had considerable difficulty with the human factor. The fluctuation there is very considerable. The quota of the Luftwaffe in the distribution of manpower is constantly lowered. The foreigners run away. They do not keep to any contract. There are difficulties with Frenchmen, Italians, Dutch. The prisoners of war are partly unruly and fresh. These people are also supposed to be carrying on sabotage. These elements cannot be made more efficient by small means. They are just not handled strictly enough. If a decent foreman would sock one of those unruly guys because the fellow won’t work, then the situation would soon change. International law cannot be observed here. I have asserted myself very strongly, and with the help of Saur I have very strongly represented the point of view that the prisoners, with the exception of the English and the Americans, should be taken away from the military authorities. Soldiers are not in a position, as experience has shown, to cope with these fellows who know all the answers. I shall take very strict measures here and shall put such a prisoner of war before my court martial. If he has committed sabotage or refused to work, I will have him hanged, right in his own factory. I am convinced that that will not be without effect.

Anyhow, the strangest things occur in the treatment of the workers. It is said that the people collapse, and then one has to find out that they have a furlough of three or four days every eight weeks. That is dirty business of the first order and treason to the country! Then perhaps a construction battalion arrives and is supposed to be put to work. The commanding officer, perhaps some overfed grade-school teacher, declares that the men must drill and must take part in sports! Damn it, the fellows are there to work so that the maximum amount of work will result. One has to act very strictly here. A construction battalion was ordered to Regensburg. The commanding officer was one of those scholars who said he could not billet the men in peacetime conditions and, therefore, he refused to start work. Such a guy should be convicted by a court martial and hanged. I would be grateful if the gentlemen would proceed in that manner. As with me in industry, so every stupidity is possible everywhere else also. As chief, one has to take up these matters. I know what kind of obstacles become apparent. There is bureaucracy. It is not easy to go against bureaucracy. But we have to cut through that also, and if you, Gentlemen, proceed with the right attitude here, then we are already assured of success.

* * * In saying this I do not even consider the fact that the workshops have first-class personnel, whereas we in the Luftwaffe armament industry have Russians, French prisoners of war, Dutch, and members of 32 other nations. Obtaining interpreters alone presents a big difficulty there. * * *

A further question concerns the efforts for housing the machines. That is very important, and I would be very grateful if you would think this matter over also. In this manner you would not only facilitate the question of spare parts but also the scarce supply of materials. Each fighter plane contains about one ton of aluminum. Every small bomber contains four tons of aluminum; and a larger bomber, seven to eight tons. The captured bombers contain eleven to twelve tons of aluminum. There are in any case tremendous amounts of material involved here. Let us take twelve tons as normal for an American heavy bomber, or let us say only ten tons, and let us assume that we actually shoot down 500 such American bombers a month and that we can salvage them over our own territory; that alone means 5,000 tons of aluminum, 5,000 tons: that is 25 percent of the aluminum quota at the disposal of the Luftwaffe. You can see how important these questions are, too. We can certainly count on more Americans being shot down in the future because we will have more fighter planes.

I further ask for support by the Luftwaffe physicians. With all the rabble that we have among the foreign workers there is of course a lot of shirking. At the moment the Russians—that is, the Russian prisoners of war—are feigning a lot of fatigue and illness. The incidence of sickness of one-and-a-half to two percent which we have had up to now has at least doubled and in some factories it has been increased to eight, nine, and ten percent. That is, of course, done by previous agreement. There the official physicians must undertake an examination and if the physicians, who have to be very strict, find out that it is not true, then we return the fellows to work by means of the whip. Then the whip serves as cure.

A further request which is very important from the point of view of leadership! Sometimes we do not know in case of an alert what orders we want to give for our factories. If a factory knows that it is about to be attacked, and it has a few trench shelters but does not have a bomb-proof shelter or the like, then the people simply run away from the factory, automatically at each raid, after the first one, and they usually cannot be caught the next day, either. That applies particularly to the foreigners. We have, therefore, now issued the following order, and have equipped the superiors accordingly with weapons and pistols: as soon as a factory which has already been attacked a few times can count on the raids being aimed at that particular factory again, then the personnel leave the factory; but in closed groups by shops, under the leadership of the man in charge of the shop, and, to the extent that they are German personnel, they leave singing military songs. The people are led away from the factory to a distance of 1,000 or 1,500 meters. There they have to lie down in slit trenches and watch their factory from there, so that they can immediately rush to it after the raid in order to help and to save what can be saved. That is the only correct way to do it. * * *

Gentlemen, you come from the fronts, and some of you were perhaps surprised to see how Berlin looks. I recommend to you, if you still have time today, to drive around in a bus and see Berlin. The center still looks quite nice. But have a look at other districts of Berlin too, or look at Frankfurt or Duesseldorf or whatever all of these places are called, in their present condition; then you will admit to me that the population will not be able to endure this condition permanently; not that there is any danger of a revolution or any such thing as we know it from 1918. But at a certain point a human being just cannot endure any more. It is quite surprising how the population has endured this thing so far or how it always gets on its feet again, when it is led in the proper way by true leaders (Fuehrer) who, thank God, are present among the people through the Party and the rest of the leadership. But you must not forget, Gentlemen, the war of nerves has reached a point which causes us in the leadership group worry. The people cannot endure that forever.

One does not have to see only how the people are working—I have told you that—but also how they live, where they are living today, how they are sleeping today. There are hundreds of thousands of Berliners who have not known any heating for months, who have not been able to take a bath for months, who have not been able to shave with warm water for months, and the like. They are happy if they can still put their warm coffee [Plirsch] in their stomachs in the morning and at noon their soup. And with that they work seventy-two hours. It is a damned difficult affair. Whoever does not understand that and whoever does not say on this occasion: From now on our work will be done quite differently than was the case so far, is a miserable wretch in my opinion. And everyone of us and everyone you appoint has to be trained to accomplish in this sphere what the others have been accomplishing for a long time. We have to do that, we have to increase our production so that we can push the enemy back in the next few weeks and months in the same way as he has advanced to Berlin and farther, step by step.

Please go wherever you are going and knock everybody down who blocks your way! We cover up everything here. We do not ask whether he is allowed to or whether he is not allowed to. For us, there is nothing but this one task. We are fanatics in this sphere. We do not even consider letting anything at all distract us from that task. No order exists which could prevent me from fulfilling this task. Nor shall I ever be given such an order. Now, do not let anything deter you, and get your people to the point that no one deters them. If there is a little hindrance from below, this is not due to ill will but to stupidity. Gentlemen! In the fifth year of war stupidity is a crime!

Gentlemen, I know, not every subordinate can say: For me, the law no longer exists, but he has to have someone who covers up for him, not out of cowardice; but if you act according to the spirit of the old field service regulation, “Abstaining from doing something hurts us more than erring in the choice of the means,” and if, moreover, you keep in touch and immediately clarify difficult points so that something can be done, then we are willing to accept the responsibility, whether this is the law or not. I see only two possibilities for me and for Germany: Either we succeed and thereby save Germany, or we continue these slipshod methods and then get the fate that we deserve. I prefer to fall while I am doing something that is against the rules but that is right and sensible and be called to account for it and, if you like, hanged, rather than be hanged because Papa Stalin is here in Berlin, or the Englishman. I have no desire for that. I would rather die in a different way. But I think we can accomplish this task, too. We are in the fifth year of war. I repeat: The decision will come within the next six weeks!

Heil Hitler!

(End: 12:20 hours)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-261

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 70

CHART OF THE ORGANIZATION OF THE JAEGERSTAB DRAWN
BY SAUR WITH LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL TO PROSECUTION
STAFF, 14 NOVEMBER 1946

Nuernberg, 14 November 1946

K. O. Saur

TO: Mr. King, via Prison Office.

In accordance with your request enclosed please find the organization chart of the Jaegerstab which was founded by decree of Reich Minister Speer on 1 March 1944. The chart was drawn up from memory.

The working methods of the Jaegerstab are disclosed in their essence by the following paragraph from the Armament Staff Charter issued by Reich Minister Speer on 1 August 1944.

“Also in the future in order to prevent the Armament Staff from developing gradually into an extensive agency, the regulation concerning the purely personal membership will be maintained, as was the case for the Jaegerstab. The technical work will be done, therefore, in the office and agencies to which the personal members belong, under the responsibility of the competent office chiefs or agency directors.”

The ministries and their offices or agencies responsible for the different tasks are mentioned individually in the organization chart.

For reasons of clarity, the Jaegerstab, as liaison office, has been framed in red; the technological office, which then was under my own responsibility has been framed in blue. [See legend on chart.]

[Signed] Saur

Chart: Responsible Groups and/or Main Departments.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 1584-III-PS

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 71

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN HIMMLER AND GOERING, 9 MARCH
1944, CONCERNING THE USE OF CONCENTRATION CAMP
PRISONERS IN THE AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY

1879/44Secret 9March 1944

Field-command office

Subject: Employment of prisoners in the aviation industry.

Reference: Teletype of 14 February 1944.

5 copies, 5th copy

Top Secret State Matter

Most honored Reich Marshal,

Following my teletype letter of 18 February 1944, I herewith transmit a survey on the employment of prisoners in the aviation industry.[[111]]

This survey indicates that at the present time about 36,000 prisoners are employed for the purposes of the air force. An increase to a total of 90,000 prisoners is contemplated.

The production is being discussed, established, and executed between the Reich Ministry of Aviation and the Chief of my Economic Administrative Main Office, SS Obergruppenfuehrer and General of the Waffen SS Pohl.[[112]]

We shall render assistance with all forces at our disposal.

The task of my Economic Administrative Main Office, however, is not solely fulfilled with the delivery of the prisoners to the aviation industry, as SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl and his assistants take care of the required working speed through constant control and supervision of the work-groups [Kommandos] and therefore have some influence on the results of production. In this respect I may suggest consideration of the fact that in enlarging our responsibility through a speeding up of the total work better results can definitely be expected.

We also have for some time adjusted our own stone quarries to production for the air force. For instance, in Flossenbuerg near Weiden the prisoners employed previously in the quarry are working now in the fighter plane program for the Messerschmitt corporation, Regensburg, which saw in the availability of our stonemason shops and labor forces after the attack on Regensburg at that time a favorable opportunity for the immediate partial transfer of their production. Altogether 4,000 prisoners will work there after the expansion. We produce now with 2,000 men 900 sets of engine cowlings and radiator covers as well as 120,000 single parts of various kinds for the fighter Me 109.

In Oranienburg we are now employing 6,000 prisoners at the Heinkel works for construction of the He 177. With these we are supplying 60 percent of the total crew of the plant.

The prisoners are working without fault. Up till now 200 suggestions regarding the improvement of work have been handed in at Heinkel from the ranks of the prisoners, which were used and were rewarded with premiums. We are increasing this employment to 8,000 prisoners.

We also have employed female prisoners in the aviation industry. For instance at the mechanical workshops in Neubrandenburg 2,500 women are working now in the manufacture of devices for dropping bombs and rudder control. The plant has adjusted the total aerial production to employ prisoners. In the month of January 30,000 devices as well as 500 rudder controls and altitude regulators have been manufactured. We are increasing employment to 4,000 women. The performance of the women is excellent.

In our own plant in Butschowitz near Bruenn (Brno) we produce also for the air force, there however with civilian workers. This plant supplies 14,000 wooden-built rear control apparatus for Me 109 to the Messerschmitt Corporation, Augsburg.

The movement of manufacturing plants of the aviation industry to subterranean locations requires further employment of about 100,000 prisoners. The plans for this employment on the basis of your letter of 14 February 1944 are already under way.

I shall keep you, most honored Reich Marshal, currently informed on this subject.

Heil Hitler!

[Initialed] H.H.

[Heinrich Himmler]

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT R-124

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 48-E

EXTRACTS FROM THE MINUTES OF DISCUSSIONS BETWEEN SAUR
AND THE FUEHRER, 6 AND 7 APRIL 1944

Top Secret State Matter

The Chief of the Technical Office

TA Ch S/Kr

Berlin, 9 April 1944

MINUTES OF DISCUSSIONS WITH THE FUEHRER
ON 6 AND 7 APRIL 1944

16. Reports made to the Fuehrer by myself [Saur] and Field Marshal Milch, based on tables and drawings, as to the achievements of the Jaegerstab stressing the satisfactory cooperation of the new organization with all offices and plants. Reported in detail that plans have been made for the best part of transfers, and that, as a first installment, the decentralization above ground will be completed by August, and, as the second installment, that the most vulnerable plants will be underground by the end of the year.

17. Field Marshal Milch reported on the result of a construction staff meeting of the Central Planning Board according to which the most important building projects only could materialize due to a great tension in general conditions. In spite of this, the Fuehrer demands that the two huge buildings of 600,000 square meters each should be erected with all speed. He agrees that one of these buildings is not to be made from concrete but—according to our suggestion—will be set up as an extension of, and close to, the Middle Plant [Mittelwerk] as a so-called “Middle-Building” [Mittelbau], and that this plant will be placed under the direction of the Junkers Works. Plans have to be made without delay to secure production in bottleneck items of the Junkers Works, production of Me 262 at 1,000 per month, and fighters at 2,000 per month.

Suggested to the Fuehrer that, due to lack of builders and equipment, the second big building project should not be set up in German territory but in close vicinity to the border on suitable soil (preferably on gravel base and with transport facilities) on French, Belgian, or Dutch territory. The Fuehrer agrees to this suggestion if the works could be set up behind a fortified zone. For the suggestion of setting this plant up in French territory speaks mainly the fact that it would be much easier to procure the necessary workers. Nevertheless, the Fuehrer asks that an attempt be made to set up the second works in a safer area, namely in the Protectorate. If it should prove impossible there, too, to get hold of the necessary workers, the Fuehrer himself will contact the Reich Leader SS and will give an order that the required 100,000 men are to be made available by bringing in Jews from Hungary. Stressing the fact that the building organization of the Industry Association Silesia [Industriegemeinschaft Schlesien] was a failure, the Fuehrer demands that these works must be built by the O.T. [Organization Todt] exclusively and that the workers should be made available by the Reich Leader SS. He wants to hold a meeting shortly in order to discuss details with all the men concerned.

The Fuehrer agrees that these items may be used as a basis for future conferences.

[signed] Saur

[typed] (Saur)

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-247

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 61

APPOINTMENT OF FIELD MARSHAL MILCH AS GOERING’S
PLENIPOTENTIARY FOR THE INTENSIFICATION OF
AIR FORCE ARMAMENT

Copy

The Reich Marshal of Greater Germany

Chairman of the Reich Defense Council

Berlin, June [sic]

AUTHORIZATION

The war situation calls for the utmost intensification of the armament capacity of the German Air Force within the shortest time. The goal of the measures to be taken has to be the fourfold increase of the present production in all branches of air force armament. I commission the State Secretary of the Ministry of Aviation, Field Marshal Milch, with the speediest execution of this intensification of armament ordered by the Fuehrer. To secure the attainment of the end at which we aim I confer herewith the most extensive power of authority on Field Marshal Milch within the sphere defined as follows:

1. Shutting-down and seizure of factories, decisions about expropriations and forced leases, seizure and expropriation of construction material in agreement with the Plenipotentiary General for Construction, erection of auxiliary buildings exempted from restricting provisions of the building police, of the office for the supervision of industry, of air-raid protection, social institutions, etc., as far as these provisions are incompatible with the fast completion of the building projects.

2. Confiscation, expropriation, and renting of machinery of all kinds and its distribution to the armament factories of the Luftwaffe. Forced transfer of workers who are unemployed or employed in industry of any kind whatsoever, this not only for the erection of the buildings but also for allocation to Luftwaffe armament factories.

3. Confiscation of raw materials absolutely essential for the Luftwaffe program; only superfluous raw materials may then be distributed in the manner as now. This refers especially to light metals and gasoline.

4. Removal and transfer of key personnel of the entire armament industry irrespective of existing contracts under private law; cancellations of or changes in existing powers of authorization, and issue of new powers; creation of industrial associations, patent associations, merger of companies; creation of new companies, and separation of uneconomically working firms and their coordination or subordination to better managed firms.

5. Deviation from existing regulations about the financing of the war and premiums in cases where the utmost intensification of output cannot be achieved otherwise. In this connection due consideration has to be given to the economical situation and to the financial capacity of the firms involved.

6. All decisions of and all measures taken by my plenipotentiary on the basis of this authorization have to be regarded as if they were ordered by me. These decrees and measures have priority in respect to all other official directions and decrees as far as these are not compatible with the speediest execution of the intensification of the production capacity.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT F-824

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 57

ORDER OF FIELD MARSHAL VON KLUGE REGARDING
COMPULSORY RECRUITMENT OF LABOR IN THE WEST,
25 JULY 1944

Secret [Stamp]

2a [Handwritten]

Headquarters, 25 July 1944

546 [Handwritten]

Commander in Chief West Section

IaT No. 1731/44 secret

Reference:1.OKW/WFST/Qu. (Adm.1) Qu.2 (West) No. 05201/44 secret of 8 July 1944 (distributed only to Commander in Chief West and the Military Commanders.)
2.OKW/WFST/Qu. (Adm.1) Qu.2 (West) No. 05431/44 secret of 19 July 1944.

(File Notes)

Subject:Procurement of Labor in the West.

With Ref. to 2, Chief OKW has ordered:

“The communication of Field Marshal Von Kluge of 8 July, addressed to the Reich Minister for Armament and War Production, crossed with my order of the same day.” (OKW/WFST/Qu. (Adm. 1) Qu. 2 (West) No. 05201/44 secret).

From this it is evident that, by order of the Fuehrer, under suspension of orders to the contrary, the wishes of the Plenipotentiary for Labor [Sauckel] and of Reich Minister Speer must, in principle, be carried out. Further, to my teletype, the following additional general directions apply in future, as a result of the conference of ministers in the Reich Chancellery on 11 July, about which the Commander in Chief West will have been informed by the military commander:

Rejecting justified misgivings with regard to peace and security in the interior of the country, seizures must be carried out wherever the opportunities referred to in my above-mentioned teletype offer themselves. As the only limitation, the Fuehrer has ordered that no forcible means shall be employed against the population in the actual combat area as long as it [the population] shows itself prepared to assist the German Armed Forces. However, recruiting of volunteers from among refugees from the combat zone is to be carried out vigorously. Moreover, every means is justified to seize as much labor as possible otherwise, apart from [using] the powers granted to the armed forces.

In order to render as effective as possible the measures which have been introduced, the troops are furthermore to be instructed in general as to the necessity of the organization for conscription of labor in order to put an end to the open and covert resistance which has arisen in many instances. The field commandants and the offices of the military administration must give wide support to the representatives of the Plenipotentiary for Labor Allocation and refrain from encroaching on their sphere of activity.

I now direct that the necessary orders in this sense be given and that I be constantly informed about the measures taken and their execution.

Indorsement of Commander in Chief West:

In accordance with this, Commander in Chief West has reported the following to the Chief of the OKW on 23 July 1944:

1.I have authorized the execution of the Sauekel-Laval agreement of 12 May in spite of misgivings because of interior security.
2.I will issue more detailed directives for the execution of the measures in the combat zone in accordance with OKW/WFST/Qu. (Adm.1)/2 (West) No. 05201/44 secret of 8 July 1944.

The Commander in Chief West

[Typewritten] von Kluge

Field Marshal

Additional orders will follow.

