I have the intention to visit Party member Koch shortly, and I would be grateful to you if you could inform me as to where and when I could meet him for a personal discussion.
Right now though, I ask that the procurement be taken up at once with every possible pressure and the commitment of all powers especially also of the experts of the labor offices. All the directives which had limited temporarily the procurement of Eastern laborers are annulled. The Reichs procurement for the next months must be given priority over all other measures.
I do not ignore the difficulties which exist for the execution of this new requirement, but I am convinced that with the ruthless commitment of all resources, and with the full cooperation of all those interested, the execution of the new demands can be accomplished for the fixed date. I have already communicated the new demands to the Reichskommissar Ukraine via mail.
In reference to our long distance phone call of today, I will send you the text of the Fuehrer's decree at the beginning of next week.
Heil Hitler!
Your devoted
[signed] FRITZ SAUCKEL
[stamp] Certified conform to the original
[signed] ACKERMANN clerk
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 018-PS
The Reichsminister for the Occupied Eastern Territories
21 December 1942
Nr. 02926/42
To Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel
General deputy for labor deployment
Berlin W 8
Mohrenstrasse 65
Dear party member Sauckel:
I thank you very much for your report on the execution of the great task given to you, and I am glad to hear that in carrying out your mission you have always found the necessary support, even on the part of the civilian authorities in the occupied Eastern territories. For myself and the officials under my command this collaboration was and is self-evident, especially since both you and I have, with regard to the solution of the labor problem in the East, represented the same viewpoints from the beginning. For political as well as efficiency reasons, you have devoted your attention, above all, to the care of the Eastern workers, employed in the Reich, and in the same sense I also have striven toward an overall satisfactory solution, by the establishment of special posts, collaborating with the welfare organizations [Betreuungsorganisationen].
If there is now complete agreement between your and my conception of the matter, I nevertheless find it necessary on the grounds of several occurrences during the last months, to point out with reference to the enclosure, the methods applied by your agencies and collaborators. I thereby do not disregard the fact that considering the scope and urgency of the task to be accomplished, difficulties and hardships, yes even false measures by the executing branches, can in the long run not be avoided. But it seems necessary to me, to follow up these occurrences insofar as they touch the conduct of war and the interests of the Reich. This would always be the case, where the acquisition of new laborers is undertaken in a way which intimidates the population. The reports I have received show, that the increase of the guerilla bands in the occupied Eastern regions is largely due to the fact that the methods used for procuring laborers in these regions are felt to be forced measures of mass-deportation, so that the endangered persons prefer to escape their fate by withdrawing into the woods or going over to the guerilla bands. Add to the occasionally unfavorable news regarding the treatment of the Eastern laborers in the Reich, about experiences with the labor procurement authorities, then the result can only be a strengthening of the number and fighting spirit of the hostile troops. This development is further aided by the return of tens of thousands of useless Eastern workers from the Reich (sick, cripples, etc.).