By the end of 1942, Jews in the General Government of Poland had been crowded into fifty-five localities, whereas before the German invasion there had been approximately 1,000 Jewish settlements within this same area. This fact is reported in the 1942 Official Gazette for the General Government, No. 94, page 665, 1 November 1942.
C. Forced Labor.
The Jews, having been registered and confined within the ghettos, now furnished a reservoir for slave labor. The difference between slave labor and “labor duty” was this: the latter group were entitled to reasonable compensation, stated working hours, medical care and attention, and other social security measures, while the former were granted none of these advantages, being in fact, on a level below that of slaves.
Rosenberg set up within his organization for the Occupied Eastern Territories a department which, among other things, was to seek a solution for the Jewish problem by means of forced labor. His plans, contained in a memorandum entitled “General Organizations and Tasks of our Office for the General Handling of Problems in the Eastern Territory,” and dated 29 April 1941, read as follows:
“A general treatment is required for the Jewish problem for which a temporary solution will have to be determined (forced labor for the Jews, creation of Ghettos, etc.).” (1024-PS)
Thereafter Rosenberg issued instructions that Jewish forced labor should be utilized for every manual labor task:
“The standing rule for the Jewish labor employment is the complete and unyielding use of Jewish manpower regardless of age in the reconstruction of the occupied eastern territories.”
* * * * * *
“Violations against German measures, especially against the forced labor regulations, are to be punished by death to the Jews.” (212-PS)
From the ghettos Jewish labor was selected and sent to a concentration area. Here the usable Jews were screened from those considered worthless. For example, a contingent of 45,000 Jews could be expected to yield 10,000 to 15,000 usable laborers. This estimate is based on an RSHA telegram to Himmler, marked “Urgent” and “Secret”, and dated 16 December 1942.