For the Commander in Chief West

The Chief of Staff

By Order

(illegible signature)

Colonel, GSC

Distribution:

High Command Army Group B

High Command Army Group G

Armored Group Command West

Mil. Cmdr. in France

Armed Forces Commander in Belgium and northern France

For Information:

Commander in Chief West/Ic [Intelligence]

IaT (Draft)

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-337[[113]]

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACTS FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE OF 6 MARCH 1944

SS Major: [unidentified] I have already discussed with Lt. Col. Diesing our requirements according to our construction plan in the immediate program. From tomorrow 5,000 prisoners will be in readiness to carry out this measure. For that we need 750 guard personnel.

Field Marshal Milch: We must distribute our German people as key personnel. That is, out of three construction companies we can probably make ten complete ones by introducing 70 percent foreigners.

SS Major: They must be skilled workers. In handling the prisoners, it appears best that we should give 5 to 10 of them to one man who knows his job.

Saur: The construction companies will be dissolved to provide key personnel for teams 10 times or even 100 times their size. That is a question which must be clarified by 10 a.m. tomorrow between the Plenipotentiary General for Construction and the air force construction units on one side and Kammler’s construction staff on the other. That will be clarified by tomorrow and he then must say what he needs. The Todt Organization must take part in the discussion, but I cannot consent to the inclusion of the Todt Organization in the matter as a third leading organization, as we would get confused. The Todt Organization must bleed with the rest. It is the same as your construction companies. It is the donor but he is the organizer and usufructuary. He is by all means the usufructuary. For besides being organizer, he is the usufructuary for the construction sites of the Plenipotentiary General for Construction.

SS Major: Therefore it is important that these construction companies should be under military leadership!

Field Marshal Milch: * * * We further appealed to the Fuehrer that we should get the 64 miners who are in Berchtesgaden, as the work there will probably soon be finished. He made the suggestion that we, like the SS, should also train miners in the greater degree and mentioned the figure of 10,000 who would have to be trained one after another because they could not all be trained at once.

Saur: The SS should be told that the training of miners should rest entirely with them because the SS runs the best mining school.

Field Marshal Milch: We must also ask the SS to get more miners from Italy and Slovakia.

Saur: * * * We must bring more order into the PW base camps [Stalags]. We have made a proposal that the PW base camps should be transferred to the SS. The Italians and eastern peoples should be treated more roughly.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-338[[114]]

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACTS FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY, 17 MARCH 1944

Stobbe-Dethleffsen: * * * We already count on 100,000 men for the tasks of the Jaegerstab. To transfer them would mean breaking into the rest of the armament economy to an unheard-of degree.

(Saur: 100,000 without Kammler!)

Including the labor we give Kammler but not including the concentration camp people.

Saur: Right from the beginning we realized that 200,000 men would be transferred.

Stobbe-Dethleffsen: I have just spoken to Prinzel about it. It is absolutely necessary that the few German key personnel at our disposal should be taken with the concentration camp inmates or with the other subjugated people in such a proportion as will guarantee the best use of this valuable German strength * * *.

Stobbe-Dethleffsen: I am always getting demands for German labor. For example: Here are 5,000 concentration camp inmates, give me 1,000 German workers. I do not fulfill these requests in this proportion; otherwise my German labor would soon come to an end. We have filled only a fraction of the positions. I distribute German workers only in the ratio of 1:10.

Milch: The air force stresses the importance of getting the whole cave for the purposes of manufacture. * * *

Porsche: * * * I shall talk to Weiss again about our getting more concentration camp people for finishing off the work.

(Diesing: We probably shall not get them.)

I’ll get them from the Reich Leader. I already have 3,500. Two of Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl’s men are going to France to prepare everything locally with regard to housing and feeding.

Nobel: Can one be responsible for foreigners working as airfield control personnel? The repair works say: yes!

(Milch: Not as pilots!)

I do not think that is intended. The repair works said yesterday that it would be a help to them if foreigners could be used as airfield control personnel. * * *

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-346

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACTS FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE UNDER CHAIRMANSHIP OF
FIELD MARSHAL MILCH ON MONDAY, 20 MARCH 1944

Saur: * * * As far as Hungary is concerned, I should be grateful if the Field Marshal would call up Mr. Sauckel and tell him that the whole group mobilized in Hungary should be primarily at the disposal of the Jaegerstab. Large construction [of entrenchments] columns [Schanz Kolonnen] must be formed. The people have to be treated like prisoners. Otherwise it won’t work.

Saur: Where are the 54,000 Czechs?

Mahnke: Of the 58,000 Czechs, 17,000 have been earmarked for Czechoslovakia. 31,000 are intended for the Reich, and after that 26,000 have been divided among the special commissions [Sonderausschusse]. 31,000 were for power units.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-388

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACTS FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE OF 28 MARCH 1944

Nobel: The labor situation in the repair sector is very unsatisfactory. Of the 2,000 people promised me before from the Action Sauckel, not one has yet arrived. There is no point in saying that people should apply to the armament department [Ruestungskommando]. The armament departments and inspectorates [Ruestungskommandos and Inspektionen] have not got anybody. If these men are not roped in by higher authority, the repair workshops cannot get any labor. My people are not in a position to stop production because we have not received any men since 11 March.

Member Of The Jaegerstab: I brought this matter up yesterday with Ministerialdirigent Dr. Timm of the office of the Plenipotentiary General for Labor Allocation, and told him that we handed in our request on 17 March, but had not yet received any laborers. He could not tell me anything but will let us know today. I will ask Schmelter, who is coming to this meeting later, to follow up the matter.

Milch: Tell Schmelter, that if I can help in any way by calling Sauckel, etc., he should let me know.

Schmelter: I have received such high demands, for instance today over 3,000, tomorrow over 5,000, and the day after, again over 4,000, that it cannot possibly be that the labor is really needed, or else the firms do not understand the program. What has been received from you, Mr. Lange, has been passed on. It is also to be expected that these laborers will come within the next 10-14 days. I have arranged with Sauckel that I shall give out red tickets for the most urgent demands, first of all a consignment of 10,000. That will do to begin with. These red tickets will have priority, even over other red tickets. Of course, that will cause difficulties over skilled workers. When we have a picture of the number of skilled workers we need, we must decide from which branch of manufacture we can remove them, for Sauckel does not have so many skilled workers. Those who have already arrived are, for the most part, from the East. That is still the most prolific source. Very few come from the West and they are slowly starting to come from Italy. There are comparatively few skilled workers among them. So we must decide what factories are to be closed or restricted and where we shall take away the skilled workers. I can only let you have details in a few days when I have a complete picture of requirements.

Nobel: If I must speed up repair work in a limited time, I need the labor at once. Since 16 March not one of the 2,000 people that Sauckel was going to send has arrived. That is already two weeks ago. They tell me that if they have to deliver 50 machines they must have 60 people today or tomorrow. But that won’t work because I have not got the people. I have always said—you will not get skilled workers. They answer—then give us others. If we do not fulfill these demands, their confidence in the Jaegerstab will be undermined. This morning I shall get material from Hansen & Company in Muenster. The labor office there is not yet clear about the set-up of the Jaegerstab and the priority of the fighter program. It is the result of the bureaucracy of the authorities. My men have to argue with the authorities and thereby lose valuable time.

Schmelter: It is now customary, if one fails to produce something to put the blame on the labor office. I remind you of the Messerschmitt affair.

(Milch: That is not so in all cases.)

Assuredly! The gentlemen were with me on Saturday. They had got back 50 tool makers from the army into the bargain, which they had had in the meantime, and said nothing about. First, they could not employ them, secondly, they did not need them, and thirdly, they got them elsewhere. Furthermore Sauckel puts the people at the disposal of the repair department. It was immediately reported that the labor offices worked too slowly.

Milch: You will make things easier for yourselves if you build up gradually a small reserve of a few hundred people, at first 500 which you can later raise to 2,000 so that you can cover immediately any need that arises. Then our work will gain the respect of others. At the moment it is like this—either we must transfer people and leave a gap where it is less vital, or wait until the people are brought in by Sauckel. When one sees the figures that Sauckel has produced and ascertains what the armament industry has received, the comparison is ridiculous.

Schmelter: A letter is on the way from the minister to Mr. Sauckel. During the first three months Sauckel has brought in between 300,000 and 400,000 people, but not even a miserable 66,000 red tickets could be honored.

Milch: I personally cannot get over it! Take the help away from the housewives! In the past year 800,000 domestic servants have been negotiated and we are fighting for 2,000 men!

Schmelter: In one year the demand for female domestic servants in Germany has risen by 200,000, the demands of the armament industry during the same period by 600. I have arranged that transports that come from abroad are directed straight to the points of greatest need.

Milch: Every week 2,000 people come from the East.

(Schmelter: Most of them go into agriculture.)

The Jaegerstab has priority over agriculture. Can you not intercept them?

Schmelter: I have arranged that. The 2,000 are disposed of; some of them are already at work. But it does not always happen that the reports of the firms are 100 percent correct. We have often checked that up. It often happens that firms take the people and put them into another branch of production but still shout for people for the high priority processes.

(Nobel: That is not the case in my repair industry!)

Frydag: Yesterday, I was in Wiener-Neustadt. The works have a considerable assignment and a hefty increase. Merely in order to get out of the room unscathed I gave them 200 men from the airframes industry.

Schmelter: In Wiener Neustadt there was a demand for 1,000 or 1,500. A thousand were supposed to come from Air Fleet 2 in Italy. An engineer official, Weidinger, was going to produce them. On Sunday I received a phone call to the effect that the engineer official could not produce them.

Frydag: That is quite right. But you must put yourself in the firm’s place. The firm must have these people.

Schmelter: Then I must see to it that I take them from somewhere else.

Milch: You know our position. We are convinced that you do everything you can. But we must now commit a robbery. We can no longer operate along legal lines.

(Schmelter: That is the only possibility.)

There will be abuse but we must accept that.

Schmelter: I shall go tomorrow to Mr. Sauckel and tell him that he must give the fighter industry the next transport of workers from the East. The proposal that the fighter industry should not give back the laborers it received who originally worked in agriculture has been turned down by Sauckel. I am commissioned to inform you of this.

Milch: That is out of the question. Nothing shall go out of the fighter industry!

Schmelter: I am commissioned to say that he must have this labor back again.

Milch: Later, not now! One more thing. We must protect all the factories working for the fighter program. We must say to them: You must not give up people for anything whatsoever except on command of the Jaegerstab. None can touch you, not even the local labor offices and the ministerial authorities; requests for personnel must all be directed to the Jaegerstab. We must put that out clearly as an order.

(Petri: That is already in previous minutes.)

Schmelter: May I request that this order should be extended to the management and repair personnel of the electricity and gas works.

Milch: I can only do it for the Jaegerstab. I am not doing it for the bomber and other branches either as we have only that special authority.

Schmelter: I should like to ask that it should only be done for manufacture and not construction.

Milch: Agreed! We must write a letter to Keitel of the OKW and a letter to Sauckel saying: Requests are to be made only directly to the Jaegerstab.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-334[[115]]

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACT FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE OF 25 APRIL 1944

[page 27]

Wegener: I have a question for Schmelter: Has the question of the transfer of western Europeans been clarified?

Werner: On this subject I can say that it is especially difficult for BMW [Bavarian Motor Works], because we can only transfer Russians and concentration camp inmates, and the guards for these are mainly Belgians and French.

Wegener: As far as I can remember, 200 key personnel are needed for Markirch.

Milch: Perhaps that must be brought before the Fuehrer again.

Schaaf: Saur came back and said there was no more to be said on this subject to the Fuehrer.

Milch: That is out of date now. I have discussed with Saur the fact that we cannot keep up this state of affairs. Saur is of my opinion. It must be discussed once more with the Fuehrer. I can discuss it again with the Reich Marshal. We shall do what we can, but we cannot throw everything into confusion without due consideration. How should we then manage to produce! I am convinced that the Fuehrer will agree as soon as we can put these people reasonably into barracks so that they do not come into contact with the population.

Schaede: Whenever French key personnel are brought to Lorraine, they run away without fail in a short time. This one must tell the firm. Already they do not come back from leave.

Milch: It will only work if we put these workers into barracks. We cannot exactly treat them as prisoners. It must appear otherwise, but it must be so in practice.

Milch: I am personally convinced after talking to the Fuehrer that he will agree as soon as it is made reasonable. The people should not be able to mingle with the population and to conspire. Nor should they be allowed to run around free, so that they can cross the frontier every day. Both practices must be stopped.

Heyne: I have two short points. Yesterday Maehrisch-Truebau was removed from the program because the Quartermaster General told me the previous night that it was possible to move in on the morning of 28 April. The matter is already progressing. Last night I was called up again because the Chief of Prisoners of War Affairs did not quite agree with the new accommodation in Brunswick of the prisoners from Maehrisch-Truebau for some reasons of security.

I should like to ask Major Kleber, who was also yesterday announced as Mr. Saur’s liaison officer with the OKW, to exert some pressure here.

Apart from that, General Schmidt said that there were also some fighter units and suchlike in the barracks; that he could not move out as quickly as that; he would not take orders; otherwise he would go to the Reich Marshal.

Milch: I am of the opinion that that must be done at once. It’s all the same to me if individual people do object. Protest does not interest me at all, whether from the Chief of Prisoners of War Affairs or from our side.

Kleber, would you be so good as to take care of this?

Kleber: As far as prisoners of war are concerned I can take care of it, but not where it concerns the air force. That must be handled separately.

Milch: Naturally. This matter must be handled by us. There was in fact, another proposal but we do not want it. Otherwise someone else will come complaining.

Kleber: I should like to transfer the prisoners further off to Brunswick.

Milch: I think it is an excellent idea for the prisoners to go there if Brunswick continues to be attacked.

Saur: I must come back again to the question of western European workers. Make an energetic attempt to make a compromise within the factories. I think it will work out. I do not think the Fuehrer will give in even if we put the French into barracks. He has spoken so firmly and for reasons which I cannot but recognize. I am all the more thankful that permission has been given for the Protectorate. I am going to see State Minister Frank on Friday and I shall discuss with him the whole question of dispersal in the Protectorate. I shall like Schmelter to accompany me to Prague on Friday to discuss the question of transfer of workers.

Milch: I said before that we wanted to carry out the transfer within the factories. Then if something is left over, we should have to approach the Fuehrer again, but only on condition that they are in barracks and that there are replacements for them.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-362

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACTS FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE ON THE OCCASION OF THE 5TH
TRIP OF THE “HUBERTUS UNDERTAKING”, 2 AND 3 MAY 1944

[Page 65]

Milch: * * * I also ask that every time the civilian population is attacked [Translator’s note: by low-flying aircraft], in private cars, on [rail] roads, etc., the local offices make reports accordingly. The Fuehrer has ordered extremely severe measures against these enemy crews who harass the civilian population. There is not the slightest military necessity for this and the Fuehrer intends absolutely to act according to the Japanese pattern. (Enthusiastic applause!) We must only take cases individually so that we have the necessary material and can produce it. We owe that to our boys who are prisoners over there, who will be held as hostages unless we have proper proof.

[Page 110]

Schnauder: * * *

1. At the Heinkel factory at Barth there are 3,300 workers, consisting of 300 Germans and 3,000 concentration camp inmates. Of the 3,000 concentration camp inmates, 1,500 are men. In order to maintain their working capacity it is necessary to evacuate these men too during daylight air attacks. However, there are not enough guards and sometimes there is a deficit of as many as 20. As guards cannot be drawn from any other source, it has been decided that the factory is to arm as guards certain men from its own ranks to guard the concentration camp inmates. * * *

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-390

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACT FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE OF 4 MAY 1944

Saur: 12. Can the arrival of the reported 50,000 Italians be relied on? By what date will the first transport arrive? This wording is, frankly, unintelligible. It was quite clear that the 50,000 Italians were coming so that the transport facilities were guaranteed long ago. How did such a report get into the minutes of 14 April?

(Comment: The camps into which these people are to go don’t even exist yet!)

We shan’t get any further like this! Inform Mr. Schmelter.

Field Marshal Milch: Are they coming via Sauckel?

Saur: No. This is our own undertaking. Pueckel has clarified various doubtful points with Nagel and got ready a large number of vehicles and now all that comes to nothing. Schmelter must report on it tomorrow, not in the sense of whether it can be done, but that this and that must be done, and by such and such means.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-442[[116]]

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACT FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE ON 5 MAY 1944

Schmelter: Then the transport of the Italians. 50,000 Italians have not yet been transported. It was due to the fact that the escort for the transport has not yet been appointed. The conversation yesterday with the Plenipotentiary in Milan proved that the transport should leave today for this place Woerl (?) [sic] where further distribution will be undertaken. I booked another call this morning but did not get through. I hope to be able to give more details tomorrow.

Milch: Has a proper reception center been set up in Woerl?

(Schmelter: Yes.)

Is it assured that the number of those leaving is in reasonable proportion to those arriving? * * *: [sic] That shall be. A man has been appointed by Schmelter to travel down there especially and control directly the conscription of civilians.

Milch: Is there someone at the Escort Detachment Headquarters in Italy responsible for seeing that people do not get out and run away during the journey?

* * * [sic] That is what the escorting personnel is there for.

(Milch: Someone of standing?)

Dr. Wendt is responsible for the whole undertaking.

Milch: I am of the opinion that, if anyone jumps out, he should be shot; otherwise a thousand will get on and only twenty will arrive there. The Gendarmerie and all military posts must look out for those who abscond on the journey. They will be arrested at once and will appear before a court martial.

(End of meeting 1225 hours).

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-361

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACT FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE DURING THE 6TH JOURNEY
OF THE “HUBERTUS UNDERTAKING” FROM 8-10 MAY 1944

Gabel: We must have 1,000 underground workers at once.

Saur: Definitely.

Bornitz: The Erzberg [ore mine] has, furthermore, a loss of from 1,400 to 1,500 men per annum due to climatic conditions. It goes up as high as 1,500 meters.

Saur: Do you give the men up systematically, and to whom?

Bornitz: Not systematically. They collapse, report sick, and the foreigners do not come back. Some escape too, as in the mountain country it is not possible to seal everything hermetically.

(Comment: A year ago the labor potential of a large concentration camp was thoroughly gone into. That possibility must not be entirely disregarded).

Gabel: Careful! Concentration camp internees are not strong enough to be able to work underground.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-336[[117]]

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACTS FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE ON 26 MAY 1944

[Page 31-32]

Reich Minister Speer: With regard to construction it is important that we should not start more building than we can supply labor and equipment for. Equipment is of secondary importance. We must not continue with the mistakes we found in the air force armament industry when we took over, i.e., the beginning of no end of buildings for which, at that time, only 20 to 30 percent of the necessary labor was available.

Saur: That is the case now unfortunately. We have at least 3 times as many buildings under construction as we have labor available.

Reich Minister Speer: What is the news about the Hungarian Jews?

Kammler: They are on the way. At the end of the month the first transports will arrive for surface work on the surface bunkers.

[Page 33]

Schlempp: * * * Dorsch said yesterday that he wanted to bring 100,000 Jews from Hungary, 50,000 Italians, 10,000 men from bomb damage repair, also 1,000 from Waldbroehl (?) [sic]; then he wanted to get something from Greiser’s zone by negotiation, then 4,000 Italian officers, 10,000 men from South Russia and 20,000 from North Russia. That would be 220,000 altogether.

Reich Minister Speer: We have often made such calculations; but the people never came.

[Page 34]

Kammler: For all these measures [Translator’s note: A and B construction measures which were the responsibility of the SS], I must take in 50,000 more people in protective custody [Schutzhaeftlinge].

[Page 43]

Reich Minister Speer: We shall carry out a special operation [Sondereinsatz] of our own in order to build up reserves of manpower [Schwerpunkte]. It will bring in 90,000 men in three installments of 30,000.

