“As far as German territory is concerned, the territory occupied by us and that which we have taken under our administration, there is no doubt that we shall succeed in harnessing every man for this work.”
The recruitment of foreign workers thus proceeds in a systematic manner. It constitutes the putting into practice of the political principles as applied to the territories occupied by Germany. These principles, the concrete development of which in other departments of German criminal activity will be pointed out to you by my colleagues, are essentially of two kinds: employment of all active forces of the occupied or dominated territories; extermination of all their non-productive forces.
These are the two reasons which the defendants gave in justification for the establishment of the recruitment of foreign workers. There are many documents to this effect; I confine myself to the most explicit.
The justification for the recruitment of foreign workers, because of the necessity of including the peoples of the enslaved states in the German war effort, is primarily a result of the explanatory statement of the decree of 21 March 1942, appointing the Defendant Sauckel as Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor. The decree was published in the Reichsgesetzblatt, 1942, Part I, Page 179. I submit it and will read its complete text to the Tribunal, as Document Number RF-9.
“The decree of the Führer concerning the creation of a Plenipotentiary for Allocation of Labor, dated 21 March 1942.
“The assurance of the required manpower for the whole war economy, and in particular for the armament industry, necessitates a uniform direction, meeting the needs of the war economy, of all available labor, including hired foreigners and prisoners of war, as well as the mobilization of all unused labor still in the Greater German Reich, including the Protectorate as well as the Government General and the occupied territories.
“This mission will be accomplished by Reichsstatthalter and Gauleiter Fritz Sauckel in the capacity of Plenipotentiary General for Allocation of Labor. In this capacity he is directly responsible to the Delegate for the Four Year Plan.”