(signed) SAUCKEL
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT 579-PS
Weimar, 5 January 1943
The District Commissar in Riga—Employment Office
Section [Fachgebiet] 2 (Commitment of work)
Riga, 6 July 1942
File note
Subject: Commitment of Jews.
here: cooperation with the administration offices of the armed forces.
For the last 10 days Jews have been picked up almost daily for commitment in the peat industry by units of the armed forces. While doing so, very considerable difficulties arose because the members of the armed forces who get the Jews from the ghetto daily do not want to comply with the regulations which are issued by the man responsible for work commitment.
It is agreed that the soldiers take over the Jews in columns at the exit of the ghetto. Actually, however, several soldiers enter the fenced-in ghetto and pick up the Jews in question without any permission. During the last week, government inspector Rottenberger and the undersigned were present, at an early hour, during the dispatching of the Jews. Some soldiers also did not follow the instructions of the Reich German workers, entered the ghetto, and themselves got the men who had worked so far for the units in question. It was pointed out to them that manpower had to be committed for specially urgent measures. These instructions were not followed by the soldiers, but they shouted around in the presence of more than 1000 Jews, and simply took the men away in spite of the order forbidding it. In one instance a soldier arrived the next morning in a steel helmet and again did not follow the instructions of the Reich-German manpower. A German police sergeant was charged with banishing the soldiers from the ghetto. The sergeant had hardly turned around when the soldier entered the ghetto again and again got Jews whom he was not supposed to get, and took them away. In another case, the undersigned was just in time to prevent a pfc. of the air force from beating a Jewish policeman. The Jewish policeman beat a Jew who did not want to report for a certain work. The Jewish police is doing well with the daily commitment of about 4000 Jews. Therefore it must be prevented that Germans attack Jewish policemen in the presence of thousands of Jews.
As soon as German soldiers who pick up the Jewish manpower daily from the ghetto, follow the instructions of the Reich-German manpower and, above all, keep discipline, it will be possible to get the Jewish manpower ready for work considerably faster every day. According to my opinion it is at least necessary that one German policeman who can prevent the illegal seizures by the German soldiers, be placed at the entrance of the ghetto daily from 0530 to 0800 hours.
For information:
signed Lippmann.