It will be experts who are called up. And it would be a good thing if one linked up with it the conscription of tool makers within the firms so that one would have a body of tool makers in the armament industry. These people would get leave from this group and would function as armed forces employees. If we make them armed forces employees we have the advantage of being independent of Sauckel’s offices.

[Page 80]

Field Marshal Milch: How long do the Italian PW’s actually work here?

Schmelter: As long as the factory works. There is a regulation that PW’s must work so long.

Field Marshal Milch: Could you not look into this? You can see people on the streets about 4 or 5 o’clock and nobody after that.

(Schmelter: I can look into it!)

I do not believe that any Italian prisoner of war works 72 hours.

[Page 81]

Schmelter: * * * Dorsch will accompany me to Greiser to try and get 20 to 30 thousand men out of him.

Reich Minister Speer: Kammler had his doubts about that before.

Representative of Kammler: He didn’t think the 100,000 Jews would come.

Schmelter: To that I can add the following. Till now two transports have arrived at the SS camp Auschwitz. For fighter construction we were offered only children, women, and old men with whom very little can be done. * * * Unless the next transports bring men of an age fit for work the whole action will not have much success.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-359

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 75

EXTRACTS FROM TRANSCRIPT OF STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF
THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE ON 27 JUNE 1944

[Page 27]

Schmelter: I have another small point to bring up. I said once before that we had fairly large numbers of English and American “Terror Flyers” in air force camps, who cannot be used. It is a matter, in all, of about 17,000 people, approximately half officers and NCO’s who do not need to work. That means that there are 6 to 9 thousand men in camps who just sit about doing nothing. The suggestion that they should be put to work has now been turned down on the grounds that it concerns especially intelligent people trained in collecting information and, apart from that, inclined to acts of sabotage.

Saur: Can we put them into the manufacture of component parts?

Lange: Perhaps we can employ them in underground factories.

Saur: We could employ them in the manufacture of component parts. Who is responsible for this matter?

Krause: The Commission for Prisoners of War; it comes under the Quartermaster General.

Saur: Will you undertake to put this matter in order? These people must be put at the disposal of the component parts industry. That would be an unbelievable help to us.

Schmelter: It must be laid down that these people all go into fighter production or into the component parts industry. Otherwise a part will be sent off elsewhere. The people in question are excellent people, good material.

[Page 31]

Schmelter: I have a few more points. Up till now 12,000 female concentration camp internees, Jewesses, have been demanded. The matter is now in order. The SS has agreed to deliver these Hungarian Jewesses in batches of 500. Thus the smaller firms, too, will be in a position to employ these concentration camp Jewesses better. I request that these people should be ordered in batches of 500.

Mahnke: How many are still there?

Schmelter: There are still enough there.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-320

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 73

EXTRACT FROM INTERROGATION OF KARL OTTO SAUR ON
13 NOVEMBER 1946, CONCERNING THE USE OF CONCENTRATION
CAMP PRISONERS IN JAEGERSTAB CONSTRUCTION

Q. Were special factories built after the creation of the Jaegerstab?

A. All building of factories above the ground was stopped, and subterranean factories were built. We divided approximately 30 factories into 700 individual workshops to avoid offering targets for attacks.

Q. What kind of workers were used for this construction?

A. The construction was divided into three parts: the two Kammler parts, (a) new construction underground, and (b) expansion underground, and the Todt Organization part.

Q. This expansion program was directed by Kammler,[[118]] then?

A. Parts (a) and (b) were directed quite independently by Kammler. He had full authority from Goering as of 4 March 1944 and was then made a member of the Jaegerstab. * * * The whole affair was carried out by Kammler alone.

Q. And the workers who were used for this purpose were concentration camp prisoners?

A. To my knowledge, they must have been concentration camp prisoners.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-266

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 76

AFFIDAVIT OF FRITZ SCHMELTER, 19 NOVEMBER 1946,
CONCERNING THE ORGANIZATION OF THE JAEGERSTAB

I, Fritz Schmelter, swear, testify, and state:

1. That, since about January 1944 until April 1945, I held, in the end, the office of Ministerialdirigent in the Ministry for Armament and War Production (Ministry Speer); that as Ministerialdirigent I was in charge of the Division for Labor Assignment, and from December 1944 until April 1945 of the Central Department for Labor Assignment and Labor Output, and that, as a holder of these positions I was also a member of the Jaegerstab.

2. That Milch and Speer together were in charge of the Jaegerstab; that Saur was the Chief of Staff and was, in this capacity, the immediate subordinate of Milch and Speer.

3. That during its existence the Jaegerstab met almost every day and that these meetings were presided over in most cases by Milch, in the beginning, and later on by Saur; that Speer was very rarely present and only on special occasions; that these meetings took place, first, in the Reich Air Ministry and after this was destroyed in the barrack at Tempelhof.

4. That in the meetings of the Jaegerstab the supply of labor for the Luftwaffe was discussed; that, for the Jaegerstab, the labor requirements necessary to the industry of the Luftwaffe were discussed with the Plenipotentiary for Labor Allocation (Ministry Sauckel); that Sauckel satisfied these requirements as far as possible; that the Chief of Staff, in the Jaegerstab, Saur occasionally also distributed the available labor to the different Luftwaffe plants.

5. That in the year of 1944 the air raids made it necessary to decentralize many of the plants of the Luftwaffe; that this decentralization was ordered by the Jaegerstab; that many factories of the Luftwaffe were transferred into subterranean buildings and that for the completion of these subterranean buildings concentration camp inmates and Jews were also used; that the whole building program of the Jaegerstab was established and controlled by this Jaegerstab itself.

6. That the above facts are personally known to me; that these facts are known to me on account of the position I held and the responsibility it gave me in the Jaegerstab and in the Ministry Speer.

I have read the above statement which consists of two pages in German, and I state that this is the full truth, to the best of my knowledge and belief. I have had the opportunity to make changes and corrections in the above statements. I have given this testimony voluntarily, without any promise of reward and without being, in any way, forced or threatened.

Nuernberg, 19 November 1946.

[Signed] Dr. Fritz Schmelter

TRANSLATION OF SPEER EXHIBIT 34[[119]]

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 17

ORDER OF HITLER, 21 APRIL 1944, DELEGATING TO DORSCH
AUTHORITY FOR JAEGERSTAB CONSTRUCTIONS[[120]]

Copy

The Fuehrer

Fuehrer’s Headquarters

21 April 1944

To the Reich Minister for Armament and War Production and

Head of the Todt Organization, Reich Minister Speer

Berlin W 8

I delegate Ministerialdirektor Dorsch, Chief of the Todt Central Office, to carry out the erection of the six fighter production buildings ordered by me, while retaining his other functions in your sphere of work.

You are to be responsible for taking care of all the prerequisites necessary for the speedy erection of these buildings. You are particularly to effect the best possible coordination with the other war-essential buildings, if necessary referring to me for a decision.

[Signed] Adolf Hitler

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-337[[121]]

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 12

EXCERPTS FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE ON 6 MARCH 1944
IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY[[122]]

Saur: I see a great many unknown faces and I do not know what business all these gentlemen have here. I suggest that a check be made at the door and that the showing of passes be mandatory. Otherwise there is danger that other people may sneak in here. I demand therefore a stricter control under all circumstances. Furthermore I would ask that gentlemen remain at meetings only as long and no longer as their business makes it necessary. I would therefore request that each gentleman report his presence and state whether he has any matters of general interest. These things could then be taken up first and that would settle that and the man could leave. We only want one gentleman for one subject, not a whole bunch of them.

Saur: Does the term “construction company”[[123]] exist at all? I think it does not exist.

Diesing: We have construction companies with the Luftwaffe, among them masons, slaters, window fitters, etc. That is how we arrived at the term “construction company”. We cannot again withdraw the six construction companies which we have taken from Berlin. For each building site we need approximately 100 skilled people, this on the basis of a fixed distribution key and we do not know where to get them.

Milch: Now we come to the question of foreign exchange. Here the Fuehrer has announced his consent that the requests of the Slovaks to purchase antiaircraft guns, etc., be complied with. Saur has reported orally how many antiaircraft guns have actually been finished and how far we have exceeded the program. This is a good and acceptable method for us.

We have furthermore approached the Fuehrer in order to obtain the 64 miners, at present employed at Berchtesgaden, since the work there should soon be finished. He said that we, like the SS, should train miners on a larger scale too, and named the figure of 10,000 to be trained in successive shifts because one cannot train them all at the same time.

Saur: The gentlemen of the SS should be told of this, that the entire training of miners is supposed to be done by the SS because the SS has the best school for that.

Milch: Furthermore we must ask the SS to get hold of further miners from Italy and Slovakia.

Saur: Barowski (?) [sic] must know that! This question must be cleared up at once, today, in order to agree on the selection with the SS.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-338[[124]]

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 13

EXCERPTS FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE PRESIDED OVER BY FIELD MARSHAL
MILCH ON FRIDAY, 17 MARCH 1944, 1100 HOURS,
IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY[[125]]

[Page 13]

Stobbe-Dethleffsen:[[126]] Probably you have not understood me quite correctly. When I asked this question, I did not have in mind the projects of 600,000 and 800,000 square meters,

(Saur: But I did!)

but the original 60,000 square meter works. I now ask: shall these 60,000 square meter works now be simply cancelled in consideration of the big works, and are they no longer to be taken into consideration? This seems hazardous to me because we must make the following distinction. The construction capacity of underground works in mountains and caves is entirely different from the one to be reckoned with at such concrete works. It is available for concrete works and consequently it should be used. It was not as if we had to go into caves or worm ourselves into the mountain. The question of the big works is a very difficult one for us from the point of view of capacity. It alone requires another 25,000 workers. We reckon already now 100,000 men for the tasks of the Jaegerstab. To switch to some other work would constitute an inroad of unheard of proportions into the remaining armament economy.[[127]]

(Saur: 100,000 without Kammler!)

Including the manpower we give Kammler, but without the people from concentration camps!

Milch: We have been ordered to carry out these two construction projects by the Fuehrer. If I now take a higher compression ratio and thus attain much higher figures, even this higher figure would not prevent us from having to deal with further shifting afterwards, besides concrete works and cave works, smaller caves, tunnels, etc. It is now doubtless correct to ascertain: (1) What has to be constructed, (2) for whom it has to be constructed, (3) where it has to be constructed. We have to distribute it in such a way that we can efficiently cope with manpower and all the other questions, power, transportation, etc.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-365

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 15

EXTRACT FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE, 12 APRIL 1944

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY HAUPTDIENSTLEITER

SAUR, LATER ON PRESIDED OVER BY FIELD

MARSHAL MILCH, ON WEDNESDAY, 12 APRIL

1944, 10 O’CLOCK IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY

Saur: Please tell this to Schmelter. We are in an incredible situation as a result of lack of manpower. Here we are in the middle of the month already, and the 10,000 people allocated to us according to red slips have not arrived yet. A way must be found to assure priority for red-slip matters over all other allocations. Tell Herr Schmelter to contact Gauleiter Sauckel today. Going further than that, the discontinuation, transfer, or concentration of every other type of production must be brought about by us at once.

Schaaf: The 4,000 people from Kahla!

Lange: Schmelter’s people complain particularly because they have no means of making pressure demands to Sauckel which will also be complied with.

Saur: Field Marshal, the best thing would be for you to approach Sauckel yourself since he is the man in charge of labor allocation.

Milch: I shall tell him that the 10,000 red slips were not honored.

Balcke: On that I can report that the requests were sent out on the 5th and that on the 11th they had not yet reached the labor offices. The way is long, it is true. Therefore it is not yet possible for the people to be employed.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-334[[128]]

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 16

EXTRACTS FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE, 25 APRIL 1944

STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE

OF 25 APRIL 1944, 10 O’CLOCK IN THE

REICH AIR MINISTRY

PRESIDED OVER BY FIELD MARSHAL MILCH

Herr Saur does not appear until towards the end of the meeting.

Wegener: I have a question for Schmelter: Has the question of the transfer of west European workers been settled?

Werner: On this I can say that especially for the Bavarian Motor Works matters are particularly difficult because we can transfer only Russians and concentration camp inmates, and the staff used for supervision consists mostly of Belgians and Frenchmen.

Kreutz: Mueller declared at one time—and he believed he could do it—that he would try and shift a part of the head personnel within the concern.

Schaede: If you bring the French key personnel to Lorraine, I can guarantee you that they would run away within the shortest possible time. That must be told to the firm. Even now they do not return from their vacation.

Milch: It will work only if we place these people into barracks. It is true we cannot treat them as prisoners of war; the outward appearance must be different, but in actual practice that is just what it must be.

Schaede: I merely wanted to suggest to the firms to take along as few French people as possible so that they would not lose them altogether, and rather follow the system of Mueller.

Milch: Exactly. And if then there are still some left one can say that this will be limited in terms of time, perhaps to several months, and that in return certain advantages will be granted to them because they will be subject to certain deprivation of their freedom.

Milch: As early as today at noon, we may face the situation that Bavarian Motor Works at Allach is completely destroyed and that we have to get out. Then we cannot deal with things such as 200 or 300 French people who cannot come to Lorraine. That must be explained to the Fuehrer once more. Otherwise, I see no possibility for carrying through our assignment.

Personally, I am firmly convinced—after the conversations with the Fuehrer—that he will then consent provided it is done in a sensible way. The people must not sit together with the population and they must not be able to conspire. Nor should they have sufficient freedom of movement to be able to pass the green border line. Both of these things must be prevented.

In compensation for these restrictions we can, on the other hand, give these people something and make them happy—be it even only cigarettes.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-442[[129]]

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 21

EXTRACT FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE, 5 MAY 1944

THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE JAEGERSTAB

CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY, 5 MAY 1944, 10 O’CLOCK

IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY

Schmelter: I was supposed to report on the employment of labor in the penal institutions.[[130]] The Minister of Justice has not yet forwarded the complete list of workers available in the penal institutions. I have made another inquiry. Dr. Schmelter (?) [sic] has appointed Attorney Karl as special official in charge. He is the liaison to the Reich Ministry of Justice. * * *

Heyne: Such conversations have taken place. They do not get us anywhere. The thing we need is a listing of all localities showing how large a number of prisoners are yet available there. Then we must see whether they are required there. Herr Schmelter planned to concentrate the skilled workers in those spots. There are only 2-3 percent skilled workers in all among all prisoners. That is too little.

Milch: I suggest you are going to submit to me today a letter to Thierack, to wit: Taking into consideration the extraordinary urgency of the work in connection with the Jaegerstab we need this assistance. We have failed for a long time unfortunately to obtain the compilation from the authorities concerned. We need such and such data. I ask him to concern himself personally with the matter and to let us have the material in the very near future.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-336[[131]]

DEFENSE EXHIBIT 23

EXCERPTS FROM THE STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE
JAEGERSTAB CONFERENCE ON FRIDAY, 26 MAY 1944,
AT 10 O’CLOCK

(Minister Speer and Field Marshal Milch entering.)

Milch: I welcome our Minister Speer for the first time in the circle of the Jaegerstab, and would like to express my special happiness and at the same time yours, that you, dear Speer, are again with us, well, cheerful, and in the old creative spirit.

This machinery, created by your orders, accomplished excellent things in the three months of its existence. It has made special efforts to bring the production of fighters and all that goes with them to a high level.

Schmelter: The reports of the board of examiners show that a larger number could be deducted from the plants belonging to the Luftwaffe if one succeeds in establishing joint direction for the department of plane construction, the technical plant groups and companies. Up to now they exist separately under three different commands and leaderships, and that would make it possible to deduct more workers. The board of examiners thinks that hundreds of laborers could be deducted if a single command would be established. This must be done by Field Marshal Milch.

Milch: The Quartermaster General to whom all are subordinate! No one is subordinate to me.

(Schmelter: Probably they will work in plants where people do not work for 72 hours.)

Isn’t it possible—to avoid injustice toward our workers—to have our other plants work too, not all of them for 72 hours, but perhaps up to 64 hours? That should suffice if all would do it.

Schmelter: I prepared already for the conference of the chiefs of the various offices the suggestion that working hours in civilian production should be increased. There are still many production plants working only 48 hours.

Milch: Then one can equalize and we need not work all the time for 72 hours.

EXTRACTS OF TESTIMONY OF DEFENSE WITNESS FRITZ SCHMELTER[[132]]

DIRECT EXAMINATION

[Tr. pp. 717-734]

Dr. Bergold: Witness, will you give us your first name and your last name?

Witness Schmelter: Fritz Schmelter.

Q. When were you born?

A. On the first of March 1904.

Q. What was your position at the end of the war?

A. At the end of the war, I was Central Department Manager at the Ministry of Armament.

Q. Thank you. Witness, when and in what position did you have to do official business with the defendant?

A. I had some dealings with him on official business after 1944 when I became Chief of the Amtsgruppeneinsatz in the Ministry of Armament. I saw him again after the Jaegerstab was formed, that is, after March 1944.

Q. In your position in the Ministry of Armament, did you have anything to do with the Central Planning Board?

A. I had something to do with them insofar as the chief of staff of the armament office was concerned. He was my chief. I had to write down the necessary figures concerning labor assignments when I accompanied him to certain sessions of the Central Planning Board as assistant.

Q. What month was that, approximately?

A. As far as I can remember the first session in which I participated was in February or March 1944. I did not always participate in these sessions, only in a few of them when I accompanied the man I mentioned before.

Q. Did the sessions of February and March 1944 deal with labor assignments?

A. Yes.

Q. During these conferences, were they trying to clear the numbers or the figures which were announced by Sauckel?

A. In one of the conferences I remember they wanted to make Sauckel a proposal concerning the distribution of labor he wanted to provide. I remember that the Central Planning Board had a written proposal submitted to him concerning requests about labor assignments. Sauckel said that he would acknowledge this proposal but would take care of the distribution personally.

Q. Did they, during these sessions, try to find out whether the numbers and figures Sauckel reported were correct? If he mentioned figures which were too high, did they speak about those matters in this conference?

A. I do not remember that day. But I know that in various conferences the question of reliability of the figures played a great part. There was always a difference between the figures Sauckel reported and those Speer reported.

Q. Did this apply to figures which Sauckel mentioned as having already been brought in or did it apply to figures on labor still to come?

A. That applied particularly to the numbers of laborers who had already been brought. It was not possible to try to control the number of laborers wanted because it was only something that was being planned, nothing else.

Q. That is correct, but from previous experiences, weren’t they in a position to find out that Sauckel’s promises were not being kept?

A. At the time they doubted that the figures which Sauckel reported could ever be brought in.

Q. Is it correct that in your position, as a member of the Speer ministry, or in your capacity as a member of the Todt Organization, you very often participated in the staff meetings of Sauckel?

A. Every month Sauckel would call such a staff meeting where representatives of the most important labor assignment ministries took part. I almost always participated in those meetings.

Q. What other ministries apart from the Ministry of Armaments participated in those conferences?

A. The Air Ministry, the OKW, the Ministry of Economics, the Agricultural Ministry, and I do not think I can remember anything further.

Q. Did the defendant Milch ever participate in those sessions?

A. No. Those were conferences in which the experts of the ministries took part; not the leaders and not their representatives, either.

Q. Who was the chief of the Air Ministry?

A. Goering.

Q. At these staff conferences, did Sauckel ever make any statements saying he brought the laborers voluntarily to the Reich?

