“6. Any circumstances which may result in a shortening of working hours (for example, meals, roll-calls, et cetera), have therefore to be restricted to an irreducible minimum. Time-wasting walks and noon intervals, only for the purpose of taking meals, are forbidden.”
The armament production program we have just described was not merely a scheme for mobilizing the manpower potential of the camps. It actually was integrated directly into the larger Nazi program of extermination; and I wish to refer, at this point, to our document bearing Number 654-PS and Exhibit Number USA-218.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think it will be convenient to break off now for a few minutes?
MR. DODD: Very well.
[A recess was taken.]
MR. DODD: At the recess time I had made reference to Document Number 654-PS, which has the Exhibit Number USA-218. This document is a memorandum of an agreement between Himmler, Reichsführer SS, and the Minister of Justice, Thierack. It is dated the 18th of September 1942. The concept of extermination to which I referred shortly before the recess was embodied in this document and I wish to quote from Page 1, Paragraph 2:
“2. Transfer of asocial elements from prison to the Reichsführer SS for extermination through work. To be transferred without exception are persons under protective arrest, Jews, Gypsies, Russians and Ukrainians, Poles with more than 3-year sentences, Czechs, and Germans with more than 8-year sentences, according to the decision of the Reich Minister for Justice. First of all the worst asocial elements amongst those just mentioned are to be handed over. I shall inform the Führer of this through Reichsleiter Bormann.”
Now this agreement further provided, in Paragraph 12 on Page 2 of the English text and Page 3, Paragraph 14, of the German text, as follows:
“14. It is agreed that, in consideration of the intended aims of the Government for the clearing up of the Eastern problems, in the future, Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Russians, and Ukrainians are no longer to be tried by the ordinary courts, so far as punishable offenses are concerned; but are to be dealt with by the Reichsführer SS. This does not apply to civil lawsuits, nor to Poles whose names are reported or entered in the German racial lists.”
Now, in September of 1942, the Defendant Speer made arrangements to bring this new source of labor within his jurisdiction. Speer convinced Hitler that significant production could be obtained only if the concentration camp prisoners were employed in factories under the technical control of the Speer Ministry instead of the control in the camps. In fact, without Defendant Speer’s cooperation, we say it would have been most difficult to utilize the prisoners on any large scale for war production, since he would not allocate to Himmler the machine tools and other necessary equipment. Accordingly, it was agreed that the prisoners were to be exploited in factories under the Defendant Speer’s control. To compensate Himmler for surrendering this jurisdiction to Speer, the Defendant Speer proposed and Hitler agreed, that Himmler would receive a share of the armaments output, fixed in relation to the man-hours contributed by his prisoners. In the minutes of the Defendant Speer’s conference with Hitler on the 20th, 21st, and the 22d September 1942—Document Number R-124, which is Exhibit Number USA-179—I wish to refer particularly to Page 34 of the English text. These are the Defendant Speer’s minutes on this conference. I am quoting from Page 34, Paragraph 36, beginning at the middle of the page; and it is at the top of Page 26 in the German text: