The PW must according to the convention "be treated humanely and especially be protected against acts of violence, insults, and public curiosity". This does not mean, however, that a similar care must be granted him, as is required for German soldiers.
In the case of the Soviet PWs, insofar as their diet is brought into harmony with the work output expected of them and they have recovered from the unavoidable rigors of the Eastern war, the sharp health supervision originally necessary, in part consisting of continuous weight check-ups is as a rule no longer required. Weight check-ups may only have the aim of determining undernourishment; they are only to be utilized in individual cases.
The aerial terrorism of the enemy forces great parts of the German people into a way of life similar to that prevailing in the operational area. As a result of this, the treatment and conduct of PWs, who enjoy the protection of the convention of 29 and who are, moreover, through the receipt of packages, in many ways better nourished than their countrymen on the enemy side, are regarded critically. Especially, a too mild treatment of Soviet PWs will not be understood anywhere, as it is known what frightful sufferings German soldiers must endure, who have fallen into Soviet hands.
The leaders of the labor detachments and the guard personnel must, moreover, receive unequivocal orders and it must continually be pointed out to them through teaching and instruction that their primary duty consists in keeping the PWs to the full output of their working energy, and in insuring that the lazy be apprehended most rapidly through such measures as are permitted to the entrepreneurs or by the punishments reserved to the military superiors and that intractable elements be recognized and segregated.
Leaders of labor detachments and guard personnel must be conscious of the fact that, in a time when unconditional and extreme effort is demanded from every member of the German nation, inferior production on the part of the PWs, which are traceable to malevolence or carelessness can in no case be tolerated. The great labor battle of the homeland depends upon the work output of every individual and thereby also of every PW.
The thought that PWs through their work primarily fill the wallet of the entrepreneur, and hence must be protected from him is erroneous. Entrepreneurs are now agents of the German people. They have exclusively to deliver things of importance to the war effort usually in a very limited time and for this to utilize completely all manpower at their disposal according to its best occupational suitability. The entrepreneurs know that manpower cannot be replaced and must therefore for this reason too, have the greatest interest in the preservation of this power.
Labor detachment leaders, guard personnel, entrepreneurs and German workers form one front and have a common goal: the attainment of victory! To this end they must, by putting aside all personal wishes, and in closest and most unified cooperation make use of the manpower of the PWs put at their disposal by the Reich. Whoever does not work for this goal or interferes with its attainment is harmful to the nation and injures our comrades at the front.
Hence, the treatment of the PWs employed at labor is to be arranged solely to raise the labor output to the highest possible degree and immediately to take sharp action if the PWs are careless, lazy, or recalcitrant. The PWs are not to be "cared for" but are to be handled in such a manner that the required highest degree of work output be attained. With this, needless to say, goes, besides just treatment of the PWs, the supplying of the PWs with the rations, clothing, etc., due them according to existing directives.
II. The development of the situation and the increasing requirements for PW labor power force us to bring more and more PWs into the Reich. Despite this it cannot be counted upon that the guard forces will be correspondingly increased, also the quality of the guard personnel will not on the average be able to be improved.
In addition the problem becomes more difficult because the PWs erroneously believe that they can discern an advantage to themselves in the situation. Hence they become arrogant in many cases and attempt to escape to a greater extent. These symptoms can only be countered by immediately taking sharp measures against the PWs in case of recalcitrance or escape.