A. I remember that Sauckel repeatedly said approximately the following:

“They say that I am forcing laborers to come to Germany. Once somebody said I went to foreign countries with a lasso and caught people and brought them over to Germany. They said I forced them to come to Germany.”

Furthermore, he said:

“I declare all those things are not true. The laborers are brought to Germany by me on the basis of contracts with other governments, as far as there are governments in those occupied territories, or on the orders of the local military commanders or other local German agencies.”

He asked us to tell our superiors his opinion on that question.

Q. Is it known to you that there was an agreement with the French Government according to which one prisoner of war would be released to France for two laborers.

A. Yes.

Q. Is it known to you that the French workers during their activity in Germany got leave once in a while?

A. Yes.

Q. A leave to France?

A. Yes.

Q. Did they ever return from their leave or did they just stay there?

A. The greater part came back from their leave; quite a number did not come back. Part of the laborers who went on leave did not come back. Some of them came back.

Q. Was that the larger part that came back or the smaller part?

A. I did not hear any figures concerning that. As far as I know the greatest of them came back. According to the factory manager, the larger part always came back, but of course I have no exact figures.

Q. Witness, you then joined the Jaegerstab. Do you know anything about the creation of the Jaegerstab?

A. Approximately on the first of March, I do not remember the exact date, I was asked by my chief of staff to go to the Air Ministry where Milch and Mr. Saur were present. He said the air armament was so badly damaged by the air raids that there had to be a fighter program. For that purpose a staff needed to be developed to hold daily conferences which would be necessary in order to increase the fighter production or at least bring it to the same level that it used to be. A number of gentlemen from air as well as from the armament industry were designated to participate in these sessions and to report to their offices what had taken place and put orders into effect.

As a representative of the Armament Ministry, I was assigned to labor assignment. Later on I heard that this Jaegerstab was under the management of Speer and Milch and that Saur was the manager of the Jaegerstab. Later on there were conferences almost daily, first at the Air Ministry and later on at a barracks at the Tempelhof, near Berlin. They dealt, first of all, with the production of the fighters and with all the questions in connection with the fighters and also with labor assignment.

Q. Who directed these conferences?

A. At the beginning Milch participated almost regularly in those sessions and he was the one that actually led or presided over the conferences; formally, that is, Mr. Saur was the speaker most of the time. Mr. Speer very seldom, according to my recollection perhaps three of four times, participated in those sessions, which on those particular days were transferred to the Armament Ministry.

Q. You just said that Milch at the beginning had the formal leadership. From what time on did that cease?

A. After the transfer into the Armament Ministry, or rather, into the Caserne at Tempelhof—I don’t remember the date—Milch did not participate as regularly as he did before. At those conferences, after the transfer of the fighter staff into the Armament Ministry, he only participated once or never.

Q. Witness, concerning the conferences of the staff, there were always verbatim records taken. Is that known to you?

A. Yes.

Q. Apart from those minutes, were any other minutes taken?

A. Yes. An extract of the verbatim record—I want to call it a “result record”—was compiled and these records were sent to all of the offices which were interested in those conferences. Those verbatim records which were taken down by stenographers during the session, according to my knowledge, were sent only to Mr. Speer, and of course they remained with both Saur and Milch. In other words, very few copies were made.

Q. Were these verbatim records ever controlled?

A. No, I don’t think so. I don’t believe that the large records were read or checked by someone else.

Q. Can one say then that the decisions of the Jaegerstab were contained in the records?

A. Not only the decisions but also the more important deliberations that took place. However, when decisions were made, then they were included in the result records.

Q. During these conferences did it ever occur that the participants were not always present?

A. That happened very often because the sessions lasted for a long time and it happened many times that I, for instance, was called out and ordered to take care of my business, at least by telephone, and the members of the Jaegerstab themselves did not always participate in the conferences, but later on—that is, from May on—they had representatives or deputies replace them.

Q. Did those sessions often result in individual discussions?

A. That happened once in a while, particularly when technical questions were discussed where very few experts could say something.

Q. I shall now proceed to the labor assignment within the Jaegerstab. How did the Jaegerstab deal with questions of labor assignment?

A. Along with all the production discussions of other programs, labor assignment questions were discussed at the sessions of the Jaegerstab. I had the task, concerning these labor assignment questions, to pass them through my office chief and so far as the tasks I had with the Jaegerstab overlapped my other duties and tasks with other organizations; in other words, if you want to know exactly or if you want to have a detailed description of what my tasks were in general—

Q. I want to know what you had to do with the labor assignment of the Jaegerstab and what was your main task there; otherwise, we will be here about an hour or so.

A. Among other things, we had the task, on the basis of the reports of the various factories which came over the Armament Inspectorates to me, to write up a proposal how those red slips were to be distributed on each individual production. In the Jaegerstab, I also had the task to distribute those red slips in such a way that the most important factories would get the necessary number of red slips. The red slips were orders to the labor assignment offices or agencies of Speer; in other words, to the Armament Inspectorates and to the armament commandos, and were given from Sauckel to his labor assignment agencies which were to provide preferentially the necessary amount of workers on the basis of those red slips. I furthermore had the task to take care of transfers of laborers who already were in the armament industry by giving respective orders to my agency and requesting Sauckel to carry out the transfer. Since in the fighter production, the question, in the first place, concerned skilled workers only; transfers of this kind were carried out. Skilled workers were no longer assigned to us by Sauckel in 1944. My main activity, therefore, concerned transfers from one of the industries to the other, and as regards the Jaegerstab, in transfers from the destroyed bomber factories or from other aircraft types to the fighter factories which were working full time.

I finally had the task to deal with deliveries of armament to the Wehrmacht soldiers and I had to take care of those. In 1944, through several actions, many laborers were withdrawn from the armament industry and delivered to the army. That concerned particularly skilled workers. It was my task then, together with those responsible for the production, to take care of the distribution in such a manner that the armament industry be hampered as little as possible in their production.

Q. Is it known to you that Milch tried to see to it that no one from the fighter factories had to go to the Wehrmacht?

A. Yes, from all the factories, and particularly from the fighter factories, they tried to send as few laborers as possible to the army. At the beginning, in the early days of the Jaegerstab—in other words, in the months of March and April, approximately—we tried to relieve the fighter program from delivering laborers to the Wehrmacht. Later on, this was very difficult. I know, however, that Milch tried his very best to give as few people as possible to the Wehrmacht from Jaegerstab production, that is, of the Jaegerstab factories.

Q. Witness, you just said that, concerning the request for assignment of workers, you made suggestions to Sauckel. In these meetings there is a statement by Saur that says, “We take care of the labor assignment.” What is correct now? Did you just request them or did the Jaegerstab actually take care of the assignment?

A. The Jaegerstab was not able to give orders to offices which did not belong to the Speer Ministry or to the Air Ministry. In Jaegerstab, very often Saur and perhaps Milch—I can’t remember, concerning Milch—used such words. In reality, however, it was quite different. I appeared at Sauckel’s and I was ordered to tell him about the creation of the Jaegerstab and its importance concerning the fighter production, with the request that when labor was distributed, the Jaegerstab production should be considered in first place. An order to Sauckel was never given by me and I am sure that Sauckel would certainly not have followed my request, particularly as he always and repeatedly stressed the point that he was independent and was responsible only to the leader of the Four Year Plan and Hitler.

Q. When Saur made such a statement, “We take care of the labor assignment,” why do you think he said that?

A. Well, once in a while such strong words were used. I never took this statement very seriously and I didn’t react to it because I knew exactly that nothing would happen afterwards, and nothing really happened. I was sure that the labor assignment should have been taken care of by the Jaegerstab, but it was impossible to take care of that for one single production. Everyone who had something to do with labor assignment could understand that.

Q. Witness, you just spoke concerning boasting remarks. Is it known to you that Milch often used such strongly exaggerated boasting remarks during these meetings?

A. I don’t remember single statements made by Milch but I am sure that they occurred. What I wanted to say now is that it appeared to me that Milch very often, particularly concerning the industry and his own generals, wanted to boast in order to play the strong man. I believe, however, that these statements did not always make the impression he wished to create.

Q. Do you mean to say that they were not taken seriously?

A. Well, not quite seriously, anyway.

Q. Were you present during the conference of the Jaegerstab where Milch made a long speech to the air force engineers and the quartermaster chiefs?

A. I was there part of the time. I remember now. That was the session which took place in the Air Ministry—there were 100 people there at the time, and I have to remind you of the fact that I wasn’t present during all those conferences.

Q. Witness, the prosecution introduced a document during the trial where Goering gives Himmler a fighter group in exchange for the use of concentration camp inmates which were put at the disposal of the air force armament. Do you know anything about that?

A. What fighter group do you mean?

Q. I mean a squadron—a whole squadron was placed at the disposal of the SS, and Goering wanted to have concentration camp inmates from the SS. Do you remember anything about that? It was on the 15th of February 1944.

A. I can’t remember that exactly. Goering, that is the Luftwaffe, put a great number of soldiers at his disposal for immediate production. They got their leave. But if there ever was such an exchange of concentration camp inmates, I do not know today anymore. It could be possible; however, I can’t tell for sure.

Q. Witness, is it known to you that in the Jaegerstab they were often transferred from the construction sector of the Plenipotentiary for chemistry?

A. No. In any case, I don’t know that this was done to a considerable extent. It is possible that it also was said during my presence that the Plenipotentiary for chemical industry had too many workers in the construction sector and a few of them had to be transferred; lots of complaints were made. However, I can’t remember anything concrete.

Q. Witness, can you remember that Milch tried to be able to free certain engineers from Hitler who were working in Berchtesgaden?

A. I believe I can remember that. The question of engineers was discussed very often because this was a big bottleneck in the construction sector. I remember also that, concerning the construction works in Berchtesgaden, it was discussed in this connection and that one hoped to be able to get not only engineers but other skilled workers from the construction works carried out in Berchtesgaden for Hitler.

Q. Witness, is it known to you that the use of concentration camp inmates was carried out in closed groups?

A. Yes, as far as the SS used concentration camp inmates, outside of their own factories, this was obviously only done in larger groups of about 500 to 1,000.

Q. Is it possible that during constructions a few miners or engineers were concentration camp inmates?

A. When the rest of the workers were not concentration camp inmates, then, according to the regulations of the SS, personally, I don’t believe that there were certain concentration camp inmates in there, and I don’t know of any such cases. I know that the SS always required that the concentration camp inmates be taken in large numbers and that they should be assigned in groups and billeted in groups.

Q. In other words, is it possible that the SS also used people of their own as miners, apart from those concentration camp inmates?

A. I couldn’t tell you, because I did not know the situation with the SS. However, that is possible.

Q. The question was: If the SS ever used miners from their own ranks and if they trained them?

A. No. I don’t know anything about that either.

Q. Do you know if the SS had a miners’ school?

A. No. I don’t know that either. I never heard of any miners’ school. The miners learned by experience.

[Tr. pp. 743-759]

Q. What do you know about labor utilization of English and American prisoners of war? That is to say, Americans and British who were captured in Germany?

A. In 1944, that is to say, in my time, no new prisoners of war were used because we didn’t capture any more. So far as I know, British and American prisoners of war were not used in armament factories. Repeatedly, proposals in this direction were made also in the case of noncoms and officers. In the case of officers—it was Polish officers, if I recall, no change in the regulations was made, so far as I recall. Instructions were transmitted to the OKW, but I do not know if anything came of them.

Q. I come now to your two sworn affidavits of 19 November 1946; Prosecution Exhibit 76 is a sworn affidavit of yours of that date. NOKW-266, dated 19 November, * * *.

Q. Did you know that in 1944, in order to protect the aircraft industry, underground and protected factories were built?

A. Yes.

Q. You know who gave the original order for this?

A. So far as I know, the order for this relocation of industries in subterranean plants was given by the Jaegerstab itself. I was not competent in this matter, but naturally I took part in the discussion of the Jaegerstab and heard it there. I heard that it was decided that a bombed-out factory should be relocated to a different place which the Jaegerstab would determine.

Q. That’s no answer to my question. Witness, I asked: Who gave the original order for the construction of these subterranean factories? Do you know that?

A. If I may repeat; you want to know who ordered in the first place that these plants should be transferred to subterranean factories? That I do not know.

Q. Do you know Herr Kammler?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you know from whom he received the order to construct these special subterranean factories?

A. Here again I do not know precisely who gave him the original order. In any event, at the first beginning of the Jaegerstab, Kammler became a member and was commissioned to undertake the construction of subterranean buildings for Jaegerstab protection. The Jaegerstab pointed out to him individual objectives and he reported from time to time how many square meters were now ready. But who first originally gave these orders to Kammler, whether it was Himmler or Hitler or some agreement or something like that, I don’t know.

Q. Was Kammler commissioned into the Jaegerstab because of an order of Himmler or because of some special order elsewhere?

A. I am not able to say. I assume that Himmler also gave him an order. The individual orders, what he was to build, he received from the Jaegerstab.

Q. Did Kammler, within the Jaegerstab, represent Himmler?

A. I do not know his powers or his functions and I cannot say. He was in the construction sector. That I know, but Himmler had charge of more things than construction.

Presiding Judge Toms: Will you try to answer these questions as simply and briefly as you can? Were Russian prisoners of war used in the armament industry?

Witness Schmelter: In the armaments plant Russian prisoners of war were also employed. At what they were employed, I do not know, since they were already there when I came and I did not myself inspect the plants.

Q. Did you ever see Russian prisoners of war either manufacturing or transporting munitions of war?

A. In plants and in transports? No. Neither in plants nor in transports did I see Russian prisoners of war.

Q. That question is perfectly clear and you understand it?

A. I shall repeat it. I was asked whether these prisoners of war worked—whether I saw them in plants or in transport.

Q. That’s right.

A. And I answered in the negative.

Q. Were Russian prisoners of war used in the decentralization of the Luftwaffe after the heavy bombings?

A. Not that I know of. So far as I know, after the heavy bombings Russian prisoners of war were no longer available. They had already been assigned elsewhere. I do know that after the heavy bombings, that is, in the year 1944, new Russian prisoners of war were not used in armaments or in the bombed out factories. It is, of course, possible that the local labor offices used Russian prisoners of war for this purpose, but we in the central offices knew nothing of this.

Q. Will you answer the same questions as to Polish prisoners of war?

A. So far as I know, Polish prisoners of war consisted solely of officers. Only officers were available. The others had been freed. The officers, however, in contradiction to many wishes that were expressed, were not used. At least if they were, I know nothing of it.

Q. Will you answer the same questions as to Hungarian Jews?

A. Hungarian Jews, among other things, were used in the construction of fighters—fighter planes. Female Hungarian Jews were also used in the actual construction of fighter planes.

Q. Were they voluntary workers?

A. No. Those were inmates of concentration camps, prisoners at the disposal of the SS.

Q. So the Hungarian Jews who were employed in the manufacture of fighter planes were forced to work in that connection?

A. The Hungarian Jews, so far as I recall, were offered by the SS to be employed in armament production. At first there were 1,000 of them or 500 who were employed. Then a number of plants said that they wanted such workers and they were then allotted by the SS to these plants and there they were obliged to work.

Q. Then the SS, which was one branch of the German military establishment simply dealt out the Hungarian Jews to anybody who needed them?

A. No. The Hungarian Jews, like all concentration camp inmates, were housed in camps that were either in or near the plants and which were constructed by the SS. They were then taken to work every day, and after the work they were again brought back by the SS to the camps. Also, the supervision of the work, for security reasons, was carried out by the SS. So far as the technical side of it was concerned, it was carried out by the representatives of the plant.

Q. Of course you don’t claim they were paid for their work?

A. That I do not know. I only know the general regulations concerning concentration camp prisoners, and I know them in part. I know that these prisoners, at least toward the end, also received some sort of wages. What the payment was, I do not know. I do know that the plant had to give the SS a certain amount for each prisoner, but what the prisoner himself received, I do not know.

Q. Do you know whether these Hungarian Jews worked through any contract with a foreign government, as was the case in France?

A. Let me repeat the question whether Hungarian Jews worked on the basis of an agreement with a foreign power—foreign government. Was that the question?

Q. Yes.

A. Not that I know of.

Q. I have no other questions. One more question please. You said that you know that Russian prisoners of war were working in the armament factories but you didn’t know what kind of work they were doing.

A. Yes.

Q. Did you ever see them in any of the factories?

A. No.

Q. What do you think they were doing?

A. I guess some of them were engaged in construction. So far as skilled workers were concerned they were certainly working at tasks that they were qualified to do. So far as they were unskilled workers they might have been doing almost anything.

Q. If they were working in munitions factories they were doing something to manufacture munitions, were they not?

A. If they worked in munitions factories then they must, of course, have had something to do with manufacturing munitions. Even if they only worked in the courtyard, or something like that, they still had something to do with the manufacture of munitions.

Judge Phillips: Witness, did you ever know of any prisoners of war, especially Russians, being used to man antiaircraft guns?

A. In the construction or in the use of the antiaircraft?

Q. In the use of antiaircraft.

A. Yes, I have heard of that. I heard that Russian prisoners of war were used to man antiaircraft guns of that sort.

Q. Do you have any idea how many were used for that purpose?

A. No, I don’t.

Q. Did you ever see them being used for that purpose?

A. No.

Q. On what fronts were they used?

A. I believe they were used on the home front, not on the actual battle front, but that is simply my opinion.

Q. Against American planes, British planes, and Russian planes?

A. They shot at whatever planes were over Germany.

Dr. Bergold: Witness, you spoke of female Jews. When were these female Jews employed?

A. I do not know the precise date. It was the summer of 1944. In my estimation, it must have been May.

Q. Let me show you Document NOKW-359, Prosecution Exhibit 75. It is the next to the last document of the prosecution, Stenographic Minutes of the Jaegerstab Meeting of 27 June 1944. You said: “I have a few more points. Up until now 12,000 female concentration camp internees, Jewesses, have been demanded. The matter is now in order. The SS has agreed to deliver these Hungarian Jewesses in batches of 500. Thus the smaller firms, too, will be in a better position to employ these concentration camp Jewesses. I request that these people should be ordered in batches of 500.”

Is this the point from when onward these females were used?

A. Yes. It must have been about this time. The difficulty was the following: The SS demanded that the females should be delivered in batches of thousands only. Most factories could not use such a large number of females. Consequently, the SS was asked if it could not deliver them in smaller groups. That is the reason.

Q. Witness, is there a difference between the concept of “Ruestungsfabrik”, which means armament factory, and “Munitionsfabrik”, which means a munitions factory? Is there a difference in Germany?

A. “Ruestungsfabrik” took care of all sorts of armament production, materials, finishing up the deliveries and so on and so forth. “Munitionsfabrik” is the narrower concept and contents itself with the manufacture of munitions only.

Q. Did the “Munitionsfabrik” belong inside the concept of “Luftruestung”, air armament?

A. So far as the “Luftruestung” is concerned, they did, yes. The limitation of these concepts was not, however, uniform. Unfortunately, we had very few uniform concepts. They were often misused.

Q. Were factories that made sheet metal and so on, armament factories? Did they fall under the concept of armaments?

A. They did, yes.

Dr. Bergold: Thank you.

CROSS-EXAMINATION

Mr. Denney: In one of these interrogations, on 30 December 1946, you were asked what the Jaegerstab did to bring workers from Hungary into Germany; do you recall that?

A. Yes.

Q. And do you recall that you made reference to certain trips of the Jaegerstab to Hungary?

A. Yes.

Q. You made this statement: “The Jaegerstab, during its existence, made at least a total of 10 to 12 trips”?

A. Yes.

Q. All right. You were asked this question: “Who was in charge of these trips?” And your answer was: “So far as I remember, it was Milch. Milch participated in most trips of the Jaegerstab.”

A. In most of them, yes.

Q. In the same interrogation on 30 December, the record indicates that you made this statement: “I know about 100,000 workers from Hungary; however, these were Jews who were allocated to construction. I know nothing about 8,000 workers who evidently were skilled workers, intended for the fighter production program.”

A. Yes.

Q. You were then asked: “Is it known to you that these 100,000 Jews were used by Todt in the interests of the Jaegerstab?” and you made the following answer: “Yes, that is known to me.”

A. Yes.

Q. You were interrogated on 24 January and asked this question: “Do you know whether the Luftwaffe, in the Luftwaffe industry, used concentration camp prisoners, not in the building program, but for production?” and your answer was: “I don’t know. I don’t think so, except for women. The SS once offered us a lot of women. The difficulty was that, at first, at least 1,000 and later 500 were to be employed. Various firms got women after that, and I think that Heinkel, in Oranienburg, used concentration camp prisoners, not only women, but all the inmates.”

A. Yes.

Q. The answer was yes, if your Honor please. And Heinkel was an airplane factory, was it not, producing the Heinkel plane?

A. Yes.

Q. On November 15, of last year, you were asked if you knew that Himmler used concentration camp inmates for the underground buildings of the Jaegerstab, and your answer: “Yes. You mean the finished buildings, do you not?” And then you were asked: “The underground ones, the completion of the existing caverns or tunnels, or the like, where concentration camp inmates were employed?” and your answer: “Yes.”

A. Yes.

Q. And you were also asked: “Were these constructions built in the interest of the Luftwaffe?” Your answer: “These new constructions? Yes.”

A. Yes.

Q. The next question: “Exclusively in the interest of the Luftwaffe? And did the orders for the new constructions come from the Jaegerstab?” Answer: “Whether other constructions were also built there? Probably, yes.” Question: “I am only interested in the Luftwaffe.” Answer: “Also for the Luftwaffe. I do not know whether for others. I would not like to pin myself down.”

A. Yes.

Q. Later you were asked: “Do you know that prisoners of war were at all employed in air armament?” and you stated: “Yes, I should like to say, the armament plants. The air armament also employed prisoners of war in its plants.”

A. Yes.

Q. In reply to a question: “What was Field Marshal Milch’s position in the Jaegerstab?” you stated, “There were two chairmen in the Jaegerstab, Speer and Milch. In the first session, or rather in most of the sessions, Milch participated personally; Speer did not. Speer was present only in exceptional cases. In his position, Saur, who was at the same time manager, initiated the contact with the rest of the armament industry. Milch was Chief of the Jaegerstab, besides Speer.”

A. Yes.

Q. In the same interrogation of 15 November you made the following statement: “Assignment of labor was involved in every question including every question of production.”

A. Yes.

Q. On 26 November you made the following statement when you were interrogated: “Mobilization of manpower as a matter which is closely connected with production was very much discussed. Everybody had a word to say, had a request for something and they suggested or said I could do better, etc.”

A. Yes.

REDIRECT EXAMINATION

Dr. Bergold: Witness, as to the trip to Hungary, were you present when the committee went to Hungary?

A. No, I traveled only as far as Prague and returned.

Q. Do you know the purpose of this trip to Hungary?

A. Not precisely. I know that there was a question of production to take place in Hungary, but precise information I do not have.

Q. Do you know that there was a definite contract with Hungary?

A. I heard about that subsequently.

Q. Did you then hear that this trip had the purpose of bringing Hungarian Jews to Germany?

A. No.

Q. Thank you. The prosecutor spoke to you of 100,000 Jews. Did you know that these were to be used by Mr. Dorsch?

A. Yes.

Q. And, as far as the tasks that he had, mainly for the construction of bombproof factories?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you know whether the Jaegerstab ordered these 100,000 Jews or whether somebody else did?

A. The employment of these 100,000 Jews in this construction organization took place on Hitler’s orders. I, myself, was not present at this discussion. Dorsch, however, was present and told me that Hitler had ordered—had said Himmler had 100,000 Jews for bombproof factories and was to make them available.

Q. Do you know whether and in what number and when these Jews arrived to carry out this construction work?

A. I do not know precisely the dates. It was in the summer of 1944. Nor do I know whether all of them arrived. Once I concerned myself with the question regarding the guarding of these people. At that time the SS did not have enough guard personnel and Hitler ordered Keitel to provide 10,000 soldiers which were to be withdrawn from the eastern front and to make them available to the SS so that they, the SS, would have the necessary guard personnel. Thereafter, I heard nothing further about the matter and assumed that the Jews for the most part were employed. I deduced this from the fact that I otherwise should have heard of it probably.

Q. I discussed just yesterday with you whether these buildings were ordered by the Jaegerstab. I do not need to return to that question. Were these constructions used exclusively by the Jaegerstab or for other advantages, such as armored cars?

A. Originally they were exclusively planned for fighter construction but I do recall that, as time went on, there were also discussions of using them for other manufacture, for instance, tanks, and this construction was to take place in these buildings. Since, however, I had nothing to do with this professionally, I can only report on this from hearsay. In other words, I know nothing precisely.

Q. The prosecutor quoted to you a statement of yours from an interrogation; I shall ask you now did you make the statement in the interrogation that Milch was responsible in air armament to seek out workers individually?

A. I don’t know how I should understand the word “seek out”; if you mean that he went to foreign countries and searched for them personally, then of course that is wrong. I did state in that interrogation that during my activity in the Jaegerstab in March 1944 no individual actions in foreign countries were carried out by Milch or the Jaegerstab. The manpower was provided by Sauckel exclusively, or to the extent that they were prisoners by the SS, or prisoners of war by the Wehrmacht.

Q. And then they were transferred, as you said yesterday, to other sectors?

A. Yes.

Q. You also said in this interrogation that in most of the meetings Milch was present.

A. At the beginning, I said.

Dr. Bergold: I have no further questions.

EXTRACTS OF TESTIMONY OF DEFENSE WITNESS XAVER DORSCH[[133]]

DIRECT EXAMINATION

[Tr. p. 1361-1379]

Dr. Bergold: Please state to the Court your first and last name?

Witness Dorsch: Xaver Dorsch.

Q. When were you born?

A. 28 December 1899.

Q. What was your last position in the German Reich?

A. I was Deputy Chief of the Todt Organization, in the Speer Ministry.

Q. On the 28th of December 1946 you signed an affidavit?

A. Yes, sir.

Dr. Bergold: Your Honor, this is Document NOKW-447, Prosecution Exhibit 74.

Q. Witness, you made the following statement:

“As deputy of Minister Speer in his capacity as Chief of the Todt Organization, I received from Hitler, at the end of April 1944, an order to construct with the Todt Organization six bombproof fighter factories, of which two should have priority.” Can you tell me about the history of this construction?

A. Yes, but I must go into detail.

Q. Proceed.

A. Approximately eight months before this date, I made a suggestion to Minister Speer about how bombproof fighter factories above ground could be built, in this way, not only to secure manufacture, but also so that they would be more secure against bomb damage while being built.

The source was that the Todt Organization in France was doing a similar construction job as a launching site for V-2 bombs. Speer told me that I should take the plans with me on my next visit to the Fuehrer’s Headquarters, and two weeks later I was with Speer, visiting Hitler, and after other matters had been discussed, and before going, Speer mentioned this matter and Hitler said: “We must absolutely achieve bombproof aircraft factories because there is danger that transportation might be attacked, and then we cannot make up the time we have lost.” Hitler wanted large-size, big scale units, in which planes and fighters could be protected from the beginning to the end, because he saw a danger in the fact that transportation could be attacked and interrupted, and then the different parts, if they were made in various factories, could not be assembled.

He said that he imagined the matter roughly as follows: In narrow mountain valleys in Saxonian Switzerland, for example, caves could be dug which would provide these bombproof factory installations. Then Speer said, “Dorsch or the Todt Organization has another suggestion.” Speer said that, and I then submitted to him my plans for the special Todt Organization construction, which, as I said, had already been built in France, and I also pointed out to him that such factories, even as they were being built, were relatively safe against bomb attack.

This was roughly eight months before this date in April on which this commission of which I spoke in my affidavit was given to me. Hitler said to me that it was a matter of indifference to him according to what system these things were built, but that it was important to him that something really serious should be done.

On the next day there was a discussion on the same theme with Goering. Speer’s representative Dethleffsen, as Plenipotentiary for construction matters, and the leader of the main committee for construction, Gaertner, were present. I had to explain again the thought behind this special construction which I was proposing. Goering was enthusiastic and said that that was the solution and that the Todt Organization should begin immediately with that construction. Thereupon Speer said, “The Todt Organization cannot build these factories because it builds only outside the Reich, with the exception of the Ruhr district, and in the Reich itself the Main Committee for Construction should carry out the construction,” and for that reason, he had called the two gentlemen I mentioned above. Goering also said that it was indifferent to him who built the factories, that the important thing was that they should be built soon.

In April of 1944, I was visiting Speer near Meran when a call came that I should immediately go to Hitler. Speer asked me if I had any idea what was afoot, but I did not. I immediately went to Berchtesgaden. There Hitler asked me, “What has become of your fighter production?” I told him that I did not know precisely, because in the Reich the Todt Organization did not do the constructing but another organization. He was greatly excited and said roughly, that he had heard enough about this other organization, that he did not want it, and he demanded that the Todt Organization should take over that construction immediately.

Then the plans were fetched overnight from Berlin. I explained the whole system to him once more. I told him that I could only carry out this construction if it were given priority above all other construction as far as workers, machines, building materials, trucks, and so on—whatever is needed in construction—were concerned. I was given assurances that that priority would be given me, and I then took over this construction project.

I was able to assure myself that the Hauptausschuss Bau—the Main Committee for Construction—which had been in charge before I took over had begun constructions at three locations. On one of these we immediately stopped work, because both architecturally and, as the Jaegerstab told me, technically the factory was no good.

Q. Witness, you then said that the wish to build these bombproof fighter factories by the Todt Organization was communicated to you by the Jaegerstab. What do you know about that personally?

A. I know the following: The Jaegerstab, as far as the entire work of the Plenipotentiary for construction was concerned, was not satisfied with the work. Saur complained continuously about how work dragged on and asked me repeatedly to step in and do something. He called me to his meetings in the Jaegerstab and asked me to develop further plans. I was called up continuously by other gentlemen. I remember Major Dr. Krohmer, who also asked me to step in, and again and again I had to say that that would not do because, I said the Todt Organization did not carry out construction in the Reich. I was pressed continuously by the Jaegerstab, because it was the organization that would benefit from these constructions.

Q. Do you know whether Milch went in that direction too, or only Saur?

A. That I cannot say. I did not speak about that to him myself. I did speak with Saur and a few other gentlemen—I believe with Schlempp who was later representative of the Todt Organization in the Jaegerstab.

Q. When was that first pressure on the part of Saur? Was that before March of 1944?

A. Yes. That was even earlier, but I cannot say precisely. It might have been in February even.

Q. Do you know whether Saur visited the Fuehrer on this matter?

A. I was not present, but I assumed that it must have been so. I cannot prove it, however.

Q. So. This afternoon you told me what you thought Milch’s function was in the Jaegerstab. You used a rather striking expression. Would you like to repeat it here?

A. I called him “the breakfast director”. I ask the defendant to pardon the expression. He shouldn’t hold it against me.

Q. What do you mean by this “breakfast director”?

A. Well, it is sort of difficult for me to tell that.

Q. Milch won’t be angry.

A. Well, I only saw him at a Jaegerstab meeting once, when he invited me and when he asked for the support of the Todt Organization. He explained to me the general situation. He told me what his worries and troubles were, but the real work, the whole functioning of the thing, I don’t believe he concerned himself with. That is why I used the expression “breakfast director,” but perhaps that was a little exaggerated.

Q. I quite understand. After the end of April 1944, when you were commissioned with these construction matters, what did you do?

A. As I told Hitler very exactly, I took Todt Organization units from France and from the Atlantic Wall.

Q. How many were there?

A. 2,000 or 3,000—I cannot remember.

Q. Your affidavit says 10,000.

A. No, that is incorrect. That cannot have been the number in France. The second time that I went to the Plenipotentiary General for chemistry, Prof. Krauch, and told him of the serious situation, and I finally brought him to the point of giving me 15,000 workers from his department.

Q. What workers were those?

A. First of all, in the Baltic States—that was a Todt Organization itself—I took away most of the German workers, and took some elsewhere as additional workers, engineers, experts of one sort or another, machinists. Then came the attack on Leuna on the 10th or 12th of May 1944. That was on the occasion of the first attack on Leuna. I had a talk with Hitler at that time. He said, “This cannot be tolerated—that, at the very moment when we are so in need of oil, workers are taken away from Leuna”.

I then answered him that, first of all, I had undertaken this measure before the air attack, and secondly, it was not a question of cutting down on oil production, but of oil capacity. Hitler took over and said, “No, that cannot be”. Then Speer said, “If we don’t get the workers, we can’t do the building”. Hitler said, “Quiet down, you will get 50,000 Italians,” and then I said, “I don’t believe that”, and I said that for the following reasons: We, the Todt Organization, had such workers from Italy for the construction program Riese in Silesia, but we did not do this via Sauckel but by applying to Italian firms to take over construction commissions in Germany, and then they automatically brought their workers, their directors and architects, and so on, with them particularly after we had assured them that we with our organization—that is to say, with the Todt Organization in Italy—would take care of paying wages, paying for the hospitalization fees, insurance, and so on, but at the moment when workers were fetched by Sauckel, I understood clearly that workers such as we needed would not be provided in any considerable numbers. At any rate, I told Hitler, “I do not believe in these Italian workers, and I won’t believe in them until they have crossed the Brenner Pass.” He then said to me, “You can believe in them because tomorrow Mussolini is signing an agreement that 1,000,000 workers will come to Germany.”

* * * If I may mention it, it is also worthy of mention, that in January, the beginning of January, I was at a conference with Hitler, or rather, I did not take part in it, but I knew of it. There, a new worker contingent was demanded, and in this conference Hitler himself named the number of 250,000 workers for the construction; for aircraft construction. In other words, it wasn’t Speer but Hitler who demanded those workers, especially, and it is possible—that, at any rate, is the way I construe it now—that he was thinking of these fighter plants. Then I asked Hitler to permit me to use 10,000 Todt Organization workers from Southern Russia. I must mention that here, because I did that as Speer’s representative with Hitler. I could not have said to Speer that he should give me these 10,000 workers. I had to do that through Hitler, because the commanders in chief, in this case the commander in chief of the army group in Southern Russia, were in charge of these people and they had to be released by them. Thereupon these 10,000 workers got under way toward Germany. However, they unfortunately arrived very slowly and some of them never got to the fighter plant, but were taken over by Speer to make ball bearings in Wellen, in Thuringia, and then, when no workers came, the plants were to be built by Hungarian Jews. I do not know precisely when it was, but I do remember an armaments conference in Linz—I guess it was about the middle of June or maybe later, but I can’t say for sure—and it was then that the first ones began to arrive.

Q. Were they approved by Hitler?

A. Yes.

Q. Witness, when you of the Todt Organization fetched Italians on your own initiative, were they volunteers or were they more or less forced labor?

A. Precisely in Italy, we had a remarkable achievement because as a matter of principle we turned to Italian firms, gave them commissions and they provided the workers. I believe I can say that the Todt Organization was known for taking model care of its workers. For instance, in Norway and Holland, the Dutch or Norwegian Todt worker received higher wages than the German Todt worker who was working right beside him. I could make extensive statements on that if I wanted to, or if I were given the opportunity.

Q. But that is not an answer to my question, whether they were volunteers or forced labor?

A. They were not forced. They were brought by their firms.

Q. Through the Italian firms?

A. Yes, that was the intention from the very beginning, so that the Italian firms could provide their trained and expert personnel to us, and, in this way, they were simply volunteers; they did much better work than if they were forced.

Dr. Bergold: No further questions.

CROSS-EXAMINATION

Mr. King: Witness, you stated that Milch was only present at a few of the early meetings of the Jaegerstab. May I ask you—

A. What I said refers only to those meetings of the Jaegerstab at which I was present and that was perhaps four or five.

Q. Now, you said, in your affidavit, which has been submitted as a prosecution exhibit referred to by Dr. Bergold, that you received an order for the construction of fighter factories at the end of April 1944?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you recall being present at a conference at Berchtesgaden with Goering, among others, on the 19th of April 1944?

A. I cannot say whether that was the precise date, but I did take part in some such conference.

Q. Do you recall who was present at that conference?

A. Yes. Goering was there, Milch was there, the others I’m not sure about. Saur—I’m not sure he was there. I knew for sure that Milch and Goering were present, but as to the others I no longer recall.

Q. Do you recall what was discussed at this conference?

A. The construction of fighter plants was discussed then, and, if I remember, Goering pointed out that the Todt Organization was to receive all sorts of support but I do not remember the details at the moment.

Q. And a few days later, on 21 April 1944, you received the order from Hitler to build the six fighter plants?

A. Yes.

Q. Do you recall that possible sources of labor were discussed at this meeting? That is, labor for the construction of the fighter factories?

A. I should like to assume that, but I do not remember precisely. Probably all sorts of conditions and possibilities were discussed, but I cannot answer this precisely.

Q. You were discussing a large-scale construction; you must have known where this labor was to come from. Can you tell me what possible sources were discussed at that meeting?

A. I do not know whether or not that question was discussed at this conference. I assume that it was, but that was such a long time ago that it is impossible for me to recall these details. But I was clear in my own mind about that fact. That we needed so and so many workers was of course obvious. I did make the demand that this construction program should receive top priority and I stated previously that I wanted primarily German workers, which was then done, and in the sector of the Plenipotentiary General for chemistry I wanted to take some workers; that was the way in Germany that you got workers. Later, when we of the Todt Organization took over the construction program in Germany, we saw that a large number of construction offices had so little manpower that they had to stop production and there again we found workers. The whole situation was somewhat unclear because when we took over building these fighter factories, the entire construction was turned over to the Todt Organization, and no one could take the responsibility for such important constructions unless he could control the direction of the whole construction program, but, with the best will in the world, I can’t recall the details. There were so many conferences, one followed the other so rapidly, I do not any longer recall.

Q. Who was your representative at meetings of the Jaegerstab?

A. Schlempp, first of all; even before I was commissioned with this task, he was the technical adviser or expert on construction. Saur asked me at that time to regard him as the liaison man between the Todt Organization and the Jaegerstab. Then, about the middle of June, Schlempp became group leader of the unit in Prague, for which reason I provided one of my best men, namely, Knipping and I used him in what had previously been Schlempp’s capacity.

Q. Do you recall that Schlempp, and later Knipping, reported on the progress of it to the Jaegerstab?

A. I am convinced that they did, because that was their job.

Q. Now can you give me percentagewise the breakdown of this labor by groups, that is, prisoners of war labor, foreign labor, concentration camp labor, German labor?

A. That I could only do with the most general estimate, with vagueness. In the case of Kaufering, there were perhaps sixty percent from the concentration camps; however, prisoners of war, as far as I know, were not there at all. The rest must have been Germans. In Muehldorf, where the second factory was, the breakdown was roughly the same, but I really cannot say. I visited each one of these factories only twice. Because of the transportation situation of the Rhine bridges and the hydrogenation plant situation, I did not have the time to visit them.

Q. Now did you obtain any of this labor for the construction project? Do you recall obtaining any of this from Schmelter?

A. I take it that Hitler himself had approved these workers. Our request went to Schmelter, and he was working his own men in that Todt Organization, and in the Jaegerstab, and it was his job to settle the details when they should come, and what they should be paid, and such matters. That was Schmelter’s job, and Schmelter was told that this is a technical staff, and he knew that Hitler had approved the workers, and so it was his job to take care of the details, and to inform the Einsatzgruppe what it should do. I did not carry much of these things in detail after that.

Q. Now do you recall how large a construction was at Kaufering? I am speaking both at Kaufering I and Kaufering II?

A. You mean the technical construction?

Q. Yes.

A. There was one main hall in Kaufering I, three hundred meters long, ninety meters wide, with six stories. Kaufering II conducted production later, but everything was concentrated in Kaufering I.

Q. Do you recall how much of this construction was completed?

A. I should think three-fourths. At the last time I visited this construction shortly before the collapse, the machines were being set in on one side of the building, and that is as far as it went.

Q. And to whom was this plant allocated?

A. That I cannot say. In my opinion the Messerschmitt, but I must be careful in what I say here, because in the last week before the collapse there were negotiations with the armament staff. I cannot remember what that situation was in Kaufering, but in Muehldorf there was constant talk of putting Buna in there. That changed continuously, dependent on the war situation. Once Speer wanted to set up a steel foundry in the fighter factory in the Rhineland, which was later changed.

Q. Please answer the question. Now in these inspections at Kaufering, do you recall any Luftwaffe representatives who inspected these construction sites?

A. That I don’t know. I cannot say. A colonel of the Luftwaffe was there but in his capacity as representative of the armament commando or of an armament office.

Q. Now getting back to this meeting of 19 April 1944, do you recall that Speer was present there?

A. No.

Q. How were your relations with Speer at that time?

A. They were tense. Speer did not regard the Todt Organization as a sort of construction organization. To make a statement, I should have to go into great detail on this subject.

Q. I think that suffices. Now with regard to the recruitment of these fifty thousand Italians, which you discussed with Dr. Bergold, do you recall who was to handle the recruitment of those Italians for work in the Reich?

A. To be sure that I do not make any false statement, is it your concern who recruited the fifty thousand Italians that Hitler approved of?

Q. My concern is through what channel were these Italians that were promised Hitler by Mussolini, through what channels were they recruited?

A. That was to be taken care of by Sauckel, but through the Todt Organization, who had their office in Italy apply to Italian firms ultimately, and that was done through the Todt Organization office in Italy.

Q. Now with regard to these Italians, do you know what provision was made for the guarding of those that were to arrive, that is, en route?

A. Of that I know nothing, because they did not arrive. They were not watched, or guarded at all. They were free workers, there was no reason to guard them.

Q. Now, Witness, outside of Kaufering, can you tell me where and under what names these other fighter factories were to be located?

A. In Muehldorf, and then there was a factory in Vaihingen.

Q. Just a minute. Now with regard to Muehldorf, can you tell me what that was to be used for, who was it to be used by?

A. First it was thought of as a fighter factory, and then, a few weeks before the collapse, there was a conference of the armament gentlemen in Munich, at which it was agreed that it could be used for the manufacture of Buna; in other words, they changed their minds.

Q. What time did that conference at Munich take place?

A. That must have been about the end of March 1945.

Q. Now, with regard to Muehldorf, can you tell me where, primarily this labor was coming from?

A. These were Hungarian Jews. There were Germans there. Where they came from, that I don’t know.

Q. Well, now, with regard to these Hungarian Jews, can you tell me whether that was a result of a special action in Hungary?

A. I don’t believe so, but I don’t know. We were only told that we were going to receive Hungarian Jews. They were already in Germany, if I remember, but where they came from I don’t know because I didn’t concern myself with it.

Q. But you do recall that Hungarian Jews were used on that site?

A. Yes.

Q. Now, with regard to these other factories, we have covered Kaufering and Muehldorf, can you tell me the location of the others?

A. Vaihingen—that was a factory that was already under construction before the Todt Organization stepped in.

Q. Witness, where was that located?

A. V-a-i-h-i-n-g-e-n, and it is in Wuerttemberg.

Q. And how large was that construction?

A. It was a building about 100 meters by 60, four, five stories high.

Q. And do you recall what type of workers was used in that construction?

A. Concentration camp inmates, but I don’t know the number.

Q. And that was in Thuringia?

A. No, in Wuerttemberg.

Q. Now do you recall that any of these factories was to be located in the Protectorate?

A. One was to be erected there, yes, in the neighborhood of Prague but so far as I know they never got around to it. Perhaps the ground work was carried out and the machines were shipped there, but the factory itself was not actually built. Then there was to be another one in the Rhineland. I have already mentioned that.

Q. Witness, with regard to this factory in the Protectorate, can you give me the code name for that factory?

A. No, I don’t know it. It was about 50 kilometers north of Prague.

Q. And that was to be used by what company?

A. I can’t say, I don’t know.

Q. Can you give me any indication of the size of that factory?

A. The one north of Prague? Yes. That would have been about the same size as Kaufering, roughly, but, as I say, I really don’t know whether they got construction under way there.

Q. But you were to construct it?

A. Yes, it would have been done under my supervision, or under my direction. I was Speer’s representative and chief of the Todt Organization.

Q. But you don’t know how far along or whether construction was initiated there?

A. I cannot say for sure. I suppose that they started the construction, but so far as I know they really did not actually get this factory built.

Q. Now, with regard to this factory in the Rhineland, can you tell me where that was to be located?

A. I can’t remember the name any more. I was there once, and I can perhaps locate it on the map. It was west of the Rhine, 70 or 80 kilometers, but I can’t remember the name any longer. It was under construction, and then the construction was interrupted by military events, that is, about the time when the Americans entered the Rhineland on the Ruhr. Nor do I know whether concentration camp inmates were used there.

Q. Do you recall whether foreign labor was used?

A. In this factory? That I cannot say.

Q. You don’t recall constructing any factories for Wiener-Neustadt?

A. No.

Q. Or for the automobile works at Steyr, in Austria?

A. No.

Q. Focke-Wulf, in Bremen?

A. No, in Bremen we only built a U-boat factory.

Q. Do you recall constructing any factories for Heinkel?

A. That I don’t know. I wasn’t really interested in such questions, because I received the data from the Jaegerstab, and the Jaegerstab did the actual construction. The engineer of the Todt Organization built the house, and then the Jaegerstab took care of the rest. There were no discussions on my part with construction firms. Moreover, I didn’t even have time to carry out such things.

Q. But you got your labor through Schmelter, who was a member of the Jaegerstab?

A. Yes, he was a member of the Jaegerstab, and I have already said that he was also the leader of labor allocation in the Todt Organization. He was in charge. At first he was entirely within the Todt Organization, and then later he was what you might call the leader for the allocation of labor in Speer’s Ministry, and was in charge later of the allocation of labor in the Todt Organization. At the same time, he performed the same function in the Jaegerstab, so that automatically there was a connection between the Todt Organization and the Jaegerstab.

Mr. King: I have no further questions, your Honor.

REDIRECT EXAMINATION

Dr. Bergold: Witness, I have one more question. When did these Hungarian Jews arrive at Muehldorf?

A. I do not know about Muehldorf, but I can recall that at Kaufering the first ones came—and here I must guess—at the end or the beginning of June 1944.

Dr. Bergold: Thank you, I have no further questions.

Mr. King: I have one further question, if your Honor pleases.

Dr. Bergold: I have just heard that the interpreter was inaccurate. The witness spoke of the end and the middle of June, and the interpreter said “the beginning of June”.

The Interpreter: “The middle or the end of June” is what the witness said, but he is not sure about it.

RE-CROSS-EXAMINATION

Mr. King: Now, Witness, with respect to this construction at Kaufering, can you tell me when that was initiated?

A. In May of 1944 it must have begun, the beginning of May.

Q. And that was also true of the other fighter factories that you were to construct under the Hitler order?

A. Perhaps two weeks later the construction in Muehldorf began; the construction in Vaihingen that I mentioned before was already under way, and I took it over. The construction in the Rhineland started considerably later, it could have been perhaps at the end of June; Prague came along much later.

Q. Now, you say that you were at Kaufering on two separate occasions. Did you have any opportunity to—

A. (Interposing) I was in Kaufering three times. Do you want to know when? In May 1944; at the beginning of January 1945; and then once more just before the capitulation, perhaps two or three weeks before the capitulation.

Q. Do you recall anything about the conditions at Kaufering; that is, the conditions of labor?

A. I only saw the construction site. When I was in Munich, Niebermann, who was responsible for construction, told me that the Hungarian Jews were poorly clothed and poorly fed in part. I then told the competent SS man, whose name I no longer recall—but he was there in Munich, in Niebermann’s office—and I pointed out to him that this was the responsibility of the SS and he should see to it that these men were decently clothed.

Q. Witness, do you recall any reports of deaths of Hungarian Jews on the project?

A. Roughly, in October, our physicians told us that the fatalities in Kaufering were higher than normal. I then commissioned that physician to take up negotiations with the SS to improve conditions.

I should like to say explicitly that the Todt Organization was forbidden to enter the camps. The physician tried to send medicines to the camp, and was successful. I can remember a date, namely, one on which I was operated on—that is why I remember it—in November, at which time the physician told me that he had succeeded in bringing these bad hygienic conditions to an end after considerable effort. I remember the date because it coincided with a sickness of my own.

[109] A group of experts, drawn from various phases of German industry and supplemented by representatives of the various ministries.

[110] Tr. pp. 300-1.

[111] Survey is published as part of document in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, vol. IV, pp. 120-126, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 1946.

[112] Defendant in case of U.S. vs. Oswald Pohl, et al. See Vol. V.

[113] Portions of this document were introduced by the defense as Defense Exhibit 12. See pp. 561-62.

[114] Other portions of this document were introduced by the defense as Defense Exhibit 13. See pp. 562-63.

[115] Portions of this document were introduced by the defense as Defend Exhibit 16. See pp. 564-65.

[116] Another portion of this document was introduced by the defense as Defense Exhibit 21. See pp. 565-66.

[117] Other portions of this document were introduced by the defense as Defense Exhibit 23. See pp. 566-67.

[118] Kammler was one of the leading officials of the Economic Administrative Main Office of the SS [Wirtschafts-Verwaltungshauptamt—WVHA]. See case of United States vs. Oswald Pohl, et al., (Vol. V), concerning the WVHA which administered the utilization of concentration camp labor.

[119] Document was Speer Exhibit 34 in Trial before International Military Tribunal. See Trial of the Major War Criminals, vol. XVI, p. 589, Nuremberg, 1947.

[120] Defense Counsel, Dr. Bergold, explained (Tr. p. 580): “This proves that the Fuehrer himself ordered these large construction works, the execution of which is charged to the defendant.

Although I mentioned before that the Jaegerstab was of the opinion that it could only build one factory, the order was given by Hitler to build six. That was an impossible number. He delegated this duty to Mr. Dorsch. That man had his orders from the Fuehrer and not from the Jaegerstab, which, of course, was no longer responsible for his activities.”

[121] Portions of this document were introduced by the prosecution as Prosecution Exhibit 75. See pp. 544-45.

[122] Dr. Bergold stated (Tr. p. 567): “I introduce this in order to show that the Jaegerstab meetings not always prove who was there at a certain given time and those meetings changed so that as far as the defendant Milch is mentioned, this does not prove he was there all of the time.”

[123] Dr. Bergold explained (Tr. p. 568): “There was introduced by the prosecution and also presented an exhibit from this Jaegerstab conference where the term ‘construction company’ was mentioned in such a way. Those were companies of concentration camp inmates. This explains the term ‘construction company’ clearly.”

[124] Other portions of this document were introduced by the prosecution as Prosecution Exhibit 75. See pp. 545-46.

[125] Chief of the Construction Department in the Speer Ministry.

[126] Ibid.

[127] Dr. Bergold stated (Tr. p. 751): “The prosecution has alleged that these great plants were made by slave labor, and I want to show that this plant in which, according to the allegations of the prosecution, Hungarian Jews were used, was not built by the Jaegerstab and that therefore the prosecution has not proved altogether that the Jaegerstab used Hungarian Jews.

The passage will show in a very short time that concentration camp inmates were not used. * * *”

[128] Portions of this document were introduced by the prosecution as Prosecution Exhibit 75. See pp. 550-52.

[129] Another portion of this document was introduced by the prosecution as Prosecution Exhibit 75. See pp. 554-55.

[130] Dr. Bergold stated (Tr. p. 584): “Your Honors, in all civilized countries, also in Germany, penal prisoners have to work. If concentration camp inmates were put to work in Germany, this was done within the frame of the law which existed in Germany for the employment of criminal prisoners. This was nothing special. This work of concentration camp inmates cannot be considered slave work.”

[131] Other portions of this document were introduced by the prosecution as Prosecution Exhibit 75. See pp. 555-57.

[132] Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 6, 7 Feb. 47, pp. 717-759.

[133] Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 24 Feb. 47, pp. 1361-1379.

4. GENERALLUFTZEUGMEISTER[[134]]

Evidence

Prosecution Documents

Doc. No.Pros. Ex. No.Description of DocumentPage
NOKW-31162Extract from interrogation of Hermann Goering on 6 September 1946, regarding Milch’s position as Generalluftzeugmeister (GL).[597]
NOKW-418136Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 5 May 1942.[598]
NOKW-407137Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 27 May 1942.[599]
NOKW-406138Extracts from stenographic minutes of the GL-Conference, 7 July 1942.[599]
NOKW-408139Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 28 July 1942.[600]
NOKW-409140Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 4 August 1942.[601]
NOKW-412141Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 18 August 1942.[602]
NOKW-416142Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 26 August 1942.[602]
NOKW-286144Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 1 September 1942.[605]
NOKW-245157Extracts from stenographic minutes of conference with Goering, 22 February 1943, regarding plans for airplane construction.[606]
NOKW-449148Extracts from stenographic minutes of GL-Conference, 2 March 1943.[607]
NOKW-195143Extracts from stenographic minutes of conference with Goering, 28 October 1943.[608]
NOKW-180155Extracts from stenographic notes on the conference at the Reich Marshal’s on Thursday, 4 November 1943, 11 o’clock at the Junkers Plant in Dessau.[613]
Testimony
Extracts from testimony of defense witness Max Koenig[615]

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-311

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 62

EXTRACT FROM INTERROGATION OF HERMANN GOERING ON 6
SEPTEMBER 1946, REGARDING MILCH’S POSITION AS
GENERALLUFTZEUGMEISTER (GL)

Interrogator: Now to the Milch case: Who was commissioned after 1941 with the labor allocation in the Ministry for Air?

Goering: What am I to understand by “labor allocation”?

Q. Labor allocation consisted of the drawing in of foreign workers or German workers, especially of concentration camp inmates, in order to free them for air force production.

A. This matter went through Udet, the Chief of Supply for the Air Force, until Udet’s death, and then it went through Milch.

Q. In what manner did the Reich Air Ministry submit its requests to Sauckel and the approximate figure for its requirements, the number of workers, etc.? And if Sauckel received such a request from the Reich Air Ministry, how did he undertake the distribution?

A. The requests were made by Milch, it was he who said how many workers the air force needed, and these were forwarded to Speer. Speer then asked Sauckel for the workers for the entire armaments branch, almost for the entire industrial branch, and he then made the distribution. It was he in the end who made the final decision as to how many workers went to the air force for instance, how many to the army, etc. As far as I know, Sauckel had actually nothing to do with the distribution of labor. The contingent was put at the disposal of the authorities. Terrific pressure was continually brought to bear on Sauckel. If the requested number was not brought, he was given hell. I personally presided over a meeting where there were differences between Sauckel and Speer. He wanted to have more, etc. There was a mix-up and that’s how I know it; but the needs of the air force were put forward by Milch, that is the Chief of Supply for the Air Force. When difficulties arose and they did not get the people, and the program threatened to break down, then they came to me and I supported their demands.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-418

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 136

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE,
5 MAY 1942

[Two handwritten marginal notes at top of document:] Mi. 10.

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT ON THE GL-CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY THE STATE SECRETARY, FIELD

MARSHAL MILCH, ON TUESDAY, 5 MAY 1942,

10 A.M. IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY

Alpers: The reason given is shortage of labor. And in fact there are 2,000 men lacking at Heinkel-Oranienburg.

Milch: As far as the French are concerned, 60,000 of the ones that we had been promised are still missing.

(Comment: 40,000 are missing.)

If we get those men I would assign 2,000 to Heinkel-Oranienburg.

Frydag: The French become worse and worse; I threw out 80 of them who will be sent to concentration camps in Russia. They refused to work. The French say at 4 o’clock: “I won’t work another hour,” and you cannot make them work another hour. This happened four weeks ago all of a sudden, when the first bombing attack on Paris took place, while before that the French were the best people.

Milch: We were told in Oranienburg that they were good as long as they didn’t get spoiled by our German people.

Frydag: It happened here after we got the French from Messerschmitt; according to the French they got a warm meal twice a day there and had their laundry done. We cannot do either. We don’t have a warm meal twice a day either. At Messerschmitt the living conditions were better.

Milch: Gablenz, I want you to get in touch with Reinecke concerning these French. I demand that if the people refuse to work they immediately be placed against the wall and shot before all the other workers. I ask you to get in touch with the Reich Leader SS and to ask him to discuss the matter with the Fuehrer. Now is the right time; unless we do something effective now, the others will become bothersome. I ask that their being sent to concentration camps be taken into consideration too. I’ll tell you afterwards how you should act in such a matter.

So I do not agree. You should make another proposal. At the beginning you cannot expect more.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-407

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 137

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE, 27 MAY 1942

[Three handwritten marginal notes at top of document:] To my

files Mi. 14

Vossen/Dr. Reynitz/Ca.

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT OF THE GL-CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY THE STATE SECRETARY, FIELD

MARSHAL MILCH ON WEDNESDAY, 27 MAY 1942,

9 A.M. IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY

Von Gablenz: Yesterday, the first[[135]] has exploded in France, at the Arade plant, an explosive, a float, but no damage has been done.

Field Marshal Milch: What measures have been taken in consequence?—I want to have a report on what has been done. How many people have been shot and how many hanged? If that guy cannot be found today, fifty men should be selected and if I were you I would hang three or four of them whether they are guilty or not. It is the only way!

(Mahnke hands another letter to the Field Marshal.)

What do you think of that man?

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-406

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 138

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF THE GL-CONFERENCE,
7 JULY 1942

[Two handwritten marginal notes at top of document:] St/R 21

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT OF THE GL-CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY FIELD MARSHAL MILCH ON

7 JULY 1942, 10 A.M. IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY

Field Marshal Milch: I do not like the engine. I have inspected it and for the time being anyhow, I shall not take the 177 plane as a traveling plane.

With regard to the output of Prague I want to say this: Of course, one must recognize good output, even of a foreigner. On the other hand, as far as the French are concerned, something must be done now. Gablenz, ring up Toennes and tell him that this is a crazy situation [tolle Schweinerei]. However, we would still try first to arrange it in a friendly way through Toennes. If that does not succeed, then I intend to fill the new Heinkel plant in the east entirely with Frenchmen brought down there by force. If they don’t work in France, they may work as prisoners in Poland. After all we have to remember that it is we, and not the French, who have won the war.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-408

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 139

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE,
28 JULY 1942

[Two handwritten marginal notes at top of document:] St/R 24

Vossen/Dr. Jonuschat/C

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT ON THE GL-CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY STATE SECRETARY FIELD

MARSHAL MILCH ON TUESDAY, 28 JULY 1942,

10 A.M. IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY

Alpers: We have discussed whether a stronger pressure should not be put upon French firms by both our liaison office and by us here. I have talked with the French works managers myself. Actually they are all of the same mind; they are willing to exert pressure, but then the workers will leave them. In France there is no law that binds a worker to his place of employment.

Milch: As far as we are concerned, that is very difficult. But at the very moment when the deadline is passed for me, I shall say: Now there is no more French production. The workers are sent on leave or taken away immediately for other work. The French always want the proportion 1:5, but they only reach 1:2.3. In reality they have very much more, as we have received only old French junk. If we consider the actual output that we have received, then the proportion is not even 1:0.2, but exactly the contrary: 5:1 in favor of the French! At the present time we receive 8 to 9 planes from the French. I could well imagine that they get out 45 for themselves. I shall shut the shop with a single stroke and have the workers and the machines come to Germany. If it does not work on a voluntary basis, then we do it by compulsory contracts. Perhaps I shall first give them a week to think it over.

(Alpers: Amio himself is behind. For him the surfaces and tail unit factories are situated just right.)

—It is a fact that, on the whole, these people work in silent opposition. One cannot blame them for it either, it is true, but they should not have started the war.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-409

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 140

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE,
4 AUGUST 1942

[Handwritten marginal notes] To my files, personally St/R 25

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT ON THE GL-CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY FIELD MARSHAL MILCH

TUESDAY, 4 AUGUST 1942, 10 A.M. IN THE

REICH AIR MINISTRY

Geyer: In the west there is a danger of the French going on strike in the event of a British attack. In that case, the whole of the engine supply would be severely handicapped.

Milch: In such a case I would ask to be appointed military commander myself. I would band the workers together and have 50 percent of them shot; I would then publish this fact and compel the other 50 percent to work, by beatings if necessary. If they don’t work, then they too will be shot. I would get the necessary replacement somehow. But I hope the military commander will do his duty. I’m not worried about it. The word “strike” must never be used. For us there is only “living or dying”, but not “striking”. That goes for the educated man as well as for the worker, for the German [Inlaender] as well as for the foreigner. The word “strike” means death for the man who uses it.

Gablenz: Sauckel also made an effort but he does not have a completely free hand. Lt. Col. Nickolai and Stending are still standing in between.

Milch: In spite of all, he has brought in quite a tidy number. Sauckel has brought over 1.6 million people to Germany, 1.3 million from the east and the rest from other countries.

Gablenz: We should not be sorry if Sauckel not only took care of getting the workers, but also of distributing them. That way we would fare better.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-412

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 141

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE,
18 AUGUST 1942

[page 1874 of original]

[Handwritten marginal notes on attendance list] St/R 27

[page 1932 of original]

Field Marshal Milch: As soon as the figures for August are ready I request an exact account for my report to the Reich Marshal and also for the conferences which I want to hold with Sauckel and Speer beforehand. This account is to show how the labor question has developed, how great the fluctuation is and which nationalities it involves, what real requests we now have to make in the different sectors in order to cover the needs for specialists and for skilled and unskilled labor, how many of them can be foreigners, etc.? What happens to those who leave the industry? Are they being compelled to work elsewhere? Are they, as I proposed, under control in the camps supervised by the SS and considered as being in mild concentration camps, or are these gentlemen allowed to remain outside and do as they please?

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-416

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 142

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE,
26 AUGUST 1942

[Handwritten marginal notes] St/R 29

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONFERENCE OF

THE DIRECTOR OF SUPPLIES PRESIDED OVER BY

FIELD MARSHAL MILCH ON WEDNESDAY, 26

AUGUST 1942, 11 A.M. IN THE REICH

AIR MINISTRY

Milch: Is Quartermaster General 6 here?

(Comment: Yes!)

Do you know anything about it?

(Comment: No!)

Ask about it and inform Colonel Brueckner!

Frydag: Another important consideration is the letter, which you yourself have signed, Field Marshal, dealing with the expiration of the labor contracts of the foreign workers. * * *

Milch: The Reich Marshal [Goering] wanted to bind these people by law at one time, that was one idea. The Fuehrer’s plan would be more favorable. He wishes that the workers be gradually all replaced by Russians for whom there is no longer such a thing as expiration of contracts.

(Comment: But there is a certain transition period!)

Brueckner: You, Field Marshal, have yourself put your signature to this matter. The contracts are to be extended till 1 October 1943. I hope that it will be done.

Milch: On the other hand, a number of these people have been drafted into the armed forces. But if I consider the others, I arrive all the same at a monthly total of about 30,000 who loaf around and fluctuate from job to job. According to the suggestions of the Reich Marshal, these people are to come under the care of Himmler and are to be handled severely there. What has been done, so far, in this regard? Brueckner, you know about this matter, don’t you?

(Brueckner: Yes!)

You do not seem to be informed quite correctly. Sometime ago we were quite irritated about the fact that so many workers move about from one factory to another, most of them antisocial elements who do not like to work and whom the firms are possibly glad to get rid of because they do nothing but complain and grumble, do no proper work, are constantly late, shirk work where they can, pretend to be sick, etc. These people were supposed to be handled more severely, and about a year ago the Reich Marshal issued an order and gave the Ministry of Labor the job of dealing with this matter firmly. Then the Ministry of Labor issued an explanatory order which was nothing but a sabotage of the order and the desire expressed by the Reich Marshal. I reported to the Reich Marshal—in the very words which I have just used—that in this case his will was clearly being sabotaged by some lawyers or other poor fellows and that I asked him to take measures against it. He told me that he would talk the matter over with Himmler. That is, I had suggested to him that this matter could only be settled with the help of Himmler’s organization. The armed forces are not in a position to do it. The suggestion had been made that the armed forces should take care of these people in camps but these workers are not ready for that. They have not been condemned and in no way violate the existing laws, but act only against their country which certainly does not yet come within the sphere of the old legal nonsense. That is why Himmler should get these people into his clutches because he can treat them outside the law. My suggestion was that the people should be put into camps or, in part, just get numbers. The person involved would have a passport in which it is entered that he is a German of this or that category, and that his number is so and so. Then there are subsequent entries: At this or that time he did not work, at this or that time he was late, etc. If he “loses” this passport—because he doesn’t want to have it anymore—off he goes to the concentration camp immediately; the same thing happens if he does not show it when ordered to do so. Once every month the pass is checked by the local SD. If it shows that the man has been ill, or late thirty times in one month, then the SD takes him along and gives him a job in which he has to work 14 hours a day and where he is treated in the way he deserves if he is not willing. The Reich Marshal has approved this suggestion. Nevertheless I have not yet seen anything of the kind being carried out.

Brueckner: I know that such labor camps have been established.

Milch: In that case I want you to tell me exactly during the next conference, where these camps have been established, who is in charge of them, and how do we get these honorable gentlemen who do not want to work into them? * * * It is a simple matter to have these people taken care of somehow by the SD. It has only got to be taken in hand. I want to have a report on it as soon as possible. Otherwise I will talk to Himmler about it myself and see that this matter is taken very firmly in hand. I see in these people the greatest danger for the home front.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-286

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 144

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE,
1 SEPTEMBER 1942

[Handwritten marginal notes]St/R 31 To my files

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT OF THE GL-CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY STATE SECRETARY FIELD

MARSHAL MILCH ON WEDNESDAY, 9 SEPTEMBER

1942, 10 A.M. IN THE REICH

AIR MINISTRY

Deutschmann: Reports have come in from front repair workshops that up to 40 percent of the people simply do not come to work. Because of the difficulties in the food supply they simply go out into the country in order to have something to eat. At the plant Mechanical Workshops [Mechanische Werkstaetten] I have found out that the Poles have not come because Russian pilots had dropped propaganda material. In one case, I have seen that about 50 percent of the workers failed to come.

Milch: What do you do against that?

(Deutschmann: For the time being, I did not do anything.)

And where was that?—In Warsaw? In such a case, orders have to be given that these workers get a good beating. And Russian prisoners of war are used to give it to them.

Deutschmann: Just at the time when the Russians attacked I was planning to have 200 Poles transported to western Germany in order to fill a gap in the hoop production there. The conditions of procurement in Warsaw were such that I could afford it; therefore, I had no special reason to take measures.

Milch: If those workers stay away from work just as they please then they need a good beating and this punishment is to be administered by Russians. Contact the SD; tell them that these workers had failed to come to work and that I demand that they be punished and not by having their food taken away from them but by the slightly milder punishment of 50 strokes each on their behind.

Deutschmann: Various unfortunate occurrences have happened together.

Milch: I don’t care, these occurrences are none of my business. The unfortunate occurrence for the person involved is when he gets his good beating. And he should not fail to get it.

(Deutschmann: We have already drawn the attention of the Reich Leader SS to it; something is going to be done about it.)

Such occurrences must not remain unpunished, they must not happen. If those people mutiny and do not work, then I demand that some shooting is done at those occasions. We do the same in Poland as the British do in India, with the only difference that the British deal with their own subjects, whereas we deal with the enemy. I want none of our people ever to show lack of action. I make every section chief responsible to take measures to that effect immediately. He is not to administer the beatings himself but to go to the SD and demand that this or that is done. What kind of measures they take we will leave to the SD, but I want to have a report on what has been done in such cases! What do you think would happen to a worker in Germany if he went on strike?

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-245

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 157

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF CONFERENCE
WITH GOERING, 22 FEBRUARY 1943, REGARDING PLANS
FOR AIRPLANE CONSTRUCTION

Milch: * * * Just now things are not going well. Sauckel has agreed with Speer and myself that von der Heyde is to go to Paris to ascertain on the very spot what may be taken away. If we want to maintain the program we require an additional 80,000 workmen over there. Sauckel said he recognized that and promised to deliver them. If the promise is kept all will be all right.

Reich Marshal: What sense does it make to leave the workers there?

Milch: There is no good will in France, and you can really not expect it from these fellows. But we will force them to work by not feeding them.

Reich Marshal: I can do this here much better.

Milch: That’ll get us nowhere. We shall then have to shut down the plants in France.

Reich Marshal: The fault is this: Sauckel should have said: Milch, there are too many skilled workers in that plant; take so-and-so many out for your German plants; I am going to replace those skilled workers from our French workers pool. Otherwise there is no sense in his taking them away.

Milch: Until six months ago we piloted the whole French industry by way of the government, but since then we changed and took sponsor-firms. * * *

Reich Marshal: I’ll tell Sauckel not to touch our industry at all. But we must do it ourselves.

Milch: I told Sauckel that we will cooperate on all matters on the very spot, that we will get the thing done but not smash up anything that is producing for us or is going to produce. He admitted that his men had acted wrongly. * * * Speer and myself are of the opinion that he must be incorporated somehow in the Central Planning in order to secure manpower for us as well as the material. Now we got the first workers in November; prior to that date none at all. Of course, by taking into account the many fluctuations he arrives at fantastic figures. We try to diminish the fluctuations with the aid of Himmler and Ley. The military physicians are put in to examine the men. I have proposed that a man who leaves his working place more than three times a year, should be put into a detention camp and be released only when he stays on the very spot. * * *

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-449

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 148

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF GL-CONFERENCE,
2 MARCH 1943

[Handwritten marginal notes] To my filesMi

Secret

SHORTHAND TRANSCRIPT OF THE GL-CONFERENCE

PRESIDED OVER BY THE STATE SECRETARY FIELD

MARSHAL MILCH ON TUESDAY, 2 MARCH 1943,

10 A.M. IN THE REICH AIR MINISTRY

Milch: Another question! All the reports from France show that the French have got their heads full of political thoughts and ideas. On the basis of the news they tell themselves: They are retreating on the eastern front and the English and Americans are gradually getting afraid that the Russians alone will be victorious. The French go on to say: If the promises made to us by the Americans are really kept, our fortunes are made. That has already led to our foreign workers slowly becoming hostile. On principle I have to be informed of every case of swinishness. I do not understand at all why Germany should put up with it when Poles and Frenchmen explain to the people: Today indeed you are still sitting in this work, but later we shall be the owners and if you treat us properly we shall see to it then that you are shot dead immediately and not tortured first. In all these matters energetic interference must be made. I am of the opinion that there should be only two types of punishment in such cases: firstly, a concentration camp for foreigners, and secondly, capital punishment. If a certain number of such hostile elements are removed and the others are informed, they will then work better. Their love for us certainly won’t become any greater, but neither will their hate, for it is already strong enough. In this respect, too, energetic interference must be made and in no case must the workers put up with it. The best method is to give the person concerned one with a sledge-hammer and I shall treat with distinction every man who does something like that whenever he hears such stupid nonsense. We are living in a total war and the workers must be told that they don’t have to put up with anything. Now the question is whether or not the gentlemen believe on the whole that we achieve something worth mentioning with our production in France. For then we must consider that the establishments there will be besieged. Then the French would have to be forced to come to Germany. There I must reflect on whether the available means of compulsion are sufficient. That does not depend on me. But, in the abstract, I see no difficulties in the way of getting 100,000 or 200,000 French workers to Germany, nor do I see any difficulties in the way of keeping them in order. If a case of sabotage occurs in one area, every tenth man in that area will be shot. Then such acts of sabotage would cease of themselves. The western peoples are very much afraid of death, while it is a quite different matter with the Russians.

PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-195

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 143

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC MINUTES OF CONFERENCE WITH GOERING, 28 OCTOBER 1943

[Handwritten] Notes for Discussion No 116/43/KD st. 4th copy

[Signature] Milch

STENOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPT OF THE DISCUSSION WITH

THE REICH MARSHAL ON 28 OCTOBER 1943,

12 O’CLOCK AT KARINHALL

Subject:Allocation of Labor.
Effects of the Drafting of Laborers.

Participants:

Reich Marshal

Reich Minister Speer

Field Marshal Milch

Gauleiter Sauckel

General von der Heyde

Staatsrat Gritzbach

Ministerialrat Dr. Groennert

Ministerialdirektor Hildebrand

Landrat Berg

Lt. Colonel Biesing, GSC

Lt. Colonel von Brauchitsch, GSC

Director Frydag

Dr. Janicke/Dr. Eggeling/Bs

25 October 1943

Milch: Interesting are the figures on the decrease of prisoners of war where one had believed they would remain stable. Between January and August the figure went down for the Russians from 22,000 to 19,000; for the others, from 48,000 to 28,000. In the summer the prisoners of war decreased from 70,000 to 48,000.

Reich Marshal: But here you report to me and to the Fuehrer: From 1 January to 30 September a total of 2,200,000 in manpower could be made available for armament production,

(Comment by Sauckel: But not for the first time.)

among whom there are 770,000 prisoners of war. Through allocation 300,000 of these who had been drafted for armament and the armed services, and those who left for other reasons, were replaced, and labor for the most important armament industries was increased by 650,000, from 5.3 million to 5.9 million.

(Reading continued.)

Frydag: Those are the total allocations.

(Reich Marshal: I took that to be net allocation.)

No, gross.

Milch: The Luftwaffe has increased by 150,000 men; the army by 240,000; the navy by 50,000; military administration has remained stable. For the Wehrmacht armament alone, there has been an increase of 400,000 men. Then other industries, including state railway [Reichsbahn], postal service, experts basic materials industry, make a total increase of 5.29 million, i.e., an actual addition of 500,000 men in this whole area within half a year.

Reich Marshal: Then there is one more question which again belongs here and which in all seriousness must be discussed. Suppose that, in the central sector of Holland, between Arnhem, Utrecht, and Dortrecht, I place at your disposal for three days 15,000 young German soldiers—recruits who have been there eight days, together with their respective officers’ corps for handling the executive—to catch the young Dutchmen (this would have to be carefully prepared, of course)—would you expect good results? It goes without saying that everything must be well organized in advance, transport to move them out, camps to receive them here, far away from the Dutch frontier.

Sauckel: Considering the Dutch population figure that amounts to something. However, the same should be done in Poland and France.

Reich Marshal: Naturally, after that has been done once, one has to modify the system for the second blow. Then the Dutch people will no longer be out in the streets on Sundays for pleasure promenades.

Speer: Care should be taken though, not to affect the protected industries which we have established there. Their workers are also out for walks on Sundays.

Reich Marshal: First, all of the people must be brought together in a pen [Pferch]; then they will be asked individually who works where, and then the men will be selected accordingly.

Sauckel: We should like to set an example. However, I do not like to rely on this alone for the next year; but I should like to ask that one have the confidence in us that, reasonably speaking we are doing things in the right way. The factories which Speer barred to us * * *.

Reich Marshal: Really I am not imposing. But when I constantly hear: I could do very much if I only had the executive power, then I am ready to assist you, not permanently, but then, for five days or one week, by putting my men at your disposal. In France also we have training regiments, and the army, too, could arrange to make certain units available so as to make a big push.

Sauckel: If I may be permitted to speak quite frankly, the conditions are as follows: All of our Military Commanders, and also our Commissioners General—with the exception of Koch—also the general governors, take the stand that in all of their regions the supreme law is tranquility and order. Also during the present era of war these German people still feel—after all that is typically German—the inherent obligation of maintaining order in their country and of somehow protecting the local population.

(Reich Marshal: They do not see Germany, but Seyss-Inquart sees Holland only.)

That is the greatest difficulty which we face, and in spite of the obduracy which is there I am of the opinion that we really have more friends in these countries than we imagine. I shall place my reports at your disposal, among them a detailed report of a Flemish man, an economist who lives with his wife in Weimar, works there, and who at the same time looks after the Flemish people in my district. The matter is as follows: Our highest political authorities in these countries cultivate to some extent social contacts with the local high society; thus in Belgium, bluntly stated, with elite circles, the high financial circles, and leaders of industry. They show to the German commanders in chief a certain demeanor of courteousness and of conventionality and thereby satisfy our gentlemen to a great extent. Under this mask, however, they permit their nearest subordinate organizations to persecute and harass everybody who is in any way friendly to Germany. Unwillingly and without being suspected by our gentlemen [Herren] we have in this manner placed the Germans who were there under pressure. They all have become fearful, and they bar their minds against Germany, and those who really did something for Germany resign.

Reich Marshal: * * * Our method of procedure in the expansion of the large air fields, Sauckel, would then be that, we try, first of all, to get a hold of the available labor in the vicinity of the harbors in France, Belgium, and Holland which so far has not been recruited in any manner by Speer or by the Luftwaffe, or by you—just as the Russians do, and as the British now also are doing in Southern Italy and Sicily. There is a scarcity of water there and he who loafs is not permitted to come near the water tap. They are very strict on this point. Now, in the fifth year of the war, we too must be just as strict. And over and above this I still need workers who will be fetched from regions farther away if those from the immediate vicinity are not sufficient. And then come specialists, whom Speer makes available from his organization, the engine operators and so forth. If I am to rearm the Luftwaffe with everything that is conceivable now, I do need a considerable reserve stock of laborers. Technical workers must be included. This is in addition to the number necessary for fulfilling needs arising from actual fluctuation and departure of workers. Now that would have to be considered in detail.

Sauckel: May I call attention to the following: That which makes things very difficult for me at the moment is the question of our currency. It is a fact that prices in France, and in the entire west, are very much out of proportion. If we bring the workers to Germany and, according to German standards, we pay them just as well as the German workers, that does not help them at all because their families living in the occupied territories cannot buy anything with the money that the people transfer. I should like to ask you, Herr Reich Marshal, to talk with Reich Minister Funk and the other competent officials so that under all circumstances and with all possible means the German mark will preserve its purchasing power against the French franc, just as it was done on the other side, during the World War.

Reich Marshal: All we need to do is to fix the rate of exchange, just as was done at that time with the dollar, i.e., today the German mark equals 20 francs, tomorrow 23, then 27, then 40, etc., etc., up to one million, or one billion. We have had all that. The same holds true for the guilder. One cigarette now costs in Holland 1.50 guilders; formerly it cost 10 cents. I merely have to say: 1.50 guilders equal to 10 pfennigs, or one mark equals 15 guilders.

Sauckel: That would solve a big problem in the wage question.

Reich Marshal: The same is done in Belgium. I shall schedule a discussion on that with Mr. Funk. With friendly nations it is more difficult; nevertheless, there, too, we have to do it.

Sauckel: There is still something I should like to say. If this large-scale recruiting is carried into effect, even with coercion, it is nothing but compliance with laws which were promulgated there by their own governments, except that the governments declare they lack the executive power.

Reich Marshal: That is always the excuse; I simply shall give them the executive power.

Well, let me summarize it once more. We undoubtedly are agreed on the fact that what Sauckel brings to us here, and that which to us appears as stocking up, has been subject to a natural compromise and actually a greater number of people was necessary, to make up for the losses. If it had been impossible to obtain more labor there would, of necessity, have been a decrease, merely by reason of the draft, the increased rate of disease during the war, deaths, etc. The decrease in prisoners of war should really be insignificant unless there are modifications; on the contrary, I should like to see that the prisoners of war who had been released, Norwegians, and so forth, be taken again. Insofar as officers are concerned this has been done to a certain extent. It was the greatest nonsense ever committed by us and for which nobody thanks us. We have made prisoners of entire armies and we let them go again. We do not get anything from Norway?

Sauckel: No. Even Russians are being taken there, also French specialists.

(Reich Marshal: Why?)

The tasks there are much bigger than the population could cope with.

TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NOKW-180

PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 155

EXTRACTS FROM STENOGRAPHIC NOTES ON THE CONFERENCE AT
THE REICH MARSHAL’S ON THURSDAY, 4 NOVEMBER 1943,
11 O’CLOCK AT THE JUNKERS PLANT IN DESSAU

The Reich Marshal: Give the prisoner-of-war camp [Stalag] commander my greetings and tell him I said the Stalag is the biggest racket in Germany and merely a camp where get-aways are being organized wholesale. The men do not even have to bother to dig a tunnel, since they can walk out freely in broad daylight. The Italians get beaten up when they do not work. * * * It is absolutely useless to take the Italians as soldiers, for they report for duty, it is true, but then they bolt again. We need them here, however, as workers for the 100,000 men operation. In the second place, why do we not get the machines? If I want to have them, I just have to occupy a factory by surprise.

Milch: There are no transportation facilities to make this possible. We have to let certain plants go on working in Italy, such as ball bearings, steel castings, and others, and we cannot take the people from there. The same applies to the technical sphere. The people there are working for us. All depends on our policy toward the Italians. I have ordered that they can be beaten up if they do not work. I have also given permission that Italians caught sabotaging be sentenced to death. If this measure is not desired by the higher authorities, which seems to be the case, we are powerless; then the Italians in the Reich will not be of any use to us, and they will not do anything down there either. Now the Italian has found the way out, he goes into the militia and, once he is over there, he bolts. There is one other way to make him work; if we do not provide the Italian with food and tell him: only those who fight and work for us will get food.

(The Reich Marshal: That is what the Americans do!)

Why do we not do it? In my opinion we should try to get the machines by force. We can manufacture 1,000 pursuit planes in Italy and the engines for them. The engines will go only through Junkers, the other parts only through Messerschmitt. I should like to have the 109 and the 605 in Italy while they are still working, so that we can modernize our factories. We have the further advantage that the enemy drops his bombs not only on Germany, but also on Italy. We can disperse industry there in small valleys and we need not use the big Milan plants. The situation there is rather favorable.

The Reich Marshal: Above all, this question must be discussed at once with the Fuehrer.

(End of the conference at 11:45 p.m.)

St

149-43 III gK [Stamp]

Top Secret

The Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich

Adjutant’s office

Adj. 2019-43 top secret

[Pencil note] For my files

Berlin W 8 Leipziger Str. #3

Telephone: 120044

Headquarters, 12 Nov. 1943

2 copies, 1st copy

[initialed] Mi 15 Nov.

To the State Secretary for Aviation and Inspector General of the Air Force, Field Marshal Milch.

Reich Air Ministry

Forwarded herewith for your attention and further handling are the uncorrected stenographic notes on the conference at the Reich Marshal’s [Office] on 28 October 1943.

Inclosure:

Notes on conference No. 116-13

Top Secret—4th copy.

[signature] Brauchitsch

Lieutenant Colonel, GSC and Chief Adjutant

EXTRACTS FROM TESTIMONY OF DEFENSE WITNESS MAX KOENIG[[136]]

DIRECT EXAMINATION

Dr. Bergold: Will you please give the Court your first name and second name?

Witness Koenig: Max Koenig.

Q. When were you born?

A. 19 August 1897.

Q. What was your last position in the war with the Wehrmacht?

A. Lieutenant colonel in the reserve.

Q. And where were you?

A. With the commander of the Luftwaffe in Rechlin in charge of the testing station.

Q. Is it known to you, Witness, whether and what sort of orders, if at all, Milch gave with reference to the treatment of so-called terror pilots?

A. My department was subordinate to the GL, and therefore received orders from that office concerning the treatment of pilots who had made emergency landings, and such orders were to the effect to inform the Buergermeister [mayors] and the councillors that the prisoners who had made emergency landings should be sent to Oberursel at once.

Q. Then were these orders given or were they repeated in certain cases?

A. I myself went there in 1942 to that office and I remember very well that the first orders in this respect were given in 1943 and then in 1944.

Q. Have these orders provided for the taking of prisoners of all pilots by the Luftwaffe and taking them to Oberursel?

A. The GL ordered, followed by the threatening of heavy punishment if the orders were not followed, that all pilots who bailed out or made emergency landings should be taken at once in the quickest way possible to Oberursel.

Q. Did you transmit these orders to the mayors and councillors of your district?

A. These orders were passed on by the commander of the testing station to the ground organization of the base, passed on to all Buergermeister and the city councillors.

Q. Can you confirm that these orders came from Milch?

A. They came from the GL. It was even ordered how we should proceed. As far as I can recall we were ordered, among other things, that the contents of their pockets should be taken away from the pilots and sent to Oberursel with an accompanying letter.

Q. Did you know at that time that the Party wanted the pilots to be treated in a different manner?

A. I did not know that for we in Rechlin had hardly any contact with the Party.

Q. Therefore, you never corrected orders from the Party? Or would you have done this?

A. No. We were subordinate to the GL, and, therefore, we could only take orders from that superior office.

Q. Witness, what do you know within your office as to how concentration camp inmates were treated?

A. I should say this: When labor was requested for the building of a pillbox, we were given a detachment from Oranienburg. These prisoners were housed by the evacuating of our testing station, that means our German soldiers, in Laerz, and prisoners from the concentration camp at Oranienburg were moved into the billets of the German soldiers. There were about a thousand of these.

Q. Were the barracks in good condition?

A. They were not barracks in the bad sense of the word. They were the best billets which we had at our disposal in Laerz. They were new buildings and contained, apart from the living rooms, a theater room, and a big kitchen with, I believe, four stoves. I know the camp because I visited it repeatedly.

Q. Witness, what orders did you receive for treating of those people by the GL?

A. I remember two orders that were to the effect that all those who actually worked, whether foreigners or concentration camp inmates, should be treated well in order to save their good health and in order to increase their production.

Q. What has been done for that purpose?

A. As far as their health was concerned, under this order, I repeatedly saw to it that I obtained medical supplies from the hospital [Revier] of Rechlin.

Q. What you call the Revier is the hospital ward?

A. “Revier” is the sickroom which, considering the bigness of the agency, is approximately the equivalent to a hospital * * *.

Q. Let us go back to concentration camp inmates. What has been done in health matters?

A. Near Rechlin, there was an estate called Boek. This estate consisted of several thousand acres and apart from potatoes and turnips also produced wheat. On orders from the GL we received from that estate for the commando in Laerz and for the concentration camp and for the foreign workers large quantities of goods produced there.

Q. These concentration camp inmates; were they exploited unfairly?

A. I can say this—I myself was in the hall east from there up to the building of the commander, which was about a kilometer and a half. The foreign workers and concentration camp inmates lived in smaller and bigger groups and worked in such groups, but I could always observe them when I walked along the lanes. It seemed that when the civilian and other employees there were still working, the concentration camp groups had already stopped working because they had to be in their camp at a certain time. The time they needed to march to and fro was part of their working hours.

Q. Were they told to work particularly fast, or particularly heavy?

A. I can say this that I could really judge them because after all I saw them almost daily. Their work was not particularly slow, it wasn’t particularly fast. And one couldn’t say they were driven on.

Q. Were these people happy or did you hear complaints?

A. Should complaints have occurred I would have been the first to hear about them for it would have been my job to hear them, because I headed the particular office for food and treatment which was the liaison office between ourselves and the Stalags. I even listened at times to outbursts of joy. And from the liaison office we bought everything, beginning from cigarettes and other small gifts, foodstuffs, etc. This was used both in the camps and foreign workers, and the foreign workers were always running about freely there.

Q. Did your office ask for concentration camp inmates or were they sent to you by labor exchange on the basis of assignment of labor?

A. We had to use two ways, we had to use two channels here—one through labor exchanges and the other through the GL who ordered labor for us and on the basis of our application with the labor exchanges and the GL, this special commando and attachment came, whether on the basis of our application I really don’t know.

Q. Did you request concentration camp inmates or simply workers?

A. I may say quite frankly here I asked for German workers and I expected they would turn up but as we were under orders to maintain secrecy, neither did I think of foreign workers nor concentration camp inmates.

CROSS-EXAMINATION

Mr. Denney: Just what was your job in Rechlin?

A. I was I B or I Bertha—that means an organization, and my job was looking after the army.

Q. Well, in your position having to do with figures you possibly were concerned with labor in Rechlin?

A. From Rechlin we were ordered to build a shelter in Laerz, and to carry this out we had to ask for labor.

Q. Didn’t they consolidate requests for labor and give them to you and you would send them up?

A. Requests were sent on to the labor offices on the one hand, and on the other hand to the GL.

Q. And they were sent by you?

A. They were sent by the commanding officer of the testing station, that is, to say, my superior officer.

Q. But you got them up and gave them to him to send them on?

A. I worked on them and passed them on to my commanding officer.

Q. You said that you had concentration camp workers—you also had foreign workers didn’t you?

A. There were about 1,000 concentration inmates and a certain number of foreign workers—Russians, French, and Italians.

Q. Did you have any prisoners of war?

A. Yes. We had some prisoners of war.

Q. How many people were employed there altogether?

A. In Rechlin, prisoners of war and foreign workers, Germans, altogether there were 4 to 5 thousand.

Q. Well, now we have got 1,000 concentration camp workers. So that leaves 3 to 4 thousand. How were those broken down among prisoners of war, foreign workers, and Germans?

A. Prisoners of war, roughly 500. There were about 300 foreigners, and the rest were German civilians and German military personnel.

Q. Now, these concentration camp workers, were they guarded?

A. They were guarded in their own camps and in some cases on trucks were taken to their places of work on the east Boek airstrip.

Q. And the foreigners, were they guarded?

A. I think they were at first a little guarded or, let us say, not at all.

Q. How about the prisoners of war?

A. The prisoners of war were under a similar condition as there were not very many guards at our disposal—guards were very few.

Q. You talked about the concentration camp people marching back and forth. Were they marching under guard?

A. Yes. They marched under guard.

Q. In the stockade?

A. They were in large camps or huts under stockade and under guard.

Q. Was there barbed wire around it?

A. Yes. There was barbed wire.

Q. And guards walking around?

A. And guards, yes.

A. Armed guards?

A. Yes. They were armed.

Q. Now, you told about passing on these orders about the terror fliers to the Buergermeister [mayor]. The order that you spoke of that you got from the defendant?

A. From the GL.

Q. The GL was Field Marshal Milch?

A. That was Herr Milch.

Q. And you gave those orders on to the Buergermeister about the so-called “terror fliers”?

A. The Buergermeister and county councillors.

Q. And then one day you heard about four fliers who had parachuted or made a forced landing—anyway they came down—and you sent your soldiers over there and you were told that they were not available?

A. No. The officer came back and said that the police had arrested the four pilots who had made a forced landing, contrary to our order and contrary to the regulations where the telephone number of our airfield had to be passed on to the Buergermeister. The report to the Buergermeister had the purpose to inform the airfield as quickly as possible so that from there a truck could pick up the pilots.

Q. Which police had taken these four fliers?

A. Unfortunately, I do not know. The officer of the airfield came back and reported that the police had fetched them. He didn’t see the police. He merely was informed by the Buergermeister of this.

Q. And then what did you do? Did you call the Buergermeister up?

A. No. We passed this on to the airfield and the airfield reported this to the Luftgau. The Luftgau is the next superior office above the airfield.

Q. Did they ever get these four fliers back?

A. No.

Q. They never got them back?

A. I do not know where they were taken to.

Q. You were the second man at Rechlin. You know that these orders were passed on to the Buergermeister that you received through your immediate superior from the Generalluftzeugmeister?

A. I was not the second man. I was E commander—commander of that office. I was purely an expert in I B. I was concerned in this because Colonel Petersen of the SD commando ordered the airfield should make investigations because of the Milch order to the effect that every pilot should be at once taken to Oberursel.

Q. At any rate, you didn’t do anything about this after you heard it?

A. Oh, yes. The report was immediately sent to the Luftgau that the pilots had been taken away.

Q. Did you send the report?

A. No. The report had to be sent by the competent office of the ground organization—namely, the airfield.

Q. You never made any effort to find out what happened to these four Allied fliers?

A. Oh, yes, that was passed on at once and the airfield having received it sent it on to the Luftgau and continued to work on this matter. What happened at the end I could not possibly find out because the Luftgau, the next highest office, had to report on it through those channels of command.

Q. You never tried to find out, did you? Did you ever call up anybody over at the Luftgau and ask them what happened to these four fliers?

A. No. I could hardly do that because I belonged to the testing station and there was a certain amount of dualism. It was rather like air activity on the one hand and the ground organization on the other.

Q. You knew what the Hitler order was about terror fliers, didn’t you?

A. Yes. I learned about this much, much later after this emergency landing in 1944. I heard about this in 1945 when I was interrogated in Munich by the Reich Marshal Special Court.

Q. What nationality were these pilots?

A. I could not say that. I assumed they were Americans, but I could not say that with certainty because we never saw the insignia of the aircraft nor even the pilots themselves as we did not take them prisoners.

Q. Were there any SD units around where you were?

A. In Rechlin itself, no, but my chief, Petersen, and I myself learned later on that we were supervised by the SD service.

Q. You say that in your position you would have heard complaints from any of the workers, of whom you had four to five thousand of whom approximately two-thousand were made up of concentration camp workers, prisoners of war, and foreign workers. You never got a single complaint from any of those people, is that right?

A. No. I can only confirm that repeatedly the foreign workers gave expressions of their gratitude for having this liaison office, which consisted of a sergeant, and for the additional supplies which they thus got from the Stalag. Strictly speaking, we would have been forbidden to enter the concentration camp compound because it was part of Oranienburg, and Oranienburg was an SS agency.

Q. So you never were inside, were you, in the concentration camp?

A. I went repeatedly there. I myself attended the hospital hours. That is to say, I looked at the ill people before they saw the doctor and I asked the doctor afterwards if he needed anything, and thereupon I got the medical supplies from the airfield and for that purpose I was able to do this because I was supported by the order of the GL.

Q. The Generalluftzeugmeister was able to arrange it so you could go into the camp and look around?

A. On the basis of the order where it was my duty to look after the people that they should be well-treated and well-looked after and, therefore, I was admitted into their compound.

Q. And the compound was under the jurisdiction of the SS who had jurisdiction over * * *.

A. (Interrupting) Yes. That was under the jurisdiction of the SS.

Q. And they had jurisdiction over all of the concentration camps?

A. I didn’t know that but all I know is that they came from Oranienburg and that the regulations concerning that compound came from Oranienburg.

Q. You knew that Himmler was head of the SS?

A. I heard about that in 1945.

Q. In 1945 you found out that Himmler was the Reich Leader SS?

A. Yes.

Q. I have no more questions.

Judge Musmanno: Witness, you mean you did not know, before 1945, of the power Himmler had in the SS?

A. No, your Honor. Particularly in the testing station we did not discuss that nor did we receive many reports there. The attitude of my chief—I may perhaps say here, of the GL himself—it was known what their attitude was towards the Party. We ourselves were under the Gauleiter of Mecklenburg who supervised us. Therefore, we went to no trouble to look into other matters.

Presiding Judge Toms: This testing station was in Germany, wasn’t it?

A. Yes. Rechlin is roughly 120 kilometers northeast of Berlin on the Muelef Lake [northwest of Berlin on Lake Mueritz].

Q. And an officer of the German army, 120 kilometers from Berlin, didn’t know who Himmler was until 1945?

A. Of course, I knew that Himmler was a Party member but that Himmler had all the concentration camps under him I really didn’t know until very much later.

Q. But you knew he was head of the SS?

A. I knew that he was an SS commander. I did not know until then that he was the head of the SS.

Judge Phillips: How many concentration camp victims did you hear were killed up to 1945, starved to death and killed?

A. I did not know that and I only learned it from press notices which came out in connection with the Nuernberg trials.

Q. How many concentration camp workers were killed in your camp?

A. Nobody was tortured or killed in our camp; not even one man.

Q. Did any of them die a natural death while you were there?

A. Nobody died; I can confirm to the Court that both the health and the individuals’ happiness was such that there was neither case of death nor complaint.

Presiding Judge Toms: The name of this concentration camp I must know. What was it?

A. The camp was near Rechlin and was an agency attached to Oranienburg.

Q. That was Oranienburg you were talking about?

A. It must have been a branch of Oranienburg. Up to my resignation on 31 January 1945, neither a torture nor a fatality occurred there. I said that before, your Honor, and I should like to repeat it.

Q. Don’t repeat it.

Judge Musmanno: How many inmates were there in this camp; what was the population of this camp?

A. The camp was roughly about 1,000 people strong.

Q. And how long were you there?

A. From October 1942 until 31 January 1945.

Q. And you say that in approximately three years’ time there was not one death in this camp?

A. Your Honor, the camp was not founded in 1942; as far as I can remember, it only came at the end of 1943 or early in 1944. I cannot give you the exact figure of the arrivals. I think it must have been at the end of 1943 or the beginning of 1944.

Q. And in all that time there was not one single death in the entire camp?

A. Your Honor, I had not heard of one single case of death. Should one case of death have occurred, it is possible that the SS in Oranienburg would have been told. We ourselves had not heard of one case of death in that camp, but during the day we assigned SS men in various groups.

Q. Do you mean this camp was functioning as a health resort?

A. On that, I can say, your Honor, that after the end of the war, I heard that before the end of the war when people left, they left very reluctantly, because there they were given food just as much as was corresponding to their performance and, in turn, they were actually able to work there.

[134] Generalluftzeugmeister was translated as: Aircraft Master General, Air Ordnance Master General, Chief of Supply for the Air Forces, Chief of Air Forces Special Supply and Procurement Service, Director of Supplies, and Director General of Air Force Equipment.

[135] Word is missing in German original document.

[136] Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 17 Feb. 47, pp. 1189-1204.